How To Attract And Hire Incredible Talent⁠

Originally published May. 2, 2014 on Forbes.

If talent is everything, that leads to an obvious question: how do you attract the best talent?

You could offer to pay them what they are worth - or a bit more - but most companies do not have unlimited funds to pour into compensation.

A far better strategy is to allow people to actually use their talent.

Here's what happens far too often in business. A management team decides that a job candidate has "incredible talent". They need to hire him or her. But, once recruited, that person does not receive the freedom to fully use their talent. Instead, they are forced to fit into an existing system, an existing way of doing business, or an existing political situation.

Lest you think I'm talking only about recruiting a CEO for a leading public company, I'm talking about the challenge that all organizations face: small retail stores, aggressive VC-funded startups, well-established manufacturing firms, and even sports teams.

In professional sports, for example, owners often hire talented managers only to limit his powers. For ego or other reasons, the owner limits the manager's ability to pick his team or to decide who plays. This is why great managers often have mediocre results: they never get to fully use the talents that got them the job.

Money is a powerful incentive, yes, but success and meaning are even more powerful. If you give a talented person the opportunity and resources to do what they were born to do, they will do everything in their power to join your organization. The more freedom you give them, the more attractive your offer.

Here's the biggest challenge of all: you can't offer them the same job they already have.

If you want to steal a great salesperson, you won't be able to attract them by offering them a comparable sales job. The same goes for managers, programmers, designers and finance professionals.

Instead, you have to know that person well enough to understand what they really, truly want to do. Instead of knowing what they've done, you have to unearth what they aspire to do.

Like most smart moves, this one requires work and persistence. It's harder to understand a person's potential than their past, but human potential is the greatest treasure of all. Become an organization that understands and nurtures human potential.

Some years back, I was fortunate to be one of the original partners at a consulting and training firm called Peppers and Rogers Group. We grew from ten to 150 employees in three years. During this period, we hired a lot of people and gave them the opportunity to do what they were born to do. I hired a trainer and vastly expanded her role. I hired managers and gave them the opportunity to become paid speakers to leading executives. We took consultants who had been working with middle managers, and gave them access to CEOs and the founders of dynamic startups.

Not every hire worked out. But the ones that did, worked out in a spectacular fashion.

Most of us have the ability to do far more than we imagine, and certainly far more than our existing "boss" imagines. If you want to attract incredible talent, believe in people more than their current supervisor does. Have the imagination to recognize other people's potential. Bring out the very best in others.

I am Bruce Kasanoff, an executive coach who can help you get what you want. Book a one-hour call with me and I’ll prove it.

Why It Is So Hard To Bring Out Talent In Others⁠

Originally published Mar. 3, 2014 on Forbes.com

Great managers bring ordinary people together to accomplish extraordinary things. If your strategy for success is to build a "dream team" of all-stars, you are setting yourself - and your company - up for disappointment.

It is no easy task to bring out the best in other people. Human nature makes it extremely difficult for most of us to do this. It is tempting to hire the people you like best, to like the people who are most impressed with your ideas, and to promote the people who are easiest for you to manage.

In other words, human nature explains why so many business teams are ineffective, disorganized, and frustrated. We all have egos, and ego is like a voice whispering in your ear to reward the people who make you feel good. The problem is that the center of a great team is not your ego, but a common purpose.

To rise to the level of a great manager, you must first tackle your own limitations...

To offer a personal example, I'm an intuitive person, and sometimes unearth an answer while others are still eager to discuss numerous possibilities. The flip side of this tendency is that I can be impatient with "overly" detail-oriented people, and I abhor long meetings.

To be clear, these are biases. They are weaknesses.

Over time, I've learned that the more complex a problem, the more important it is to include detail-oriented people on a team. It also becomes important to collect a diverse group of people who look at the situation through different mental models.

Does any of this sound familiar? If you think you lack biases, you aren't being honest with yourself. Everyone has them; the trick is to not allow yourself to be handicapped by yours.

Pay attention

To bring out the best in others, you must learn to listen to the things you don't want to hear...

• The people who disagree with your own opinions

• The people who love the sound of their own voices, but who actually say things of value

• The people who are too shy or nervous or disenchanted to participate

• The people who think this whole process is a waste of time... and just might be right

A few people are innately talented at listening. Most of us are not. It is hard work to learn to pay attention, but you will never be a great manager unless you learn to pay attention.

Work behind the scenes

In our social media age, CEOs and entrepreneurs often take on the role of rock stars; they hog the press, and take too much credit.

A great leader does the opposite... she or he often works behind the scenes to empower others, to develop their talents, and to boost their careers.

Think of it this way: you are paid to produce certain results, not to deceive yourself that you walk on water. If successful, you will make things happen, and be handsomely rewarded for doing so. Do you really need applause for every smart move you make?

Be open-minded. Be present. Be humble.

Add it all up, and this simple formula is deceptively simple to execute. The truth is, it is not hard to figure out how to bring out the talent in others. It is just hard to be a big enough person to do it.

Go ahead... give it a shot.