Hiring Talent
Human potential is the last great frontier for gaining a competitive
edge in organizations today. In the past, an organization's value was
in hard goods-value that could be measured in inventory and equipment.
However in today's knowledge-based economy,
it is the utilization of talents, knowledge, skills and abilities that gives
the organization its value.
For example, Microsoft is valued at $250 billion dollars but only $8 billion
of that is in physical assets. What comprises the other $242 billion dollars?
Obviously, it is the talent (intellectual capital) of their people.
What is talent?
Talent is any recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior.
Most of us establish about 13 innate talents or strengths by age
13. Understanding that each person possesses these enduring patterns
of thought, feeling, and behavior is incredibly liberating as you
then realize you are not responsible for changing people's behavior.
By discussing people's talents, you can match them to what they normally,
naturally are good at and enjoy doing. You can develop a talent profile
to assist you in putting the right people in the right jobs. This
helps you to hire effectively and adjust your current workforce to
maximize its potential.
Positive, engaged employees drive business outcomes because engaged employees
engage customers. They create positive, enthusiastic customers who visit more
often, spend more per visit, give positive word of mouth referrals, perceive
more value and pay a higher margin. To the employer, this means increased productivity,
profit, customer satisfaction and retention of employees.
Talented employees need great managers to allow and develop talent into great
performance. They need someone to focus on their strengths not their weaknesses.
They need someone to set clear expectations-define the right outcomes, not
the right steps.
If everything is important, then nothing is important!
No decision is as important as your decisions about people because they determine
the limits of how far your organization can go. A good manager or supervisor
must be able to do four activities extremely well: select the right person,
set expectations, motivate the person, and develop the person. This involves
a considerable investment of time. You must listen and get to know your employees.
Managers need to be involved and stay focused on hiring people with the right
talents for each job. When you pick the right people, it makes everything else
so much easier. Your interview process should select for talent, not simply
experience, intelligence or determination. The interview should focus on whether
the candidate's recurring patterns of thought, feeling and behavior match the
job. Ask open-ended questions that offer many potential directions. Then pause,
remain quiet and listen. If interviewees ask for further definition of the
question, explain that what's important is how they perceive the question and
to answer it with what seems most important to them. Don't avoid the silence
or try to steer the applicant into saying what you want to hear. Listen carefully
to their answers and their focus and believe them.
Example Question:
How do you feel when someone doubts what you have to say?
. Great sales people would be upset because they feel their integrity is being
questioned. Disagree with them, argue with them, choose not to buy from them
but don't doubt them.
. Great teachers asked this same question would love being doubted as they see
this doubting as a sign of an active, inquisitive mind wanting to learn.
Ask what kind of roles the candidates have been able to learn quickly, what
activities come easily-this will reveal more clues to their talents. Find out
what gives the person the greatest personal satisfaction, what gives them strength,
what is fulfilling-these answers will help you know what they will be able
to keep doing week after week.
Try out your questions on a few of your best employees and then a few of the "rest" of
your employees to see if there is any consistency. If you can find no consistencies,
then that question might not be worth asking. A second way is to keep track
of the exact answers of those you hire and check back to see if the people
who subsequently performed well answered your question in a consistent way.
There are three basic categories for diverse talents. *
. Striving talents explain the why of a person-why they are driven
. Thinking talents explain the how of a person-how they think, how they weigh
up alternatives, how they come to a decision
. Relating talents explain the who of a person-whom they trust, whom they build
relationships with, whom they confront and whom they ignore.
Do they believe trust must be earned or do they believe that most will prove
worthy of it?
Find, Focus & Keep Talented Employees
Following are 12 core element questions to have your employees answer to determine
the strength of your workplace.*
1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. In the past 7 days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good
work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the last 6 months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
12. This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?
When developing someone, find the right fit, not simply the next rung on the
ladder. Value excellence in every role-provide alternative career paths-alternative
routes toward growth and prestige. This is possible for all positions from
housekeepers to truck drivers to sales people.
Want more information?
Read the books,
First, *Break All The Rules, What the World's Greatest Managers
Do Differently,
by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman,
Now, Discover Your Strengths,
by Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D.
These books offer great insights into human potential and developing a successful
workplace. They provide help to identify and develop your unique talents and
strengths as well as those of the people you manage. The information is based
on in-depth interviews by the Gallup organization of over 80,000 managers in
over 400 companies.
