In the early nineties Gallup began work with two of the largest retail brokerage firms in the United States. Both companies wanted help in selecting brokers. And both of them defined the role in exactly the same way—the broker was not paid to be a money manager, doing financial analysis, picking stocks. Instead he was paid to be a money gatherer, identifying high-potential prospects and then persuading them to invest their money with his firm. He was a salesperson.
Although the definition of both roles was the same, each company organized itself differently. One was extremely structured. Each broker spent months learning how to represent the same suite of meticulously packaged products, and regular refresher courses helped keep him from straying too far from the company’s mandate.
By comparison, the other company was wildly entrepreneurial. Licensed brokers were told, “Here’s a phone, here’s a phone book. I want to see $500,000 in assets under management by this time next year. Best of luck.”
Both strategies had their strengths. And as it turns out, both strategies have proven very successful. However, both could not be executed by the same kind of person. Although the job title was the same—”broker“—and the job description was the same—”gather money“—the talent profiles were significantly different.
For the structured company, the critical striving talent was achiever, the burning inside-out push; in this environment of frequent supervision, other striving talents, like the need for independence, were actually weaknesses. The critical thinking talent was discipline—an ability to work in a highly regimented environment. Thinking talents like focus or strategic thinking were much less important because the company, not the broker, set the direction and determined the best routes forward. Any broker who wanted to do this for himself would quickly start to butt heads with the company. He would lose.
In the entrepreneurial company, the opposite was true. The critical striving talent was desire—a burning need for independence—and the critical thinking talent was focus—the ability to pick out a genuine prospect from the phone book, to sort out whom to call from everyone who could be called. Lacking these talents, the unfortunate broker would feel lost and lonely, a company man in an entrepreneur’s world.
A broker with lots of desire and focus is not necessarily a better broker than one with lots of achiever and discipline. But she would certainly fit better in the entrepreneurial company, just as the broker blessed with achiever and discipline would be better cast in the more structured company. Lacking this knowledge, both companies might have ended up hiring each other’s brokers, with disastrous repercussions.
As a manager you need to know exactly which talents you want. To identify these talents, look beyond the job title and description. Think about the culture of the company. Is your company the kind that uses scores to drive performance and makes heroes out of those with the highest scores? If so, make sure that the striving talent competition is in your profile. Or maybe yours is an organization that emphasizes the underlying purpose of its work and confers prestige only on those who manifestly live the values of the company. If so, search for people who possess the striving talent mission, people who must see the greater purpose of which their efforts are a part.
Think about how expectations will be set and how closely the person will be supervised. Think about who you are as a manager and who will mesh with your style. Do you prefer to set short-term goals and expect to check in regularly with each person to monitor incremental progress? If so, you need to surround yourself with direct reports who yearn for structure and detail and regular updates, the thinking talent discipline. Or are you the kind of manager who likes to hand off as much responsibility as possible, who sets long-term goals and then expects employees to orient themselves toward those goals without much help from you? If so, your direct reports will need the thinking talent focus, which we described previously.
Think about the other people on the team. Think about the total work environment into which this person must fit. Perhaps the team is filled with solid but serious performers who are in need of drama and excitement—find a person with the relating talent stimulator, a person who can find the drama in almost any milestone or achievement. Perhaps the team is friendly but lacks the ability to confront one another with the truth—look for a person who leads with her relating talent assertiveness, so that you have at least one team member who feels Compelled to bring every issue, no matter how sensitive, to the surface. Perhaps your organization has a strong human resources department that can give your managers detalilegriesilliffiken the strengths and weaknesses of each of their direct reports. In this case you may not need to select managers who possess the relating talent individualized perception, defined as the ability to identify and capitalize upon the uniqueness in people. Or perhaps your organization offers no HR support at all. In this case relating talents like individualized perception, or relator—the need to build bonds that last—or developer—the need to invest in other people’s growth and to derive satisfaction from doing so—will need to serve as the cornerstones of your desired talent profile.
Pondering all of these variables can become overwhelming. So simplify, bring things down to size. Try to identify one critical talent in each of the three talent categories, striving, thinking, and relating. Use these three talents as your foundation. Focus on them during the interviewing process. Mention them when asking people for referrals. Do not compromise on them, no matter how alluring a candidate’s résumé might appear.
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