Talent Wars, Nothing but Talent Wars
Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 by Frank RocheWe talk about “talent” a lot in HR. After all, it’s about the people.
So, what’s talent? Do you, like Justice Potter Stewart, know it when you see it? And what do you do if someone thinks she’s talented — like the woman in the video — and is painfully unaware of her shortcomings? In fact, more people than not rate themselves above average in talent and performance.
Our job in HR is to help managers find the right people, encourage performance that helps the company, and weed out people who think they can dance and play the trumpet to Star Wars.
Dr. Smoot
Apr 15th, 2008
This makes me think of employees that try really, really hard. You don’t want to break their spirit. You don’t want to disencourage them. But they just don’t get it. And you have no choice but to tell them exactly that.
Unfortunately, life is not like 5th grade, when I got separate grades for progress and effort.
BTW, who in God’s name encouraged that woman to do…whatever it was she was doing?
Michael Spremulli
Apr 16th, 2008
Ouch — the above video made me cringe!
In my work, I refer to this type of phenomena as American Idol Syndrome. There are thousands of people who want to be the next American Idol — they are motivated — but very, very few of them have the right stuff to win.
It goes way beyond how motivated a person is — they must have the right abilities and personality traits as well. GREAT VIDEO!
Roy Leaman
Apr 16th, 2008
Perhaps your assumptions, along with the previous responses, are indicative of a problem many people in HR have…i.e. the tendency to jump to conclusions before making judgments. As stated by two musicians, one being a professional, (see blogs below from another site) the young woman in the video in fact did play the right notes and at the correct rhythm. The problem here was not her performance but rather the system that is supposed to be supporting good performance.
The following is from http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/2007/10/stacy_hedger_revealed.php
trackflop says:
ok so i have played trumpet for 9 years and been a musician for 20. for all you professional players out there, the only thing that was wrong besides her mediocre playing was that the track and the trumpet were not in the same key. Most non-professional trumpets are in the key of B flat not the Key of C which might have been the problem, for example if the music on the page is in the key of C on a B flat trumpet it comes out in the Key of B flat or rather 1 1/2 steps down from the note on the page. so if she gave the orchestra a copy of her music in C and they played it in C and then she played along in B flat thats where you get the bad sound. hope all that makes sense, some one should have told her oh well she is a good sport though.
Posted at: November 6, 2007 12:49 AM
befro says:
thank you trackflop… I too am a trumpet player. Honestly her performance wasn’t HORRIBLE. It was just totally in the wrong key. The tape was probably at the wrong speed. Her tone isn’t amazing, but she really plays all of the notes. (just all in the wrong key) I think she actually only cracks one note right when she starts, she starts a bit too high. Having spend more time playing trumpet than anything else in my life, I respect how she help it down even though things weren’t right. Playing trumpet is NOT easy
Posted at: November 9, 2007 4:27 PM