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The Way We Unbox Talent: A Corporate Cheerleader's Guide to Talent Review and Succession Planning
Paperback
Series: Corporate Cheerleader Guides
Publisher: Bovey HR Solutions
Published: May 29 2026
Pages: 142
Weight: 0.44
Height: 0.30 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Most organizations run Talent Review wrong. Not because they don't care - because nobody ever taught them how.
They fill out the forms. They sit in the room. They move names around a grid. And then nothing happens. Employees never hear what was said about them. Development plans gather dust. The same people get every opportunity, year after year, while others wait to be noticed.
The Way We Unbox Talent is the guide that changes that.
Written by a seasoned HR leader who has sat at every side of the Talent Review table - as the employee being calibrated, the manager advocating for her team, the HR business partner facilitating the room, the process designer building the framework, and the calibration panel member watching it all unfold - this book gives HR practitioners and people leaders the tools, language, and structure to run Talent Review the way it was always meant to work.
Inside, you'll find:
- A clear, honest explanation of what Talent Review is actually for (and what it isn't)
- How to choose the right talent model for your organization - including a specific recommendation for where most teams should start
- A practical framework for reducing bias before, during, and after the calibration session
- What great facilitation looks like - including real dialogue and what to do when you don't have a dedicated HR partner
- How to build follow-through into systems, not just intentions
- A chapter written directly for the employee being reviewed - what's happening in that room, and what they can do about it
- Research-backed guidance on psychological safety, sponsorship equity, and visibility bias
- Tools, templates, a self-assessment, a glossary, and an FAQ
This book is for you if:
You're an HR business partner preparing your first Talent Review. You're a manager who wants to show up better for your team. You're a senior leader who suspects the process isn't working as well as it should. Or you're an employee who wants to understand what's being said about your career - and what you can do about it.
Talent Review is not a bureaucratic exercise. It is one of the most consequential leadership practices in any organization. Done well, it changes careers. Done carelessly, it does harm that takes years to repair.
The Way We Unbox Talent shows you how to do it well.
Sara Bovey Covey is an HR leader, facilitator, and the Corporate Cheerleader - known for making complex people practices clear, human, and actually usable. This is the second book in the Corporate Cheerleader Guides series.
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