What The Hell Is Talent?

12 Apr What The Hell Is Talent?

How Do You Grow Your Organization On Talent?

Christopher Hart here, and we are talking leadership.  So we’re continuing our series of Lead Strong how to build strong leaders in virtually any environment, businesses, organizations, churches, families, relationships, et cetera. So there are some circles of businesses that will preach hiring talent, like “Oh grow your organization on talent… hire talent.  You should only hire talent in your organization… if you want to have a great organization you need to build your organization on talent.”  So you hear this word talent, talent, talent, talent, talent, and interestingly enough, like what really is talent?  So I asked myself one day like, “What is talent?”

And so I started thinking about it and then I went to the Internet and googled it and Webster looked it up and blah blah blah blah blah.

What Is Talent?

I’m guessing you guys are all wondering the same thing like what is talent?  So I believe that if you ask a hundred people what talent it is you’ll get 300 different answers; and if that’s the case maybe it’s exaggerated a little bit but let’s be real here, a hundred people you’re probably going to have at least 95 different answers.  So if that’s the case, if 95% of our responses are going to be different, what is talent?  

Oh talent versus grit that’s a whole nother video my friend.  But thanks for bringing that up, that’s a good point. So let’s see what we can dig into today to identify what talent is.  So I want to be very clear about something, what I’m going to share with you is what’s called “My talent code,” and I’m not saying “My talent code”  like I own it, like I have copyrights to it, it’s just mine, it’s what I use to evaluate whether or not someone has talent.  So feel free to use it, call it your name, spin it, smack it, flip it, I don’t care what you do with it.   I just want to share with you what I believe talent is and maybe it can help you identify what talent is within people when you’re looking to recruit them, attract them to your organization.  And then we may touch on today, if not today we’ll have to do it tomorrow, what is talent.  And then I’ll have a follow-up video about identifying another aspect in individuals when we’re growing our organizations so, and that’s a topic called a player.  

There is a formula for talent.

So let’s dive into what is talent.  I believe I have a formula of what talent is and it’s not so much for it to be a formulaic approach as it is just kind of an acronym reminder, and what that looks like is T equals I plus S.  So if you have a piece of paper write that down, write it on your forearm, your forehead, whatever, T equals I plus S.

And what that looks like is T, talent is the T, I is intellect and S is skill.  So talent is when intellect and skill come together.  So when intellect and skill come together in the same individual I believe you have the foundation for what is called a talented individual.  So let’s dissect this because it’s not just… I think intellect and skill can be considered subjective as well, so when we look at it, what exactly is intellect?

Intellect, I believe, is when someone has the ability to engage, speak and understand an intelligent conversation or what we know it to be as a high-level conversation. So what does that look like?  I believe there’s people that can speak high-level stuff, verbiage or whatever maybe because they went to some class or they’ve gone to the same class 10 times and they can just recite the information.  But my question is how does that relate to the conversations that you have with other talented individuals?  And I guess the best way to really analyze this is take an individual, put them in a group of other individuals that are having a high level conversation and just watch them.  Can they engage?  Can they effectively engage?  Can they understand what they’re talking about?  Can they contribute to that high level conversation?  And if so I believe you have the makings of what I’d like to believe is intellect.

Now there’s a whole nother quotient of evaluation IQ, you can use that, we’re going to talk about IQ in a video here soon, the makings of what future leaders look like, IQ is one of the elements.  So you can use that or you can just use kind of you know what you believe to be a high-level conversation and at lowest form just have a high-level conversation with them, see how they’re able to engage.

What I like to evaluate against is if I ask someone what I believe is a good great question or a high-level question and they go back and they repeat it, I’ll just make one up like “So tell me when’s a time… tell me about a time where you did XY and Z,” and they go “A time where I did XY and Z…” And they have to think about it and… you know I believe talented people can just… they can just engage, they just know how to go there in the conversation, they know how to hold their own and they know how to contribute, so it’s not just a one-way conversation, they go “Wow that’s a good point, I never thought about that.”

So some of my friends that I’ve been so blessed to be a part of and be inside their circles of influence, just having conversations with them, I felt at times when I would walk away that I’ve contributed to the conversation and I walked away with some great nuggets, that’s a high level conversation, those are two talented individuals, or at least intellectual individuals.  

Now second piece of this is skill.  Now the skill piece is I believe is very important because this is where we as leaders tend to get deceived.  Someone has the ability to achieve at a high level and we go “That person’s talented.”  No that person’s not talented, that person is skilled.  Just because someone, let’s say just because someone can transact 40 transactions by themselves that doesn’t make them talented, it makes them skilled, they know how to do their job.

So when I look at skilled, it encompasses one, the ability to do their job plus the result and plus achievement.  So if I evaluate someone that in their past their past results show that they can transact real estate at a high level, can that translate into my organization?  So that’s ability; and then their ability to actually do it where they show up with the results like alright look, you did 25 to 30 transactions consistently, year in and year out for the last three to four years, what does that translate into in my organization?  So that should maybe be 40 to 45, maybe 50 transactions because you’re providing the leadership, you’re providing them systems, tools, and leverage et cetera.   So I look at the ability to do it plus the actual result, if they’re able to drive results consistently, and then it translates into some sort of achievement.  

Guys I don’t think skill is someone that’s able to achieve or able to prove results, 40 transactions like what does that translate into?  What are you doing with that?  Not just getting results and still being broke, but 40 transactions make you X amount of money and that money turns into some sort of achievement in your life.  That’s where I believe the skill element of talent comes in, the ability to translate your capabilities into ability, into execution, into a result, into an achievement.

What if someone has one but not the other?

So those are the two elements of my talent code, but here’s the thing, what if someone has the intellect without the skill?  Well in my opinion just based off of my talent evaluation, talent code evaluation, that’s not talent; that’s not the talent that I’m looking for.  What if someone has the skills cause I’ve seen plenty of people that had the ability to achieve at a high level or get the results at a high level, they have the skill but they don’t have the intellect.  For me, based off of my talent code for what I’m looking to attract to an organization I’m building, that’s not the quote/unquote “talent.”  It’s when someone possesses that skill, the elements of skill and it meets that intellect in relation to what you’re looking for.  So if I’m looking for someone to be, I don’t know maybe an executive administrator or an operations manager, someone that’s going to run, lead, and build my administrative department in my organization, then being skilled and being able to sell a lot of real estate does not translate into a talented prospect for my operations manager role.  

So the ability to communicate and actually communicate and effectively engage in an intellectual conversation related to your industry, your organization, your business, plus have the skill sets in the role that you’re looking to hire for, that’s when I believe that person can be assessed as the talent that you are looking for in your organization in the role.  

Now prime example, if I have someone that is a… say a pastor of a church, and they get up there and they can talk to five, six, a thousand… five/six hundred, a thousand people and people walk out of there just like convicted and wooed, and “Wow!  Great pastor!”  And then I’m trying to hire him for an operations manager role, well that skill on that area…industry I guess you could say, does not effectively translate over to what I’m looking for.  Doesn’t make them any less talented, just doesn’t mean that they’re the talent that I’m looking for for what I’m looking to hire.  So you have to be clear about that, when you’re looking to hire and evaluate and attract talent to your organization the talent has to relate to three types of matches, a match to the organization, and what does that look like?  When you have a mission, a vision, values, beliefs, perspective, like you’re evaluating the core of who they are, their intellect and their skill sets in accordance with that, the mission, vision, value, beliefs, and perspective that you’ve established as your organization.

The second is the role; can they do the job effectively?  Do they have the aptitude? Can they intellectually engage in the conversations that need to happen in the role?  And do they have the skill set related to the role that you’re looking to hire?

And then the third is the leader.  We’re going to talk here soon about leadership personalities.  I believe every leader should have their own personality, leadership is not a…you know draw a box and trying to stuff everybody in it.  What I’m sharing with you are just some techniques and elements of leadership for you to develop your own leadership that hopefully will create your own type of personality.  But when you have that personality understand something, some people can relate to it some people can’t.  My leadership personality is a little bit more intense, a little bit more passionate, a little bit more straightforward,  it’s kind of like black coffee leadership, you’re not going to get much sugar and cream with me, very driven in that respect.  So I understand that I need to find people for roles in my organization that can handle that type of leadership personality, some people can, some people can’t.

So just remember when you’re looking at talent you can use the code of I plus X, intellect plus skill set and the sub elements thereof; and then use that in relation to the three matches that you’re looking for, match to the organization, match to the role, and match to the leader, the person that’s going to lead that person can they be a match in personality types and can one understand the other and can the leader be a chameleon to the person that they’re going to hire?  

So that’s a talent code.  I believe just because of time I don’t take up too much time, tomorrow I’ll talk to you how do we attract that talent.  How do we put it out there to know that the candidates that people are going to send us or whether we’re going to do prospecting efforts out to our allied resources or marketing efforts on some of these platforms other than Craigslist that really do provide us great candidates, because there really is some talented people out on those platforms like Ziprecruiter or whatever else is available out there.  How do we effectively communicate either through marketing verbiage or are actually prospecting conversations that help people understand like “That’s what I’m looking for. I’m looking for talent, this is what talent looks like.  Please send me the ones that you believe are talent.”  So we’re not weeding through the just everybodies and anybodies.

So hopefully we’ve brought some value to not only your business but your life because there’s elements of how this takes shape in your life as well, it’s not just for your business.  You know remember one thing, you are the sum total of the five people you spend the most time with.  Look around you, who are you spending time with?  Are you spending time with talented people or are you spending time with people that maybe suck your energy?  I don’t know, for you to evaluate.   

Before we go remember one thing, you are a child of God and God loves you and so do I.  Have a great rest of your day, take care.  Lead strong.   

About the author:

Over the course of 8 years, Christopher Hart went from an enlisted Private First Class to a Commissioned Officer-Captain. In 2005, Christopher chose to move on from his military career to focus on starting a family and embarking in the world of entrepreneurship. Christopher’s passion is now working to help others be the BEST version of themselves and helping them Lead others to the same!

To learn more about Christopher Hart or to get in touch with him regarding a coaching program you can email him at Chris@TransformingLivesCoaching.com