Take Care of Smart People Before They Leave Your Company
Real talents are lurking inside every company.
A recent study, based on the answers of 10.000 employees, shows that 11% of the workforce identified as key-experts.
Who are these people?
They are substantial, their knowledge is acclaimed by everyone. They are the “Force” of your company. Without them, it would fall into pieces.
The study says that 61% of the co-workers rely on the knowledge of these experts. This also indicates the essential presence of them.
What happens when this 11% go retirement? Leaving the company? Stay on sick leave for weeks because of a zombie outbreak?
Your company will be neck deep in poop. Unless you have a cloning facility with the DNA of your top employees.
Three steps to avoid the apocalypse, when you run out of people who know what to do:
Explore talents within the company.
Give space for growth.
Share the knowledge.
It is a massive risk not sharing the intelligence with smart people who already work with you.
Talent has multiple definitions. “I can imitate the sound of a dying giraffe. Am I talented?”
Yes, in some way, but that’s not what I am talking about.
Most of the definitions are agree on that one’s truly talented if he/she has the capability, desire and the constant strive for excellence.
Translated to human, these people with a little extra work, attention, and care can be the new generation of key experts in your company.
For example, a few years ago I met a woman who had an insane obsession with the building of fairly complex Excel spreadsheets. She did everything from tracking information to make data entry easier and what to buy for her loved ones for Christmas.
She was high on .xls and her appetite for learning was ravenous, and she was honestly grateful when I spent a few minutes showing interest in her Excel tricks, and apologetic about my limited knowledge.
She set a high value on growing by applying an advanced Excel training, but her requests had been denied multiple times by upper management.
Later I talked to my colleagues and decided that we will buy her, packed up as a present, a cherished Excel book before the holidays. After a week or so we received a warm email, and she was honestly melted and mentioned already learning tons of new tricks to make her job easier.
She is the head of accounting now.
We were lucky to have her, and I was lucky to bump into her. But how do you dig out such gems?
Finding and enhancing smart people puts an enormous amount of responsibility on the shoulder of the HR.
Chosing the right persons to promote them for a talent development program, or whatever they need to bloom.
I am not an HR guy, but sure it’s hell of a challenge to assess the skills and competencies precisely what the job requires.
Excellent decision making? Ability to guide? Advanced communication skills? Inspiring aura? Golden touch?
I truly believe that you could extend that list to 10 pages long.
It’s a trap!
“The skills required to do a job are not necessarily the same as those required to get the job.”
These requirements will determine the culture and the future of your company.
If you make good choices, success awaits! If you choose poorly…well, you know that answer.
We often hear that the young associates have massive potential. They find out quickly how things work, they know everything about technology, they use interesting new ways to approach a problem and they are extremely efficient.
However, in some cases, their attitude is not exemplary, let alone rewardable.
It’s a giant challenge to keep the smart poeple motivated and build an inspiring organizational culture. This way you must be careful who to reward with a talent development program.
The secret of making such decisions, besides having the capabilities of doing the job, lies in the importance of the commitment to the job. This will help you to deliver the message to the people, that your company is not only rewarding the great problem solvers but the highly committed ones equally.
“Committed people don’t blame and complain. They are too busy figuring out how to achieve the results they committed to.” — Jill Koenig
Ok, so how are we going to transform smart talents into all-knowing superhero experts?
According to organizational best practices, the most effective way of learning is when the employees directly share their academic knowledge and experiences with each other. I know it’s easier said than done. That is why Steve Jobs designed the Pixar HQ with a central atrium, to increase the chances of random meet-ups and conversations.
The people you listen to or ignore will determine the quality of information you receive and the values you represent.
This will affect your decision-making capabilities. That is why the primal criteria of identifying true talents, is to be aware of the top experts who possess significant knowledge and ask the right questions.
After all, it is about to build and manage relationships.
I live nearby a great park which was reconstructed last year. A shiny sidewalk was built, assuming people would use it whatever happens. After a few months, I could see the beaten tracks in the grass, what people used instead of the sidewalk (just like I did). It would have been smart to wait for the people to tread the path for the sidewalk and build after it.
It’s the same way how leaders building their own organizations. Without thinking and planning, they give away strategic positions to people don’t fit in. It’s not just about the culture, but the skills, competency, attributes, etc.
You’ve seen this way too many times.
If we are not paying attention, people will sit in positions that doesn’t match their skills. They will become disengaged, frustrated and eventually they will walk away.
That is why putting the right talent in the right place is vital.
A bad leader can take a good staff and destroy it, causing the best employees to flee and the remainder to lose all motivation. — Joseph Lalonde
Not that everyone needs a book about Excel, often an honest conversation can be helpful, but it’s likely to have a great deal of potential in your co-workers that’s trapped behind an invisible roadblock.
Keep your eyes open, the solution might be in front of you.
Thank you for reading it!
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