Wouldn't you love to know what those executives are talking about in talent review meetings? Who are they talking about, and what are they saying? Let's pull back the curtain a little bit, it's such an interesting process.

What is talent management? Talent management is a process by which senior leaders come together to consider and plan for the people in their organization to make sure that they're preparing a great bench of future leaders to be ready to go when they are needed.

Senior leaders want to ensure that they don't have any big risks (e.g., only one person can do a mission critical job), that they don't have continuity issues (e.g., someone’s getting ready to retire and no one is ready to step into that role), and that they have leadership development practices that produce the results they’re looking for.

To get the most beneficial impact for your career out of understanding of the talent process, I invite you to put yourself in the execs’...

Wouldn't you love to know what executives are talking about in talent review meetings? Who are they talking about and what are they saying?

I help corporate women who want to accelerate their advancement and drive their own development. If you find this information to be useful, please share it with corporate women in your life who want to move forward.

So let's talk about it. I want to pull back the curtain a little bit, it's such an interesting process.

What is talent management? Talent management is a process by which leaders come together to review the pipeline of talent and to make sure that they don't have any big risks, that they don't have continuity issues and that they're preparing a great bench of future leaders to be ready to go when it's time in their organization.

So imagine you're an executive. You've invited all your team to come together. They come into the room with information about either their direct reports or their...

Understanding the criteria for advancement and emphasizing your aligned attributes accordingly, or working hard and expecting to be recognized for your contributions. Which strategy do you prefer? Many women, myself not excluded, wittingly or unwittingly have employed the latter. I think we can do better.

Two work experiences illustrate the importance of understanding the system and positioning yourself appropriately. In one case I was responsible for Diversity at an Investment Bank where only a handful of women had risen to the highest level title, Managing Director. I was researching how promotions worked so that I could better support creation of more balanced leadership teams.

I found that a large committee reviewed the candidates who were up for promotion to MD each year. The committee broke the list into three groups: those who were an obvious no, an obvious yes, and the maybes. The candidates in the obvious yes and obvious no groups were barley discussed; the...