The War For Talent
Companies continue to struggle to find talented professionals.
If COVID has taught us one thing, it is that the workplace has changed. The familiar local office with 9–5 workers is no longer the “norm” .
Companies that were traditionally adverse to remote workers have no choice but to welcome them as part of the team.
Managers who have not adapted to running a globally diverse team is losing talent.
Companies that are not competitively attracting and retaining talent are losing top performers to those who are figuring it out.
With the global pool of candidates much wider and deeper than it has been in the past, how do you build great talented teams?
I’ve been reading and re-reading Mike Sarraille and George Randle’s book “The Talent War” . This awesome book explores how US Special Operations Forces assess, select, and develop their world-class talent.
The same principles apply to IT teams across the enterprise.
Until someone steps onto the battlefield, you never truly know how they will perform. Similarly, until a candidate begins working in their role, you cannot know for sure how they will perform. With money tight and open positions limited, you must have a talent mindset.
The people side of business activities are not chores to be avoided; they are high-priority duties. Recruiting should not be a speed dating exercise. Recruiting teams should not be evaluated based on their speed of filling vacant roles and cost per hire. It should start at the top of the organization and filter down to every level. If you want all-stars do not settle for mediocrity. I refuse to be pressured into filling the job to get someone in the seat. An empty seat creates short-term problems, but a bad or mediocre hire can have long-lasting ramifications.
If you’re not hiring people better than your current employees, you will never raise the bar for talent within your organization. Create a quantitative assessment of talent and require that new talent exceeds current talent. Industry experience is not the most reliable indicator of talent. If you have to choose between experience or character, choose character. Hire for character and train for skill. What I now look for, thanks to this book, are the following key traits that you cant teach
- Drive
- Resiliency
- Adaptability
- Humility
- Integrity
- Effective Intelligence
- Team-ability
- Curiousity
- Emotional Strength
These cannot be taught. Either they have them, or they don’t.
In general, we are biased toward hiring who we like. The people we’d want to get a beer with. This is a horrible way to hire for many reasons. First people can trick you into liking them. Second, hiring the people you like is a recipe for creating a workplace where everyone looks and acts exactly the same. That leads to groupthink. What matters is whether a person can perform in the role, not how likeable they are. A team may not always be friends, but they will be able to come together as a team to accomplish the mission.
What’s going to make them successful is their mindset, not prior experience. Experience tells you where someone has been, but character tells you where they are going.
For most modern technical teams we’re generalists. We all have some degree of specialty, but it’s the ability to work broadly across a wide range of functions that makes us special.
When recruiting talent if someone is willing to move laterally without a significant pay raise, they are not top talent. Why would this person give up everyone and everything they know to do the same job with only a small pay increase?
Their character, what makes them who they are, what energizes them, how they response to stress, will determine their future. Hire for the future, not the past.
Does culture fit matter? You have to take the time to define the character of your organization. Perhaps one company is more collaborative and another individualistic; maybe one is more relaxed and another more hard-driving. Ask yourself if the person can buy in and believe in your organization. Can they see themselves being a part of it?
Talent is an organization-wide requirement. To think otherwise can spell doom for your organization.
I’ve adopted the ideas above and so much more from The Talent War book. When interviewing recently I really took to heart the principles, process and plan I learned from Mike and George and it made a huge difference.
Give it a try, your A players will thank you.
