Monday, April 26, 2010

Looking for Your Next Rock Star...

... or discovering the talent within your own organization?

That's the question that Chip and Dan Heath explore in the May issue of Fast Company.

The business world is oten obsessed with "talent" - hiring it, retaining it, rewarding it. People are pursued to come and work at a certain place, with high expectations of immediate success. If you move from one place to another, the high level of performance should stay the same.

Not really.

The Heaths discuss a new book by Harvard Business School professor Boris Groysberg - "Chasing Stars - the Myth of Talent and the Portability of Performance." By tracking a group of professionals known for the portabilty of their talent - Wall Street research analysts - Groysberg demonstrated that the top analysts who switched firms paid a steep price for the move.  Their job performance fell off sharply and continued to suffer for at least five years after the move.

Based on this study, talent is not perfectly portable. Yet how often do we expect to "hire" a rock star or gunslinger to come in and make everything great from day one?

There are certainly different levels of talent in individuals, and we should recognize that. But what if there were a way to take control of increasing the talent in your organiztion?

How about growing it from within?

What if the next great talent you are looking for is already in your organization, waiting to be discovered, nurtured, challenged, and encouraged. Could that be the answer?

Creating leaders by developing them from within is a worthy goal for your organization. What steps will you take today to create a culture that actively grooms leaders internally, and moves them into areas of greater performance and responsibility?

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