The CEO of a small firm asked me this week for tips on spotting talent. Here’s a quick take on a very generic question.
First, talent comes in a great many varieties, perhaps even more than the 31 flavors at your local Baskin-Robbins store. And this is fortunate for the organizational palate is individualistic, a function of blended factors such as company size, complexity, ownership, location, industry, financial resources, and challenges it faces. ‘Talent’ is not a generic label of excellence that can move effortlessly between any and all companies. If it were, the mandarin who thrives in government would also thrive in the early stage startup. Few would bet on that. Instead, ‘talent’ is the badge of excellence given to those whose personalities, skills, capabilities, motivations and experience align with the firms who employ them.
Corporate culture and leadership are but two ingredients of the organizational context that must be considered when looking for talent. It is a truism that CEOs hire for the culture they wish they had rather than the culture that actually defines their company. A highly controlling, ‘my way or the highway’ type CEO who describes his company’s culture as ‘participative and team-based’ is sure to hire people misaligned to his company. Similarly, the volatile, explosive leader who describes his leadership style as ‘passionate’ does no favors to anyone when new employees are befuddled by his leadership style. Spotting talent requires an understanding of the types of people who will thrive in your organization and the easiest way to grasp that is to look at your best people and ask what makes them successful. Then look for those types.
Next, talent must be able to add value today and for a period into the future. If you are a small $10mm per year food manufacturer with aspirations of growing to $50mm in the next five years, think seriously about that journey, the obstacles that await you, the skills and experience you need to overcome them, and how will you will measure success. Then look for talent that has been through similar situations in the past, individuals who have overcome similar challenges to yours and can tell you how they did it. DO NOT be seduced into hiring a career Kraft or Proctor and Gamble executive who has never been on this journey and as a result, impressive pedigree notwithstanding, are untested in their ability to succeed. This is not to say that these executives will fail, but rather that they are a higher risk of failing than the person who has lived your present and future.
Third, look for self-aware individuals who can describe their strengths and where they continue to develop. High performers can talk about the learning gaps and how they are bridging them. They solicit feedback, take courses, use coaches and tend to have mentors. They have a track record of continually improving. Self-awareness is a good predictor of future growth and you want people who will grow with your business.
There are a number of other qualities that one should be looking for. Drive, passion and motivation fuels performance as does single mindedness and the willingness to pay the price that success demands. Optimism and a positive attitude are infectious in the same manner that cynicism and negativity are infections. Pure intelligence is less useful than critical thinking, and good judgment. Know the difference. Look for executives who put together and hold on to high performing teams as this builds on itself over time. And a track record of executing on commitments is always unimportant.
Finally, adaptability is an unappreciated quality. Companies don’t change for individuals, individuals change for companies. Every company is idiosyncratic in some way, and the right person figures out the way things work in your company and then works within the system, even if hired to change it. Look for talent that has a track record of adapting and thriving across a range of situations and companies.
Robert Hebert is Managing Partner of Toronto-based executive search firm StoneWood Group (www.stonewoodgroup.com). He can be reached @ rhebert@stonewoodgroup.com or at 416.365.9494x777
Looking for a dynamic HR role? Stay away from the entrepreneurial tech sector.
January 1, 2012
In a recent survey of HR graduate students, the technology sector rated among the most coveted destinations to ply their trade. It is viewed as a world of innovative people, technologies and approaches where progressive talent management, OB/OD and related HR work awaits.
The Cry to Replace RIM's CEOs – A Truly Dumb Idea
October 13, 2011
Leaving aside the recent service outages, the shellacking of RIM in the press is a tad surreal to behold.
For the few Luddites not familiar with the firm, Research in Motion is the successful Canadian smart phone pioneer with revenues of $20bb per year, no debt and cash in the bank. They manufacture products that remain popular around the world and continue to boast technological innovations unmatched by any competitor. Their most recently launched smart phone devices have been well reviewed and appear to be selling well. And though the company's first version of its new tablet, the Playbook, has room for improvement, it is a promising piece of technology.
Context: When Companies Confuse Start-up Experience for Start-up Experience
October 7, 2011
I had the occasion this week to chat with an entrepreneur still licking his wounds from a stalled startup venture. His tale is a reminder of how easily companies misunderstand organizational context when hiring. For startups, such a misunderstanding can be fatal.
The CEO Hiring Practices at HP
October 3, 2011
The press tells us that Hewlett Packard is the largest technology company in the world with revenues of $126bb. Impressive as those numbers may appear, they do not seem to impress HP's Board of Directors. You see they do not believe that any of the firm's 324,600 employees are capable of leading it. Not one person. Not this year or last year when CEO changes were made. In fact they were apparently not capable six years ago or even eleven years ago when CEO changes were also made. But before summarily indicting the firm's succession planning/leadership development programs, it is useful to consider the track record of the external candidates who were considered better choices than the firm's internal candidates. This analysis decidedly shifts the spotlight to the competence of Hewlett Packard's Board of Directors.
The Folly of Believing What You Read
September 19, 2011
Some time ago we posted a blog titled ‘So you REALLY want to be a CEO?' which looked at the human costs of climbing the upper rungs of the management ladder. The blog was based on a series of articles immediately following the ‘resignation' of Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler. All of these articles presented a cautionary tale of life in the fast lane, the long hours, the extensive global travel, and the shareholder pressures that accompany an uncooperative stock price. They also spoke poignantly of the physical and emotional toll that such unrelenting pressure took on the Pfizer CEO who eventually resigned in order to attend to his family and health. As it turns out however, much of this narrative may not have been true
Before sending us your resume (and then getting frustrated with us) ask who we work for
July 25, 2011
A friend of mine is a trustee in bankruptcy. As his title suggests, he and his firm serves those contemplating the ‘cleansing' process of personal bankruptcy. Potential customers compare service providers, select one, and then pay the chosen firm a fee to initiate and manage the ensuing process on their behalf. However, as soon as the relief-seeking customer signs on the dotted line, the trustee's allegiance shifts to the creditors for whom they then seek to maximize debt recovery. This shift in who works for whom must be a tad unsettling for people who already have a heap of problems and stress on their hands.
What Dating Services Can Teach Companies About Hiring
June 1, 2011
Executive-level hiring is a decidedly aspirational endeavor. Organizations idealize their workplace cultures, select for attributes that will fit into those romanticized environments, and then immerse unsuspecting hires into their ice-cold reality of their works-in-progress.
How to Survive a Startup - by Jill Ram
April 20, 2011
If you're an executive and you're thinking of joining a start-up, know what stage of a start-up to join. If the company is in its first year or so, don't expect to make significant changes. If you join after the company is somewhat established and mistakes have been made and learned from, you'll likely be more successful from the outset. If the founder has stepped aside, well, by then, the company is likely not considered a start-up anymore. It won't be functioning like a big company yet, and it won't have all the structure in place that it needs, but it will be run with more practicality and with less emotion. Timing is everything so choose it well.
Good News for the Old, Overqualified and Overlooked
March 18, 2011
It is expected that a significant percentage of the baby boomer generation will drive right past the Freedom 55 highway exit. For many the goal of early retirement will have proven to be unattainable hype, while for others the ups and downs of working will appear more attractive than the prospects of working up and down the local lawn bowling leadership board.
Pressed for time? Blame those Benedictine Monks.
February 24, 2011
It is among the principal reasons candidates tell us they are open to consider a change in employers. They are tethered to it, yet somehow it still flees. It is time, the most precious of resources, and for many harried executives they want some of it back.
Though their relationship with time may be strained, it is worth pointing out that it was not always this way. In his fascinating book Time Wars, Jeremy Rifkin chronicles the evolution of our modern relationship with time. He points out that in traditional agrarian and pastoral cultures, time was a very naturalistic notion maintained in cyclical, repetitive, biological and even sacred terms. The ‘passing of time' was cued via the changing seasons, biological lifecycles and lunar patterns and thus, the cadence and tempo of those societies were finely tuned to the cyclical rhythms of their physical environments. As he states, "Our early ancestors coveted the circle, perceiving time as eternal return, a ceaseless repetition of an endless cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth". Since these cyclical rhythms could neither be accelerated, nor altered, the cadence of these societies' was natural and harmonious.
How to Spot Talent
August 20, 2009