Raw Talent

In this episode, Jackson Sprayberry, Anderson Williams, and Cynthia Hiskes close out Season 2 with the widest lens of the series: why acquisitions fail on the people side and what to do about it. They explore how a lack of early communication creates anxiety that turns into headwinds before integration even begins, why clarifying the founder's role is critical to the entire organization's stabilit...

In this episode, Jackson Sprayberry, Anderson Williams, and Cynthia Hiskes step back from individual people decisions and ask whether the organization has a talent strategy at all. Without one, every hiring decision feels urgent, personal, and reactive. The conversation covers what a real talent strategy includes, the unique challenge of working with both selected and inherited talent in an acquis...

In this episode, Jackson Sprayberry, Anderson Williams, and Cynthia Hiskes tackle what performance management systems actually measure and what they miss. They make the case that an output-only mindset is dangerous, especially in a fast-moving environment where how someone delivers results matters just as much as whether they hit the number. The conversation covers how to embed values into perform...

In this episode, Jackson Sprayberry, Anderson Williams, and Cynthia Hiskes slow down to do the diagnostic work most leaders skip. Before deciding that someone is the problem, have you actually done your own work first? The conversation walks through the five whys approach, the will, skill, and fit framework, and why leaders so often project their frustrations onto the situation rather than diagnos...

In this episode, Jackson Sprayberry, Anderson Williams, and Cynthia Hiskes kick off Season 2 of Raw Talent with one of the bluntest questions leaders face: when do you invest in the talent you have, and when is it time to move on? They explore why most leaders answer that question too quickly, driven by frustration or loyalty rather than real diagnosis. The conversation unpacks how high-growth env...

In this episode, Jackson and Anderson close out the season by addressing the question every leader eventually faces: how do you know talent development is actually working? They acknowledge that measuring behavior change is harder than measuring defects on a line, but argue that the value is no less real. The conversation moves through leading and lagging indicators, the business metrics that conn...

In this episode, Jackson and Anderson explore how to scale professional development across an organization without turning it into a generic, one-size-fits-all program. They discuss the tension between customization and consistency, how to sequence learning so people are ready for each next conversation, and why the best development content is probably already inside your company. The episode high...

In this episode, Jackson and Anderson tackle why so much professional development doesn't stick. They unpack the gap between feeling inspired in a session and actually changing behavior back on the job, and why the real problem is often a lack of practice, reflection, and feedback after the fact. The conversation gets into what managers should be doing in the weeks following a development experien...

In this episode, Jackson and Anderson dig into how to build leaders before there's a vacancy. They explore the small, everyday behaviors that signal leadership potential, why rewarding only excellence can backfire, and the critical difference between leading and managing. The conversation covers how to create stretch opportunities without micromanaging, why your next promotion depends on developin...

In this episode, Jackson Sprayberry and Anderson Williams kick off the Raw Talent series by tackling a deceptively simple question: what is talent development? They break down why so many companies get it wrong by treating development as a one-day event or an HR checkbox, and they draw a critical line between training (which teaches people how to do today's job) and professional development (which...