Talent is an essential component in our way of life; the underlying variable within humanity that sustains civilizations and society with invention and discovery, that fuels business and investment with innovation and growth, and teases out excellence from individuals who lead, entertain, and inspire.
The modern challenge is how we draw talent from within others and ourselves; moreover, how we manage the talent that we find in our organization.
There are several elements that the Talent Management System (TMS) uses to dramatically accelerate performance from Talent. The first is attracting talent, a common-sense approach that can be outlined as follows:
The next element keeping talent, which is facilitated by creating and maintaining a daily work environment where your talent enjoys their work and reaps financial rewards for successful outcomes. Then you must manage your talent. Create opportunities and provide freedom to talent so they can stretch for their dreams. It can make a big difference for the company and society at large.
XYZ Analysis is a very effective tool for managing the workforce, because it segments workers into most effective categories, based on their talent, intellectual, knowledge and skill values. Identify talent by recognizing and seeking out visible and hidden talent through testing and performance. That means you must be thoroughly engaged with your workforce.
Finally, there are the “7 Secrets of Talent” in the field of executive development and leadership. I found these “secrets” as essential keys for a universal approach for management:
Work from a vision. Companies and organizations hold up visions to help drive employees toward a common goal. Look back to every great talent and you’ll find a vision that has helped drive them toward their envisioned goal; their dream of success.
Soar on your strengths and embrace your weaknesses. Over time, you can work to transform weaknesses into strengths. Strengths are actually places where we feel the most comfort. Therefore, the goal is to identify performance areas where we are outside our comfort zone. Building outside the comfort zone means destroying barriers to entry where we may actually increase our base strengths.
Discipline and determination turn dreams into realities. Discipline focuses our work effort; determination forces us to keep at the work at every turn. I find that many entrepreneurs have phenomenal ideas and so much passion, but they fail because they haven’t found the discipline to work at it. Some may conjure up ten ideas, but they end up working on too many different things.
Don’t just think of ideas. Put your ideas into action. You might have the best idea, but if you don’t act on it, it becomes just another idea. If you need an image in your mind, which would you rather be, Auguste Rodin’s sculpture of “The Thinker” or Antoine Boudelle’s “Hercules the Archer”? List the barriers that prevent you from acting on your idea, act on them one at a time until you launch the idea.
People often make decisions based on emotion, combined with perspective. Positivity is contagious. I always think that if I had an opportunity to spend two hours with anybody, I would spend them with positive-thinking and feeling people. Wouldn’t you?
If I believe I can do something and decide to do it, I won’t give up. Even if I don’t achieve it for fifty years, I won’t give up. This passion is in your heart.
A computer program looks at a series of numbers or processes, or as one executive said to me “Xs.” Complete one “X” and quickly look to the next one. The “Next X” mentality that moves us constantly toward each step that leads to our vision, our dream, our ultimate goal.
Taken all together, these “secrets” offer a good guideline for those of us who are still grappling with our day-to-day insecurity about our talent. But if you engage this work seriously, if you are honest with yourself, your talent will emerge and bloom.
Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA, USA
Babson College, MA, USA
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA
Cranfield School of Management, UK
Columbia University, USA
Dolan School of Business, Fairfield University, Connecticut
Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University, USA
Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, USA
IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Barcelona
IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland
London Business School, UK
Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, Canada
University of South California, USA