Talent Matrix
On May 15, 2008 in Thought for the Day
This week we are talking about brains and how they drive performance in our intellectual or service workplace.
Today, we talk about the Talent Matrix. This is a worksheet created by Humanetrics to help define the talents, skills and experience required to be successful in each role in the company. When completed, a Talent Matrix can do the following:
• Clearly define what talents are needed to drive performance in a role
• Clearly define the attributes your sourcing strategy is looking for (to direct your search)
• Clearly compare interview candidates based on the degree of required talents seen (this makes the interview successful, precludes bias and focuses on the success attributes that must be hired in).
Remember – Hire for talent, train for skill. Don’t hire employees who have the skills you need but do not have the talents. The Talent Matrix forces managers to clearly define the natural thinking they need; this creates better hiring decisions because it bases hiring on intrinsic, natural brain “sparkings.” If it is your talent (high energy, great socialization, analytical, multitasker) than you will be that way in any job - you can’t learn this, it is just who you are (or who you aren’t). The nuances of the company (skills) can be learned after.
Today, commit to get Tom Rath’s book .to learn to speak the language of talents. Contact us to learn about our Talent Matrix – defining the talents needed in each role in the company and our Talent based interview questions – to help insure you hire the right talent. Tomorrow – talent (not skill) based interview questions.
20,000 3-second events
On May 14, 2008 in Thought for the Day
This week we are talking about brains and how they relate to our intellectual or service workplace.
Virtually all of our work is thinking work. In service, we have to be thinking every minute as we deal with customers – so we get the right response for the right customer. None of us think the same way so that means that some people (and their thinking) are better matched to some roles than others. We have been highlight Tom Rath’s Strenghtsfinder 2.0 book all week to show you a great resource to help you determine your and your employees talents - a way to define the way you think. This can help you start to determine how to get all employees into the right jobs.
Here is what else you need to know. During the day, studies show that we make 20,000 3-second decisions. If we work in areas that match our talents, when we decide, we decide well. If we work in roles that are not in line with the way we think, we frequently decide poorly; that is reflected in poor performance. But if we work in our talent areas, we seem to make consistently good decisions and performance reflects it. Match talents with roles for the best performance. We talk about how to do that tomorrow.
Today, commit to get Tom Rath’s book. Contact us to learn about our Talent Matrix – defining the talents needed in each role in the company and our Talent based interview questions – to help insure you hire the right talent.
Talents
On May 13, 2008 in Thought for the Day
We are talking brains all this week.
Early in our development, our brains went through a massive explosion of growth – creating over 100 billion neurons (brain cells). As part of our development, these neurons started to connect with other neurons until the entire brain was “sparking”. Some of these connections were strong, some were weak. And biology allowed the weaker connections to wither. What we were left with was a unique pattern of “sparking” or responses that became uniquely us..personality…talents.
The resource we highlight this week, “Strengthsfinder 2.0” by Tom Rath, looks to help explain what sparking you were left with. These are called Talents….the natural way you think, the things you like and the things that you are good at. This resource lists the 34 major talent areas and helps you to articulate how you think and what talent areas seem more in line with your “sparking” and what may be the better performance areas for you.
This is critical to know – particularly in today’s intellectual economy. Because all jobs are thinking jobs, we need to insure that employees’ natural thinking (talents) are matched to the thinking needed in the job. If they are mismatched, the employee does not perform well. If properly matched, performance can happen.
Contact us to learn about our Talent Matrix – defining the talents needed in each role in the company and our Talent based interview questions – to help insure you hire the right talent.
Tomorrow we talk about the 20,000 3-second events. Don’t miss it.
Right Brain, Left Brain…
On May 12, 2008 in Thought for the Day
Left brain, right hand, analytical; Right brain, left hand, artistic. Left brain people are more empirical, more practical. Right brain people are more creative, more emotional.
Brains are brains…and the one we have is the one we have. Our goal should not be to change it but to rather understand it and allow it to fully develop.
What has this got to do with performance? Everything. We are in a thinking or service economy. Our performance is related to how we think. Therefore, the more closely we can match our thinking with our jobs, the better we perform. The more closely we match our thinking with our life pursuits, the happier we are. That means we need to know our hardwiring or “sparking” and if we are more right or left-brain thinking. This hardwiring develops into our talents – the things we do well (and like to do). To know what your best roles are, find out your talents. Start by buying Strenghtsfinder 2.0 by Tom Rath
and take the on-line evaluation. This evaluation does a great job of indicating with good accuracy your top 5 talents…your natural thinking. Then, for the rest of the week, we will talk about what to do with this information. Join us as we talk about what make you…you.
Check out my article, The Human Edge to add more details.
You have the right tools…
On May 09, 2008 in Thought for the Day
Just get out there…sometimes easier said than done. Getting out there at both work and life takes skills, courage and the right talents. Talents are innate so we either have them or don’t – but skills we can work on. For today and all next week, we’ll profile really exceptional tools to help develop the skills to be great and the courage to take on the world and work.
Today – consider Kevin and Jackie Freiberg’s book BOOM! 7 Choices for Blowing the Doors off Business-As-Usual.
OUTSTANDING book!! – easy to read and you will find yourself taking notes and trying things right away – all designed to help you stop watching and start participating – at work and at life. Also check out their website www.freibergs.com for more great information. This is one of the top resources to help you “just get out there.” Check it out and tell your friends. Send in your best “just get out there and do it” resources and we’ll post them. Also be sure to check our Articles that offer you great information to max your skills and make a dent in the world.
Be extraordinary!