Deciding on how to decide who is talented

Lazy man’s summary:
• If you want to hire the best, have your best do the hiring
• Use the interview process to look for those intangibles. We ask, “What motivates you? What do you want to accomplish in life?” A few people say, “I want a challenge. I want to join an elite team. I want to come out a better person.” That’s what we want to hear.
• Create check points in the hiring process – stop it earlier not later.

Quick guide – short quotes:
• Don’t be deceived. The ability of a single talented individual to have a disproportionate impact on organisational performance is the result of a fundamental structural shift in business. Driven by the combination of changes in technology, the economy and society itself, the demand for talent is here to stay.
• Finding the people who can make a difference is particularly vital in these difficult economic times, when most organisations are concentrating on the key business issue of where to focus their most limited resources – time and attention – to create the largest impact.
• Talent achieves superior performance: – Through urgent application of creativity – While demanding personal growth – With or without the support of the broader organisation.
• Talent is urgent, which magnifies many of the ‘normal’ people issues as they come at you at speed.
• Talent is creative, and this is psychologically linked to independent-mindedness.
• Talent will know and want its own way, whether that fits in with the organisation or not.
• They are reflective thinkers – giving time to considering their choices
• They know themselves – particularly the unique strengths that differentiate them from others
• They learn – especially from their mistakes
• The consequence is that talented people are often ‘difficult people’.

Quick guide:
• cross-cultural experience is becoming the norm for ambitious managers
• Kathryn Wainwright, director of talent management at Barclays, says: “Managers are increasingly asking us for international experience and we will find it harder to retain them if we don’t offer it.”
• international business managers don’t have to be sitting down the corridor from their teams any more

I still don’t think there is a generic definition of talent. But most people know it if they see it.