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There is endless talk in human resources departments and boardrooms about attracting and retaining talent. Conventional wisdom has it that having exceptional performers on board is a guarantee of success for an organization. The rub is that after luring great workforce to join your team, you are tasked with managing it in such a way that their fantastic individual abilities add up to something meaningful. In practice, it can be quite a difficult puzzle to put together and professional talent in action seems to be very different from professional talent on paper or in job interviews. In fact, a lot of employers and managers, despite declaring otherwise, are deeply suspicious and skeptical when they have an overachiever on their team and come to view them as a nuisance, rather than an asset. It is good to know why as it can help formulate some sort of remedy for this highly bizarre situation.
We might love exceptions when they are away from us, but in our immediate environment we tend to exhibit a lot of tall poppy syndrome, often unconsciously. When somebody or something stands out, for example by having a perfect feel for customer service or inexplicable acumen for selling things, the general reaction is to try to bring it back to norm, rather than support it. Arguably, some societies are more ruthless than others in carrying the procedure out, but it does inhere in most human beings. If you want to bring out the best in people, especially those who are much better than you in something, you have to learn to tone this instinct down. The best managers do not cut down everybody down to the same size.
This fear of somebody standing out is connected with a more individual mechanism of psychology that is popularly known as self-confidence. Managers who are surrounded by top talent can feel overshadowed because their own ego suffers against the backdrop of their excellence. This kind of mentality quickly undermines their self-assurance and might lead to trying to put limitations on others so that they do not come to the forefront. As one keynote speaker said at a conference about managing talent, this is a dead end mindset. It contradicts the main responsibility of a manager, which is to draw on team members’ strengths for the good of the company.
Finally, there is the issue of not being able to imagine what blocking talent can mean in practice for a company. The consequences can indeed be dire as a lot of energy gets wasted. Losses for the company are not only greater than they could have been with better talent management, but also gradual outflow of great performers who realize there is no place for their engagement. Try to find ways to channel your employees' originality. It can result in an innovation for a webcam that your company produces or an inventive customer service feature that can give you competitive advantage over others. Whatever business you are in, do not limit yourself to well-known models – trust your top performers.
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