Talent Wars, Nothing but Talent Wars

We 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.

[via Awesome!]

Fistful of Talent Launched

Kris Dunn launched Fistful of Talent yesterday. Besides having one of the coolest names in blogdom, it’s gonna be really great, as readers of Kris’s The HR Capitalist know. Here’s the description:

Alrighty then - I’ve been working on the concept for a new blog, and this is it. FISTFUL OF TALENT is the name, and we’re covering all things related to Talent in your organization, from how you get it (recruiting) to what you do with it once you have it (which includes everything from onboarding, organizational effectiveness, performance management, succession planning, employment branding, the holy grail of engagement, motivation and incentives, and more).

It’s going to be a group effort, with lots of talented people adding to the conversation. Add Fistful of Talent to your daily reads. It’s already in my Google Reader and in my sidebar. Congrats, Kris.

What’s Your Mindset? Is Talent Nature or Nurture?

Mindset CoverSome people have talent and others just don’t, right? The smart ones don’t really need training and development, they just know what to do, right? You waste your time trying to bring along the slackers, right?

You can probably guess right now that the “right” answer is “no.” I just finished reading an article that was recommended enthusiastically by Guy Kawasaki called The Effort Effect. The article is a review of the research on talent and success by Stanford psychologist Prof. Carol Dweck, who recently wrote Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Quick summary:

Through more than three decades of systematic research, she has been figuring out answers to why some people achieve their potential while equally talented others don’t—why some become Muhammad Ali and others Mike Tyson. The key, she found, isn’t ability; it’s whether you look at ability as something inherent that needs to be demonstrated or as something that can be developed.

What’s more, Dweck has shown that people can learn to adopt the latter belief and make dramatic strides in performance. These days, she’s sought out wherever motivation and achievement matter, from education and parenting to business management and personal development.

I put in my order for Mindset this morning. The entire concept has some direct bearing on performance management, which is one of those processes, along with road construction and planning, could use a huge overhaul. Prof. Dweck’s research has business thinkers talking about HR implications:

Business School professor Jeffrey Pfeffer says Dweck’s research has implications for the more workaday problem of performance management. He faults businesses for spending too much time in rank-and-yank mode, grading and evaluating people instead of developing their skills. “It’s like the Santa Claus theory of management: who’s naughty and who’s nice.”

I’ll get Mindset read and write a review within a week. I’m going to bet that my mindset will be reset. Hooray again for “strong opinions, loosely held.”

Awesome Music, Innovative Business Plan

What do you get when you mix …

It’s SellaBand.

Users vote with $10 shares (or “parts”) who should get the green light for a trip to the studio. Sound familiar? Here’s the new twist — the investors in the winning band get some of the profits.

The totally liquid market lets you swap your investment to another band in a snap, but when $50,000 rests on one band their contract is triggered. I suspect this leads to some really interesting game theory applications as the totals get close (my math geekery is hard to suppress). Two bands have already made it - but this is not a competition that just ends, it is a continuing strategy to get new talent together with new money.

Gapingvoid’s Under 500-Word Manifestos Make You Go Hmmm

Hugh MacLeod of gapingvoid is soliciting under 500-word manifestos. Here’s the deal:

I have to say, after writing an under-five-hundred-word mini-manifesto, I find myself quite taken by the format. Somehow the brevity just clicks for me.

Why take 50,000 words [the length of your average business tome] to say what you have to say, when 500 will do? Brevity. I love brevity. We’re both in a hurry.

[...snip]

So here’s the deal. If you’ve written a manifesto in 500 words or less, and you want help spreading the word, just e-mail it to me, or send me the link. If it’s any good I’ll either link to it, or post it here on gapingvoid [under the same Creative Commons terms with which I publish my own work].

Today Hugh published Anna Farmery’s manifesto from The Engaging Brand. I thought her take had particular importance for HR. How would you answer her questions?

If… a brand starts inside, an employee’s confusion

1. If you believe in the strategy, why can’t you explain it?

2. If talent is important, why is promotion based on your social circle?

3. If we are entrepreneurial, why do we make decisions by consensus?

4. If values are important enough to put on a card, why are they not applicable to leaders?

5. If the future is important, why do we spend time in meetings looking at the past?

6. If you embrace talent why, do you only speak to me about my weaknesses?

7. If we aim for a USP why, are encouraged to produce sameness?

8. If we believe in diversity, why are you all 40+, white and male?

9. If we need to cut development and R&D to hit budget, how can you afford a two-day team bonding session in a 5-star hotel?

10. If it is us that interact with customers, why don’t you see we should feel the brand values first?

Anna’s #6 is a real pick in the heart to many performance management systems. Amazing, right? Performance reviews happen at the end of the year, and they end up being “7 good things and 3 bad things you did this year.” Ugh!

I’m going to get cracking on an under 500-word manifesto. More here soon.

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