Just a few days ago, I read an article in The Star, dated 27 March 2012 which was written by Mr Roshan Thiran, a firm believer that talent is developed and not genetic, and
has made it his mission to build leaders in Malaysia through his social
enterprise, Leaderonomics. Thanks to him for this beautiful article.
This article really attract me and soon I believe, everybody in this world born with a talent, doesn't matter whatever talent it is, it might be administrative works, craft works, management, business or anything, but we never realise it until we ourself started to believe in it. For me, it's a long term process to really believe in our own talent where during that process we learn, we feel the pain, we struggle, experience and finally dare to take the risk (scary word for certain people, but thats the fact) to finally bring forward our talent which ultimately will bring us the success.
I really hope, this article written by Mr Roshan Thiran will be beneficial for all and do enjoy reading it. Its a very long article but I believe, in the end of it, you'll get the beautiful and meaningful message.
"SOON after India obtained independence, Prime Minister Jawahar Nehru chaired a meeting to discuss appointing a chief general for the Indian
Army. As key leaders discussed candidates and options, Nehru
disappointingly claimed: “I think we should appoint a British officer as
the general as we don't have anyone with enough experience to lead.”
Everybody nodded their heads in support and they started discussing
possible British candidates.
This same conversation Nehru had
with his leaders half a century ago is the same conversation taking
place in many global organisations today. There are always big vacancies
to fill yet no one experienced enough to fill them. And most leaders
look outside their organisation and even outside the country for that
perfect “experienced” person. Nehru's story though, ends differently.
One
of Nehru's officers abruptly interrupted Nehru as he started
contemplating which British “expat” to bring in: “I have one point, sir.
Can I interrupt?”
Nehru nodded: “Yes, gentleman. Speak.”
The
officer responded: “Sir, we don't have enough experience to lead a
nation, too, so shouldn't we appoint a British person as the first Prime
Minister of India too?”
The meeting hall suddenly went silent.
Nehru had an “aha” moment and later decided against appointing an
“experienced” general but a high potential local.
Almost every
business leader I meet complains to me about the same issue they don't
have enough good talented people to take their businesses to the next
level. According to McKinsey's “War for Talent” study, the most
important corporate resource over the next 20 years will be talent. It's
also the resource in shortest supply. In fact, the search for the best
and the brightest has become a constant, costly battle, with no end in
sight. Talent has become the prime source of competitive advantage.
Yet,
most of us unknowingly “kill” our talented people. How are we “killing”
our talent? By not allowing our people to fulfil their potential. And
we do this by curtailing their experiences.
Real learning
Talent
can only be developed through experiences and failure. You cannot send a
person to a three-day classroom programme on swimming and expect them
to become great swimmers. To learn to swim, you need to practice in the
pool. No matter how much you listen, read or watch about swimming,
without pool practice, you won't be able to swim. Real learning happens
when applied in the workplace. Nehru learnt to become Prime Minister of
India through the school of hard knocks and experience. Even if he was
sent to a “Prime Minister School” (if that existed!), his learning would
still ultimately come from doing the job. But when you block your
people from the roles they crave, because of their lack of experience,
we thereby ensure they never learn.
I recall going through
succession planning reviews with a number of senior business leaders in
my capacity as a HR leader. Each year, these business leaders would
highlight specific talent they had in their teams. But much to my
dismay, every single year, those highlighted were deemed “not ready” to
take on bigger roles, claiming they needed a few more years to become
“ready.” Four years later, the same excuses rang. The story never
changed or ever will. As long as we hoard our best talent and never
allow them to grow through new experiences, they will never be ready.
Thomas
Edison correctly stated that “genius is 1% inspiration and 99%
perspiration.” Based on research done by Anders Ericsson, we now know
just how much “perspiration” is required to become a genius apparently
three years at a job or 10,000 hours. Ericsson's research indicates that
if you are at your job for about two to three years (depending on how
many hours you put into your work), you will master the role. But once
you have mastered it, your learning subsides. And for you to keep
growing, you need to learn something new.
The most talented
people have figured this out and so if you do not give challenging work
to them, they leave. They may claim they leave for money or other
reasons, but in reality, if you truly give them challenging work which
forces them to learn, they hardly leave. (It may be also because they
are so busy being challenged, they have no time to do up their resume!)
However,
the less talented employees, who love being in their zone of comfort,
will stay on (maybe forever). The job becomes easy making it “wise” to
continue in this zone of comfort. The real talents, however, know that
if they don't keep getting new experiences and developing themselves,
they may never achieve their dream. And so they pack their bags to gain
new experiences, if you don't provide them.
Final thoughts
I
am not at all advocating that experience has no place in our business.
In fact, experience is necessary for big roles where failure should be
minimised. However, one cannot attain that experience unless someone
gives these people a break. We cannot gain experiences unless given a
shot at the big stage.
What I want to emphasise is that this
“talent disease” which is plaguing our nation can somewhat be curtailed
if we build in talent development as part of our business agenda. So,
what are some practical things you can do:
1. Demonstrate your
commitment to employees by preferring to develop from within versus
hiring from the outside. Give your “inexperienced” people a chance. Sure
they may take some time to “learn” the job, but in the long term, it
will be better for your business.
2. Keep pushing your people
outside their comfort zone. They need experiences. Give them projects
outside their silos. And when they fail (which they will!), help them
get up and learn from their failures
3. Empower your employees
make them partners in their own development. Make sure they understand
the importance of hard work, learning and pain.
As my three-year-old son always says: “No pain, no gain.” The same goes for all of us.
We
need to go through the pain and struggle of new experiences to keep
growing. And business leaders need to go through the pain of pushing
their best people out to new roles and to take chances on the less
experienced. Someone after all took a chance on you previously. Nehru
took a chance on his general. So can you."
Article picked from The Star (StarBiz Section), 27 March 2012.
kumaran nadaraja
No comments:
Post a Comment