While we make our living by assisting our clients through the murky waters of predicting a candidate's future performance, we've learned an important lesson: there are always exceptions to every sourcing profile, pre-screening process, and well-intentioned interview. And these exceptions come in every shape and size–good, bad or indifferent. 
So, if you can't always predict who is going to be successful, what can you, as a manager, do to foster talent? Margaret Heffernan, an entrepreneur and author, explains how she was able to create an environment where those whom she selected to work for her were able to thrive.
Margaret explains that it wasn’t so much her innate ability to see and select talent, but rather her ability to create the conditions in which her staff could grow. So what were those conditions?
An open atmosphere. Every team Margaret ever ran had been profoundly democratic—which is to say that any good idea got attention. She never cared about status, except in disliking those who did. She took in good ideas from anywhere for anything…from making the lunch room more pleasant to improving the core technology. Ideas didn't have to fight their way through a structure. They could be blurted out.
Extravagant diversity. It wasn't just that they employed Russians, Taiwanese, Indians, Americans, Brits, and Italians. Their youngest employee was eighteen and the oldest was 68. They'd worked in different countries, states and industries. Some demonstrated enormous emotional intelligence; some had virtually none.
Time didn't matter. She never cared when the work got done—as long as it did get done and in a way that didn’t cause co-workers undue inconvenience. Hours are not what count; productivity is. The same applied to maternity, paternity, and family leave. Individuals figured out what worked for them, and for their families—and that worked for the business. Too many companies seem to feel they have to fight for priority over family life and in that jealous feud, vast amounts of energy and goodwill are dissipated.
Stretch goals were just the start. Almost everything her team tackled was hard. And if they cracked it, work got harder. They liked big challenges and cheered anyone who met them. People coming in for interviews witnessed that the company was fun, but not an easy option.
Sure, you can see great potential and talent as you have candidates sit before you during interviews, but even the most talented people need an environment where they can grow. This is not only true for hiring, but most certainly for retention. One of our tenets is that people look less at compensation in career choices and more at where they feel they will fit and flourish. Creating and showcasing that environment will draw talent to you, and keep it there.
Inevitably, you will hire a few exceptionally creative individuals who may then attract others like themselves. “But none of that will matter if the work itself isn’t joyful and hard. It may sound like a contradiction, but doing great work is hard—that's why great people love it.”
Editor's Note: Lee Gray is the Senior Account Manager at Tidemark Inc. Lee is a guest contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.
