How Attitude Animates Aptitude
MINDSET MATTERS
“Going forward, organizations should do a better job of matching people's skills to jobs or, ideally, to projects and opportunities. Ultimately, the organization will need to use the composite skills data of its team members to devise an entirely new talent process mechanism.”
-It's About to Happen: The Shift From Jobs To Skills-Based Organizations, Dan Pontefract?
This quote captures one of the most prevalent conversations currently circulating among the talent management community. As a talent and career management professional myself, I too am convinced that we need to better understand how to utilize employee skills across the organization. In fact, we need to embed skills at the very center of our talent strategies – strategies that will enable us to match employees’ skills, abilities and interests to the tasks, projects and dare I say “gigs” they take on. So, I believe all of it, but I have one question:?
Are We Forgetting Something??
With all the recent hub-bub around the design of skill-based organizations, it is tempting for talent leaders to assume that skillsets are the key to building a successful talent strategy. But are they enough???
Skillsets are collections of knowledge, experience and abilities that equip employees to perform certain tasks or jobs. They include business acumen, data analysis, project management, computer programming, etc., along with soft skills like communication, flexibility and teamwork. Such skillsets determine what an employee is able to do. But what else is needed to be successful? The answer is what I call “employee mindset.”?
A mindset is that underlying attitude that shapes the way employees approach their work.? As such, mindsets help determine success or failure because they impact how an employee thinks, feels and behaves while performing a given task or job. Think about it. Talent leaders will identify and acquire employee skillsets every day. They will then invest in upskilling or reskilling them. But while it’s undeniable that these are critical management activities, I believe it would be equally beneficial to seek out the right employee “mindsets” as well.?
For example, when a manager asks a recruiter to “find the most highly-skilled software developer in the country,” they have probably agreed upon the necessary skillset they are looking for -- Computer Programming and Coding, Object-Oriented Design (OOD), Software Testing and Debugging, etc. But what are the odds of actually landing the best candidate if they don’t also require patience, perseverance and openness to experimentation and learning??
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Likewise, when talent leaders prepare an employee to take on a new Marketing gig, they are likely to stress skills like project management and sales data analysis. But how much more successful could the employee be if the manager also stressed the importance of curiosity and imagination??
Experience has shown me that the mindsets employees or candidates bring to a job are at least as important as their skillsets. This is because mindsets can enhance or minimize the power of a skillset. It is the employee’s mindset that will determine whether they can see the possibilities in a task or job, can deal with its challenges, and can bounce back from its disappointments -- or not.?
Whether identifying job requirements for an open position or coaching an employee on the skills necessary to take on a new task, the best talent leaders will also consider which mindsets will be important to make the skillset fully come alive. The best talent leaders won’t stop with asking, “Which of your skills will be most important in this job?” The best talent leaders will ask, “What attitudes, beliefs or assumptions must you bring to this job in order to be successful?” And the conversation that ensues can reveal the difference between the change manager candidate who is business-biased and the one who is simply a cage-rattler; between the experienced software developer who knows how to root out a bug and the creative one who consistently comes up with highly innovative technical workarounds; between the project manager with all the answers and the one who is curious enough to ask the right questions.?
Yes, “Going forward, organizations should do a better job of matching people's skills to jobs or, ideally, to projects and opportunities.” Yes, Dan Pontefract was right. But, so was Zig Ziglar:?
“It is your attitude, more than your aptitude, that will determine your altitude.”
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