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Spotting Talent


From time to time I have come across someone who has impressed me unconditionally. Frequently, but not exclusively, they have been very young so part of their impact has been their inate level of capability, maturity and sophistication - they have, after all, not had time to learn it.

One of my most memorable 'talent spots' was a 16 year old doing work experience with BA. I was on the departure side of Terminal 4 and lots of flights had been cancelled and there was, as always seems to be the case, a total absence of infomation. I went to the infomation desk to see if I could get any information (naive, I know) and discovered that the desk was totally unattended apart from this 16 year old. I watched him for ages and he was quite amazing. He fielded questions including many in languages he did not speak and from people who did not speak English. He maintaind his cool and was incredibly professional. The only thing he could not do was look up some of the systems which he explained very politely and asked people to wait for a BA customer service person to return to the desk. Over the course of the two hours or so I chatted a bit from time to time when the crowds allowed it - which is how I discovered that he was on his last day of a one week of work experience and his father (also worked for BA) was going to collect him at 6.00 to go home. Needless to say he had not been impressed by his experience. I however, was totally impressed, gave him my business card and told him to call me if he every wanted a job in the future. Had he not been planning to go to University I would have produced a contract on my laptop as I waited.

Working as an HR Head for a large multinational did mean that whenever and wherever I spotted talent I could 'offer it a job'. And I quite frequently did this. Reflecting on this my first thoughts were that this was one of the down sides of not being in such a job, not having a large talent hungry organisation around me who could scoop up the people as I spotted them.

It does, not, however, need to be so and this is where the real power of networking kicks in. You may not be able to offer them a job but I am sure you know someone who can, indeed someone who should.

Networking has become a buzz word these days. It is the mantra of many an independent consultant. I sometimes worry about the 'cliqueyness' of it; and it sometimes has a sort of 'glad handing, false bonhomie' aura. Yet true networking is indubitably a good thing - the selfless sharing of opportunities and friendship, and the giving of unconditional help. Someone once said to me that if you view the world as one of limitless opportunity you do not mind sharing the opportunity you have right in front of you - and that in order to be a good networker you need to maintain this view. This is good advice. It makes sense - if all networkers are selflessly thinking of others; others are selflessly thinking of them which means they do not need to think of themselves.

Which takes us back to talent. Let's assume for the moment we are motivated by the positive side of good networking. We still have to manage the issue of spotting talent (never an easy thing) and managing the less talented. Honest feedback is hard enough to engender in a well organised corporate environment with systems, facilitators and hierarchy. In the world of networking is it possible to give feedback to others and thus help them develop? or does this upset the fragile, frequently virtual, relationships that we build in our relentless search for referrals.

Published by: Lisette on 01/01/2009 - Add a comment

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