Do you want to work with ‘talent’ in your company ?
Then, first and foremost, you need a clear definition of what ‘talent’ actually is.
The appeal of the concept of ‘talents’ may have arisen from a sense of imbalance.
The demand side:
In the past decades, companies have invested heavily in competence management. Competence management starts from the demand side « What do we need as a company? ». On the basis of a leadership framework (mission, vision and strategy), a company structure is drawn up with departments, teams and ultimately functions. Function profiles with corresponding competence profiles are written out.
Competence management conveniently assumes that the employee is malleable. Little or no account is taken of the employee’s intrinsic qualities (talents). Starting with the selection process, the emphasis is on previously acquired diplomas, experience and competences. Once on the job, the employee’s weaknesses are examined and then remedied with training and coaching.
But apparently, people do not easily allow themselves to be squeezed into function pigeonholes and eliminating ‘weaknesses’ more often leads to ‘just good enough’ rather than ‘excellent’.
But it is not only the lack of competitive excellence that worries companies. Labour market shortages also increases the pressure. In the past, we had a surplus of labour and could afford to let people out very early. No one really cared that work also had to be workable and sustainable. After all, at the front door, candidates were drumming to get in. Things are different today, and unwanted outflow and drop-out (e.g. due to burnout) is a real threat to our companies.
At the boundaries of this demand-driven model, the feeling of imbalance is slowly growing. Wouldn’t it be useful to stop looking only at the ‘demand side’ and start looking at the ‘supply side’ ?
The supply side:
So at the front door of the company, there is someone standing. Possibly with a degree and anyway a set of competences. But what you have to offer as a person is only partly determined by your education and work experience.
So what is the other part?
Those are the talents this person has.
The characteristics of a talent:
- A talent is a gift. You cannot give yourself a talent, no matter how much you would like to.
- A talent sets you apart from others. When you have a particular gift to the same extent as most others, we don’t call it a talent.
- A talent is a potential and not a behaviour. Nobody is born with excellent behaviour. A talent needs further development to excel.
Is the above a useful definition of ‘talent’ for companies ? No.
A talent is of interest to a company only if it can add value to the company. We therefore need to explicitly include performance potential in our definition. So our talent definition needs refinement.
That’s why we distinguish three types of talents :
- Emotional talents
- Rational talents
- Physical talents
None of these 3 talent categories has performance potential per se.
An example by category:
- It’s not because you like caring for others (emotional talent) that you have a WORKING talent to be a nurse.
- It is not because it is easy for you to work orderly (rational talent) that you have a WORKING talent to become a librarian.
- It is not because you have a beautiful voice (physical talent) that you have a WORKING talent to become a professional singer.
The difference between a ‘talent’ and a ‘WORKING talent’ lies in the performance potential contained in a WORKING talent.
A WORKING talent appeals to your ‘whole person’, i.e. your heart (emotion), head (reason) and hands (physical). Only when your heart, head and hands talents form a synergy do you have a WORKING talent.
For a professional singer, for example, this could be a synergy between
- emotional talent: a special passion to be in the spotlight
- rational talent: a special ability to be creative
- physical talent: having a set of special vocal cords
A WORKING talent
= emotional talent + rational talent + physical talent
= passion + aptitude (mental and physical)
= it gives you energy + it’s easy for you
= performance potential
When you use your WORKING talents, you feel in your element. Your different talents (Heart-Head-Hands) form a synergetic connection and you feel that your energy can flow freely (flow).
How NOT to succeed in mapping someone’s WORKING talents:
- Using your WORKING talents gives you energy, because your heart is involved. But this does not mean that everything that energizes you is a WORKING talent of yours. So talent interviews with a focus on questions like « What makes you happy? », « What energizes you? » can quickly put you on the wrong path.
- Methods using talent lists that do not distinguish between emotional, rational and physical talents cannot give you insight into your WORKING talents.
- Questionnaires (online tests) that take yourself as a reference help you discover your personal preferences, but personal preferences are not talents. To discover your talents, you have to compare yourself to others. Otherwise, how do you know what sets you apart from others?
How do you know if a questionnaire takes yourself as a reference?
Some things you can look out for:
- The questions consist of two (or more) choices between which you have to choose or rank the choices.
- The results speak of your ‘top X’ talents (or characteristics). Making your ‘top X’ is possible only when you yourself are the reference of the measurement.
How you WILL succeed in identifying someone’s WORKING talents:
- To map WORKING talents, you need a normative questionnaire (online test) that compares you to others (the norm group). The bigger the norm group the better.
- To map WORKING talents, you need not only a reliable test, but above all a valid test. Providers often state that their test is reliable, but this only indicates the internal consistency of the questionnaire. The key question is whether the talents being measured actually exist. A valid test measures real things that matter, in real people in real jobs.
Author: Peter Monsieurs / The Talentpassport