Businesses hyper-focus on performance history and leadership skills. A significant skill that is often overlooked is the ability to spot talent. The best teams in the world can spot and unlock human potential. To run a talented team is to spot talent-internally and externally.
Tapping into potential means finding the best role for the best employee, the perfect fit that could unlock your employees’ talent. Becoming a talent hunter is easier on paper and harder to practice. Leaders need to be more holistic with their hiring techniques, deviating from the conventional hiring tactics. While there is no “best” way to hire talent, certain science-based recommendations improve hiring tactics.
- Be a step ahead.
Just like employees ask about their future career aspirations, they should similarly ask about their future talent strategy, this helps to assess whether the skills are aligned with the long-term strategy of a business. Obviously, no one can assume that the employee will stay. But, it is good practice to simultaneously assess short and long-term goals with the employee’s skill. If they align, you know that a certain individual is a good fit for your
company.
2. Focus on the right traits.
If you want to find talent, you need to stop measuring it on someone’s past performance and over-emphasizing the importance of their resume. Robots aren’t coming for your job, but the job market is changing and getting more diverse. Jobs that you hold today might become redundant in the future. This is precisely the problem with the current education system, which is designed to prepare people for the present rather than the future. People who have certain skills, such as emotional intelligence, the ability to be inquisitive, and passion, are better suited for future jobs.
- Look within
Firms often outsource talent while they are unaware of the talent within. Scientists have shown that new hires take longer to adapt and a higher turnover rate, and often they get paid more. Employees within a company have higher adaptation and success levels because they are better associated with the culture. They are also more likely to be loyal and committed to their company.
- Focus on Diversity
Avoid hiring people who remind you of ‘yourself’ or other employees. Similar traits reduce the probability of creating teams with different skill sets and even opposite profiles. After all, building a diverse team enables you to be more innovative. Talents stem best from diversity and people who challenge rather than perpetuate the status quo.
- Think collectively rather than individually
Our world romanticizes the concept of individualism. However, anything of value often comes from a collective effort. Talent is people coming together and cooperating from different platforms; unique talents forming high synergies. Great teams work like important bodily organs; without one organ, the entire body breaks down. As the old saying goes, “There’s no ‘I’ in team.”