Session Description

Your highest-performing employee isn't always the person with the greatest potential to lead. Yet many organizations make critical talent decisions without a shared understanding of what potential looks like, how it differs from performance, or how to evaluate talent consistently. The consequences extend far beyond a single promotion. High-performing employees can be placed into leadership roles they weren't prepared for, where they struggle, lose confidence, and sometimes leave the organization altogether. Future leaders may be overlooked, teams experience the impact of ineffective leadership, and organizations lose momentum as development investments and succession decisions miss the mark.

Whether you're facilitating a formal talent review or helping leaders navigate the everyday talent conversations that influence hiring, development, promotions, and future leadership, HR is uniquely positioned to improve the quality of those discussions - and ultimately the decisions that shape the organization's future. In this practical session, you'll learn how to help leaders establish clearer evaluation criteria, distinguish performance from potential, and create more consistent, development-focused discussions. You'll leave with practical strategies you can immediately apply to strengthen talent conversations and develop future leaders with greater confidence and consistency.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to:

• Recognize the common challenges that undermine effective talent conversations and lead to inconsistent talent decisions.
• Apply practical approaches to distinguish performance from potential and create more consistent, objective talent discussions.
• Use shared evaluation criteria and practical follow-up actions to improve the quality of talent conversations within their organization.

About the Speaker

Julie Doyle, SHRM-SCP, SPHR, is the Founder & Executive Advisor of Cultivate Consulting Services, where she partners with executive teams to strengthen leadership, people strategy, and organizational capability.

With more than 25 years of executive HR and operations leadership experience, Julie helps organizations improve leadership effectiveness, align people strategy with business priorities, and build the organizational capabilities that drive business performance. Her work includes executive advisory, leadership development, strategic planning, organizational effectiveness, workforce transformation, and compensation strategy.

A nationally recognized speaker, Julie is known for helping leaders move beyond solving today's challenges to making stronger executive decisions that improve organizational performance. She brings a practical, business-focused perspective that connects leadership, talent, and organizational strategy to measurable results.

Julie holds both the SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) and Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) credentials. She is also a Certified Practitioner of The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team, and a Certified Social + Emotional Intelligence Coach.

She has served in numerous SHRM leadership roles, including President of Cincy SHRM, Conference Chair for the Ohio SHRM HR Conference, and Ohio SHRM State Council Director.