I spent the afternoon today at a seminar by the esteemed Brett Minchington on the topic of "Employer Branding". An interesting topic by all accounts. One of the questions raised was to define the word "Talent" in terms of each of the corporate participants own organisation. And as you would expect, all the right words and phrases trotted out namely: aspiration, engagement, encouragement, wanting to move to the next level, talent pool, high potential leaders identified and identified early, transparent, future proofing etc etc.

I however was not comfortable with any of the definitions raised, and that is predominately because each and every organisation has a wealth of talent at their finger tips, they've just never asked them! I am of the view that to be truly successful with business and people, find out what the people you have are really good at and build the roles around them, rather than the way it is currently, the role first and then the person.

Now I admit that there is most certainly a sophistication around that type of thinking that many will struggle with. And that the larger the organisation, the harder that it might be perceived to do; but doable it is. Where has the belief in people gone? Why do we have to be processed to an inch of our lives? We know what a particular organisation is built to do, but why do we have to be quite so presciptive? I would have no hesitation in believing that there would be enough Talent in any one of the organisations represented today to be able to do what is required (plus some!) and even way beyond that in terms of recognising and offering opportunity.

Its quite simple really... find out what each and every single one is good at and where their interests lie, bring the like minded folk together and give them an appropraite project to work on... the results will speak for themselves.

The bottom line is with flexibility being one of the key catch phrases, can you afford not to?

Link: http://www.fastcompany.com/resources/talent/heffernan/managing-generational-differences/052507.html

Margaret Heffernan talks about how to manage diverse teams by recognizing three fundamental needs that are common across employees of all generations.

Different generations exude various qualities and have differing needs in the work place. "Kids nowadays…" That phrase used to signal a long, weary complaint by parents about their wayward teenagers. But we're hearing it more and more outside the home nowadays-- in offices, in executive suites, even from managers who just can't fathom their new work force. They're hiring smart, young employees, providing them with opportunities to climb the corporate ladder, paying them well -- and how do they show their thanks? They announce that they're going trekking in Venezuela and they quit! Or they decide to go and work for a non-profit. Or, with next to no experience, they want to start their own business. What are they thinking?

Is this sounding familiar?