TALENT

DEFINING AND SELECTING TALENT

 DEFINING TALENT
“THE RIGHT STUFF”

THE HIGHWAY SYSTEM

SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE, AND TALENTS

INTERVIEWING FOR TALENT

CONCLUSION
“CELEBRATED”
EXCELLENCE
 “…a recurring pattern of
thought, feeling, or behaviour
that can be productively
applied.”
 You have a mental
filter that sifts through
your world, forcing you
to pay attention to
some stimuli, while
others slip past you.
Talents are:
• remembering names,
rather than faces only
• love for crossword puzzles
• fascination with risk
Conventional wisdom
says:
• experience,
• brainpower, and
• willpower
make the difference.
 STATEMENT
Behaviours in a person can be changed
FALSE
 STATEMENT
These characteristics – talents – are
relatively unimportant to job performance
FALSE
 TALENT
“Recurring patterns of
behaviour that fit a role”
THE RIGHT STUFF
 You have an internal filter, a
characteristic way of responding to the
world around you. Your filter tells you
which stimuli to notice, and which to
ignore, which to love and which to hate.
It creates in you all of your distinct
patterns of thought, feeling, and
behaviour. In effect, your filter is the
source of your talents.
“How much of a person can a manager
change?”
“People don’t change that much”
THE HIGHWAY SYSTEM
Possible causes for stronger
connections are debated:
• The child’s genetic
inheritance could
predispose them to certain
mental pathways.
• The way they are raised
could have a significant
effect.
• These views are mutually
exclusive.
SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE, AND TALENTS
SKILLS: are the how-to of a role. They can be transferred
from one person to another. The best way to teach a skill is
to break down the total performance into steps. The best
way to learn a skill is to practice.

KNOWLEDGE: are simply the things that you are aware of.
There are two kinds of knowledge:
• Factual knowledge: the things you know
• Experiential knowledge: understanding you have picked
up along the way. It’s less tangible and therefore harder
to teach.

TALENTS: they are the four-lane highways in your mind,

the recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behaviour.
 3 KINDS OF TALENT

Striving talents:
explain the why of a person.

Thinking talents:
explain the how of a person

Relating talents:
explain the who of a person.
 MIND GAMES

MILL1ON
A
P Y
TEMPERATURE
 BUT
1) THOUGHT
2) THOUGHT
 INTERVIEWING FOR TALENT

1. MAKE SURE THE TALENT

INTERVIEW STANDS ALONE
2. ASK A FEW OPEN-ENDED
QUESTIONS AND THEN
KEEP QUIET
3. LISTEN FOR SPECIFICS

4. CLUES TO TALENT
5. KNOW WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
“What do you enjoy most about selling?”

“How closely do you think people should

be supervised?”
 Past behaviour is good predictor for future behaviour.

“Tell me about a time when you…”

First
You need to listen for specific examples of time, event, and
person.

Second
Past behaviour is only predictive of future behaviour if the
past behaviour is recurring. The candidate should therefore
be able to give you different specific examples without much
hesitation.
 Example
If you are looking for the relating talent assertiveness in a
sales person, you might ask:

“Tell me about a time when you overcame resistance to

your ideas.”

Answer 1
“I think it is very important to be persistent, particularly if you
really believe in your ideas. We really encourage that kind of
straightforwardness here. In fact, it happens all the time.”

Answer 2
“It happened yesterday.”
 RAPID LEARNING
Rapid learning is an important clue to a person’s talent. Ask
what kind of roles they have been able to learn quickly. Also
ask what activities come easily to them now. That will
give you more clues to their talent.

SATISFACTIONS
A person’s sources of satisfaction are clues to their talent.

Ask them:

What their greatest personal satisfaction is?

What kind of situations gives them strength?

What do they find fulfilling?

Ask questions where you know what top
performers will respond.

A sample question to test a salesperson’s

talent for striving is:

“How do you feel when someone doubts

what you have to say?”
 CONCLUSION
The activity of selecting for talent cannot be isolated or
separated from the following three keys for success:
define the right outcomes…not the right steps,
focus on strengths…not on weaknesses, and
find the right fit…not simply the next rung on the ladder.