What PARALLAX can do for your Organisation
TALENT IDENTIFICATION
Ask a dozen people to describe someone who is talented and, almost invariably, the majority will give examples from the worlds of sports, literary arts, music or fashion. Ask the same people to define “talented” and again, almost invariably, the majority will mention “gifted” or “flair”.
Ample evidence exists to indicate that organisations, sports teams and political parties that identify, develop and strategically deploy their in-house talent, actually achieve greater success than their competitors.
Recognise the talent in your organisation and "get an edge" on the competition.
Talent can be perceived in different ways. Some would describe a talented individual as someone who is naturally gifted and has a flair for something. Others would say that the individual is both disciplined and proficient and has achieved mastery in a chosen profession.
Researchers have discovered that talent has 3 interacting components:
- genetic endowment: temperament, acuity and visualisation (nature & epigeneity)
- technique & execution capability: discipline & focus (nurture & development)
- staying in the zone: enthusiasm, concentration and congruence (clarity & epiphaneity)
Contact us for more information on how these 3 components interact to produce talent.
Irrespective of how you categorise or label talent, your organisation will have some individuals who might seem to be more ‘talented’ than their contemporaries. Whether or not they do have exceptional talents or they are simply brighter or more skilful than others is not the issue under consideration.
The primary issue is the contribution that they could make in the future. When organisations don’t identify their in-house talent, then one of two things invariably happens. The talented individuals leave of their own accord, or else, a competitor who operates a talent identification process poaches them. Result: a double set back for the first organisation and a double benefit for the second organisation.
Failing to identify talent is unfortunate. Losing talent to a competitor is negligence.
All talented people have certain behavioural characteristics in common. Like quality, you cannot always describe it, but you recognise it once you identify it. Research indicates that:
- Less than 4% of the population manifest the basic criteria for consideration as ‘talented’.
- Less than 1% of that 4% manifest the comprehensive critera for consideration as ‘talented’.
- Less than 0.25% of that 1% manifests the superlative criteria to warrant the label ‘talented’.
- Result: 1:100,000 is "super-talented"; 1:2,500 is "talented"; and 1:25 are "potentially "talented".
Notwithstanding the starkness of the above statistics, the development of exceptionally talented individuals can be worth the investment for the sponsor, subject to 3 interconnected considerations.
FIRST, the sponsoring organisation must ensure that it retains the services of the individual for a long enough period to exploit the talent and, thereby, get the appropriate return from the investment.
SECOND, the organisation must be prepared to take a long term view. Short term opportunistic or expedient exploitation should not be regarded as "talent" notwithstanding the fact that the impact on the bottom line might be massive. Talent is insightful rather than expedient and purposeful rather than opportunistic. Talented people expect to be well remunerated but remuneration is not the principle motivation, hence the next consideration.
THIRD, the sponsoring organisation must be prepared to delegate sufficient authority and autonomy to the talented individuals to enable them to utilise their "creative" abilities and / or "strategic" awareness for the benefit of the organisation. (See Belbin's comments in "Management Teams". He identified the "Apollo Chairman" role as the most significant factor in determining the successful outcome of "difficult scenarios". The Apollo Chairman had very specific behavioural characteristics not least the ability to combine leadership and management).
Consider the stark reality of another scenario:
- the cost of training 1 fighter pilot runs into the tens of millions, perhaps £20 million.
- In wars involving aerial combat 4% of pilots accounted for over 60% of the successes.
- Given similar "aerial" capability, the countries with talented "air force aces" will "win the war".
- Likewise, in a market economy, organisations with the most talent will be the most successful.
- Ignoring propaganda, the figures provide real insight into the benefits of "discovering" talent.
Exceptionally talented people have the drive and ability to transform “abstractions” into “practicalties”.
Many can talk the talk; a few can walk the walk. Talent does it again and again and AGAIN.
PARALLAX provides unequalled, comprehensive behavioural profiling enabling organisations to:
- understand the core attributes that “identifies and separates” talent from the herd.
- expand on the core attributes and customise the talent profile to suit their environment.
- screen ALL their existing staff for potential talent, cost effectively and rapidly.
- keep searching until they find the 1:100,000 who will make the really significant difference.
PARALLAX recommends a customised approach for talent management and succession planning
Contact us for more information on how PARALLAX can help your Talent Identification process.