According to Gallup, it is the presence of some of these themes, that automatically guides and triggers both learning and emotional response as well as the absence of other themes that result in the differences in how people relate, impact, strive, and think. When we observe someone who seems to be able to perform exceptionally well and continues to learn and grow in a particular field or endeavor at a pace beyond the ordinary, we are witnessing these talent themes at work.
Capability is the potential for the future development of a person’s talents into skills and competencies. Whereas talent focuses on an inherent gift or aptitude, capability focuses on the overall size or potential for development of gifts into skills and competencies that produce results. Skill, on the other hand, refers to the ability to perform work that results from acquired knowledge that THEMES
RELATING
IMPACTING
STRIVING
THINKING
1. Communication
8. Command
14. Achiever
23. Analytical
2. Empathy
9. Competition
15. Activator
24. Arranger
3. Harmony
10. Developer
16. Adaptability
25. Connectedness
4. Includer
11. Maximizer
17. Belief
26. Consistency
5. Individualization
12. Positivity
18. Discipline
27. Context
6. Relator
13. Woo
19. Focus
28. Deliberative
7. Responsibility
20. Restorative
29. Futuristic
21. Self-Assurance
30. Ideation
22. Significance
31. Input
32. Intellection
33. Learner
34. Strategic
Exhibit 13.1
Talent Themes
Resource Management
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enables the person to do something competently. Finally, the passion dimension refers to the intense set of emotions that compels a person to action. It usually appears as a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity.
A professional could have a talent that through knowledge has resulted in skills that he or she uses indifferently because of a lack a passion for the actual work. This person may also be performing at the top of his or her capability for using that talent and, therefore, may promise little in terms of future development. Another person could have a great reserve of untapped talent, some of which has been converted to skills through education and a huge passion for the work that drives him or her to reach for greater heights of performance. This person may also have huge capabilities and offer a great deal of future potential. Either of these people could be the right person for a role in your company. Either can be a superstar, depending on the role and your company. The important thing is that you first give the term top performer a more concrete definition relative to these four dimensions of talent, capability, skill, and passion, and then use the resulting criteria template as your basis for understanding the needs of your company.
The best question for business owners and executives who are seeking top performers to ask is, “ Who can be a superstar in my business environment in the particular jobs I have in mind?” What are the key requirements for success in your company? The answer is . . . all of the talents, skills, capabilities, and passions that are needed to reach your company’s business objectives.
Zeroing in on Your Requirements
One tool extremely useful in identifying the key success requirements for a company or specific team function is the alignment chart. An alignment chart enables you to clearly link company goals to the specific talents, skills, capabilities, and passions that are needed to reach them. To put together an alignment chart, simply:
• Create a form with your word processor.
• Across the top row, label the first three columns from left to right:.
—Company objectives
—Team goals
—TSCP needed (talents, skills, capabilities, and passions)
• In the first column under “Company Objectives,” list your main three to five key company objectives.
• Next, make one copy of the one-page document for each team in your organization, for example, copies for accounting, marketing, sales, and so on.
• On each of the copies for one of the teams, fill in under “Team Goals”
the answer to the question: How will this team contribute to the company objectives?
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• Finally, to fill in the TSCP column, ask yourself: What talents, skills, capabilities, and passions will the team need to have to be able to accomplish these goals?
The resulting chart should look like Exhibit 13.2. One way to test the strength of the logic of your charts is to check for the linkage in the opposite direction. In building the chart, you began with company goals and worked your way to the right by asking questions designed to help you oper-ationalize your high-level strategy. Your questions were basically focused on,
“How am I going to do this, or what do I need to do to accomplish that?” To test for solid linkage in the opposite direction, start from the TSCP column and ask yourself, “ Why do I need these talents, skills, capabilities, and passions in my team?” If the responses logically f low well into a sentence that starts with, “In order to be able to . . .” followed by the list in the column to the immediate left, you have a strong linkage between your “TCSP” and
“Team Goals” sections. Next, you can test the linkage between the “Team goals” section and the “Company Objectives” by similarly asking, “ Why must these team goals be accomplished?” Make sure that there is a natural f low and connection in the response “In order to be able to . . .” followed by the list in the “Company Objectives” column. Columns to the right tell us how we will contribute to or support the success of an item to the left. Conversely, the answer to why we are doing something in any column should be to accomplish something listed in the column to the left of the column we are testing.
The two charts for our fictitious XYZ Company in Exhibits 13.2 and 13.3
show that the one thing the two charts share is the Company Objectives.
COMPANY OBJECTIVES
TEAM GOALS
TCSP NEEDED
5 percent increase in
Increase new business 5
Prospecting
market share
percent
Accounting/financial
30 percent gross margin
Close only high margin
acumen
(up 3 percent)
business
Relationship building
10 percent increase in
Go deeper into clients
Articulate
overall revenue
(combined with new
Outgoing
Establish niche brand
clients results in 10 per-
Energetic
value
cent revenue increase)
Gain trusted advisor
A high level of knowl-
status
edge about our services
and best practices
Exhibit 13.2
Alignment Chart for a Sales Professional
Resource Management
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COMPANY OBJECTIVES
TEAM GOALS
TCSP NEEDED
5 percent increase in
Complete work on time,
Project management
market share
on scope and on budget
Subject matter content
30 percent gross margin
Identify other opportuni-
expertise
(up 3 percent)
ties to add value
Business savvy
10 percent increase in
Improve value driving
Self-motivated learner
overall revenue
skills
Customer focused
Establish niche brand
value
Exhibit 13.3
Alignment Chart for a Project Manager
How the two teams contribute to the attainment of these objectives is clearly different. As a result, the skills they need to succeed are also different. If we were to continue this process with other teams in XYZ Company, we would find that the marketing team would own, for example, the responsibility for establishing the niche branding value. On the other hand, the accounting team’s contribution to the Company Objectives might be faster billing and timely management reports to sales and delivery. Other teams would provide other contributions that would require other talents, skills, capabilities, and passions.
In the end, by summing up all of the TSCP listings on each of the charts, you would have a general picture of the talents, skills, capabilities, and passions specifically needed for superstardom in your company.
Assess the Talents, Skills, Capabilities, and
Passions in Your Resource Pool
If knowing what you require is the first step, knowing what you have is without a doubt the next immediate step. Many small, as well as large, companies, unfortunately, do not have a clear idea of the vital talents that exist within their own organizations. As many knowledge management experts will point out, the biggest challenge in knowledge management is knowing what you have and then using it. Jason Averbook, a director in Global Product Marketing for PeopleSoft Human Capital Management (HCM), who is currently responsible for the delivery and development of PeopleSoft’s entire HCM
division, states, “Most organizations hire a bunch of people before looking for the needed talent in-house. They do this primarily because they don’t really know what they have in-house nor do they possess the tools to effectively keep track.”4
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Problems That Result from Not Knowing
Your Talent Pool
I vividly recall an incident many years ago when my team and I had a great opportunity for landing a new piece of business with a financial service client. The only catch was that we had to come up with three people who could work at the code level with three major applications and prepare them for integration into a new trading environment recently launched by the client. For the next few weeks, we struggled to find the right candidates. By the third week, after much effort, we had only one candidate and the client was breathing down our necks. Two more weeks later, we had a candidate for the second slot. Within the next few days after securing the second candidate, we found the third, not a minute too soon, because the client was threatening to go to a competitor if we did not get the project started by the beginning of the following week.