Recognising and Nurturing Talent

A good team is what it takes to deliver a good project. As a lead Architect on more than 200 projects in my career so far I recruited a lot of staff. Staff I got to work for me came out of three options.  1) Directly interviewed by me and selected  2) Refrences and pressures from friends and power circles 3) Not interviewed by me and provided by Employer directly through HR.

In option 1 where I got staff from my direct interaction and selection, I looked for that spark of talent based on my own reading of the candidate. All projects with such staff happened beautifully and today each of those persons are very well established in their fields due to sheer personal talent. My idea of nurturing that talent was simple. I gave them problems to tackle by themselves. And since they were originally talented with guidance became real experts.

The option 2 people who came by jack, 50% were fired soon as they were neither talented nor hardworking though by nature I am soft and give multiple chances before taking a decision to fire somebody out of job. Other 30% of them are staying in same jobs from a long time as these were just doing enough to sustain their jobs. Once they loose their jobs they start contacting me again. Only about 20% genuine staff responded to mentoring and did good in their careers.

Worst were the cases directly thrown to me without my screening. Here the fate of project depended upon luck. In times of cost cutting and higher rates for real talent you get staff with fuzzed CVs, no experience and shady background. This happened on 2 projects and both went mediocre or with troubles.

It is hard to digest with todays realities, where selection is not filtered, backgrounds are not checked and talent is not assessed, the projects suffer.

Some of you have lead roles to play and I will advise that use a talent selection filter while you recruit.

Talent has a potential, nurtured properly it is good for candidate and organisation both. At other hand the parasites like staff results only in degradation. Talent makes a career of fulfillment. So always recognise talent first, while recruiting.

Put your heart in it

Contemporary workplaces in form of corporate culture is inducing stresses in people lives. What seems good in the begining starts fading into a stressful scenario where plastic smiles, competition and office politics start taking your energies away, making you just a machinery part. Your life, family, health and freedom is the cost you start paying for your job. Work becomes a burden.

My father, who is an highly active person in his retired life gave a mantra for a balanced life based on his experiences of being  in country's highest stressful jobs as secretary to Prime ministers of India. The mantra is "Put your heart in it or forget it".

So at workplace you work with your heart. Tasks are better handled when you put your heart in it. And learn start saying NO to the things which your heart does not accept. Your body and mind needs your inner permission to perform in harmony. If you work against your inner voice conflicts start within yourself first and then stress happens.

So work with your heart and leave everything else which your inner voice does not want you to do. There is no point in living a life full of hidden emotions, jealousy and stress. Listen to your heart, follow your internal peace and enjoy doing what you want to do.