Is talent your top priority?

Does your organization have talent?

Do you know how to recognize talent when you see it? Are you prepared to pursue it, and are you prepared to pay for it? Do you know how to develop it and nurture it? Do you know how to keep it? And then, are you prepared to let the talented people do what you hired them to do?

Most of us would agree that our people are our most important resource, and that our people are our organizations. After all, it is our people who make our stuff, deliver our service and create value for our customers — is it not? So, are we prepared to recognize, recruit, reward and retain “talent?”

If we are, we should be prepared to accept the simple fact that some people are better at some things than other people. And, some people are a lot better than other people. If your organization is going to win the value contest, these are the folks you need. If you don't have them, you better find them or you better be developing them.

To find them, you need to have a robust recruitment, selection and hiring process, not to mention a pool of candidates from which to draw. Companies that have this figured out treat talent development as high a priority as business development. Let me put it this way: What do you do within your organization that is more important than finding and developing the best talent? Talent that will make your stuff and deliver your service and manage your operations and your budgets and your projects and solve your problems?

People and technology are converging (and have converged) at a truly amazing rate. The business landscape is massively different compared with 20, 10 or even five years ago. It truly is a “you snooze you lose” environment. If your business is doing well, it is likely that you have kept up with this rate of change, and have treated talent as a high priority. You have developed an awareness for talent and you know the performance levels required for each position for the team to succeed. You know the attributes that successful team members must have and how their contribution will impact the rest of the team. You know what motivates them and how closely their goals are aligned with yours (and the company's).

You know how important it is to provide coaching, mentoring and training as part of your responsibility of being “the boss.” You know that anyone can set goals, but that it takes commitment to guide folks towards achieving goals. You know that continual feedback, with adjustments when needed, will develop talent more effectively than an annual review. You know that if an employee shows a strong desire to be valued and a strong desire to perform at a high level outside of his / her comfort zone, that you are responsible for grooming and mentoring and removing the obstacles to performance. You know that one-on-one coaching and mentoring must occur on a planned and scheduled basis for real development to occur. You know what this approach can do for the employee's self-esteem and motivation. You know that your people must feel that their work matters . . . really matters!

Successful companies have figured out that the quality, effectiveness and talent of their people are the main factors that separate them from their competition. They know that talent is a crucial source of competitive advantage. If they outperform their competition at talent spotting, they usually outperform them in the marketplace. As they recruit and hire the right people, they develop an employer brand that encourages candidates to seek them out and want to work for them. They have created a work environment that retains the right people — and grows talent.