Search no more. The real talent is on the inside.
Neil George
Managing Director. Dad. Harper Collins Author. Football, health, travel, art and wine enthusiast. Leading positive change for People, Organisations and Brands across Global FMCG corporations for close to three decades.
"Call the Headhunter". "Spread the word". "We are hiring". "Scout the market for the best talent". We have all heard these familiar terms when we have a vacant spot in our firms. After having spent twenty one years in Consumer Goods' marketing, I have come to the simple conclusion - The real super stars are inside your own firm. You just have to look and ask around. There is more amazing talent in your firm than you think you have.
All this dawned on me earlier this week. I had just arrived at work a bit earlier than my usual start time at the office. Passed the long corridor to my workplace. I looked around and spotted the two other early starters (lets just call them Rajiv and Anand) at the office. I broke the early morning corporate silence by wishing both of them a loud "Good Morning". Instead of heading to my office, I took a detour to Rajiv and shook his hands.
"I often see you in the office, but never came by to see what you really do", I started the conversation.
Rajiv, a bit startled at seeing the big boss by his side, muttered "I manage the artworks for the sales and marketing teams here. Would you like to see some of my work".
Me - "Really. I always thought we got the designs for our point of sales material from an outside agency. I have seen some outstanding in-store visuals in my past few store checks. Pretty cool stuff".
Rajiv then went on to open up his computer and show off some of the amazing work he had designed over the past few months. His pride showed off on his gleaming smile.
I was amazed to see what he had been creating. After viewing a few more visuals, I shook hands with Rajiv, thanked him and proceeded to start my day.
As I sat on my desk, it dawned on me that I had never spent time with this amazing gem of a resource at work while I had taken huge efforts to meet all my external agencies in my first few months at the new workplace. I felt terrible as I thought to myself. Next time I search for the perfect successor in Finance, fill a vacancy in marketing or identify the next person to complete an important assignment - look no more. The perfect talent - lies not on the outside. But on the inside. All you have to do is look !!
Keen to hear your feedback.
@omnikarma #btperfectbeast www.omnikarma.blogspot.com
Thanks Neil for sharing your well articulated thoughts. Connecting with internal talent is always the best way to understand them well also it helps in chalking out their career path. This in-turn results in minimizing the attrition. But the biggest impact comes to the Headhunters like us.
Managing Director at Accenture I Data and AI Practice Leader I LinkedIn Top Consulting Voice I Visiting professor and industry advisor (Views expressed are personal)
6 年I cannot agree more...I have always been a strong believer in promoting within too and you seem to be walking the talk, need more senior leaders like you
Regional Head - BA Channel
7 年Proud to be a part of Nivea Family where leaders believe that our internal resources are capable of doing ....
... viva la vida!
7 年... also talk to your line managers and ask for "silent talent" in their teams and how to develop them ...
Marketing
7 年couldn't agree more Neil. Like in many other cases, the solution more often than not lies inside. Also the need to train someone coming from outside ensures there is a delay in getting the optimum level of output from the new person joining in versus someone who would have already known her / his way around the organisation. Another takeout from the anecdote shared by you, I have often seen that when good work happens , the silent cross functional team members get ignored in getting recognition- with only the flashy external agencies getting all the plaudits.