Talent recognition and grooming in a startup environment
Based on my experience within the start up world I would like to classify start-up workforce into following 4 levels.
Classification accounts for investment of time, mind space, attitude and skill set demonstrated by employees:
1. Owners: Employees who can join hands with the founders, dream the dream of growing big and incessantly work towards realizing that dream.
2. Visionaries/SMEs: Subject matter experts and visionaries always have tonnes of ideas. He/she would be the go to person if you have any questions.
3. Reliable workers: Assign them a task and forget about it. They will deliver on-time with quality, hook or crook!
4. None of the above: the ones who point fingers and do not take responsibility or ownership, create hurdles for others, fall below expectations consistently, gossip and pollute the work environment etc
Process to manage different levels
Step 1: Talent mapping
First and foremost, create a talent map and categorize the talent pool. There will always be a combination of more than one category in every individual based on the context but it is important to recognize the dominant behavior. Most start ups fail to recognize talent and put them in the right bucket.
Not having a right team, lack of focus within the team and disharmony within the team feature among the top 20 reasons for start up failure.
Step 2: Grooming
Once the talent mapping is done, define ‘primary’ roles and responsibilities for each employee. In a start up environment it’s typical to wear multiple hats but having a primary responsibility is the key.
Setup a feedback loop. Constructive way of providing feedback and continuous improvement helps maintain openness and trust.
It is extremely critical to empower and entrust employees who are willing to take ownership and responsibility.
Visionaries need to work with founders and employees with strong execution capabilities closely in order to realise the vision. Avoid ‘burnout’ situation with workers.
Maintain a work environment that keeps everyone motivated.
Step 3: Handling category 4
Category 4 is the main reason why organization culture gets polluted. First sign of danger for a start up is where employees spend more time having personal issues, blaming each other, getting into constant arguments and discuss people instead of revenue, customer or product. Again this could exist in various personality combinations (2, 4) or (3, 4). The only way to handle this category is through MBO, Management by objectives.
This is an extremely positive way to handle category 4. It really depends on the allowable tolerance in the system for category 4 behaviour. Some startups may have the time and luxury to groom, assess and nudge employees in the right direction but most don’t. Moreover, it is also about the proportion of employees who fall under this category. It might be manageable as long as the proportion is under 20%-30%. Anything more than that requires considerable amount of effort and it might spread like cancer!
It is extremely crucial for start ups to preserve, protect and get best out of the given talent pool. Maintaining harmony and coherence among team members can only help fight battles with the world outside (competitors, changing market dynamics etc)
