TALENT DEMANDS TALENT

When you know what you are looking for, the chances of finding it are high.

Companies and entrepreneurs look for talented members for their businesses. But talent is not a profile.

However, the etymology of the word can shed light on it: From the Latin "talentum" and the Greek "tálanton" this word designated, in both languages, a certain gold coin. It is likely, then, that currently, this word is used to designate people who multiply what they have and what is given to them. From there comes the consideration of talent as a precious gift that can enrich any group.

In the organizational context, we can infer that talented people are the best users of the resources and authority, conferred by the company or, those who are rewarded with power for their important contributions, regardless of the "size" of the company.

People can be called talented when generating value which generates profits and, much more.

But organizational culture promotes or limits, as the case may be, the possibility of generating value and attracting talent.

In my experience, to promote the generation of value and attract talented people, organizational culture must have three main pillars: leadership, an adequate organizational structure aligned with the strategy, and dialogue as a tool and pillar of organizational communication.

When this dialogue occurs based on the exercise of our rights and with respect for the rights of others, innovation arises. When we exchange messages with others, considering that everyone is equally respectable as ourselves, the dialogue does its job, and, the organization, becomes flexible because it knows how to listen and creates a willingness to change and grow.

Organizations, like people, grow when they understand the historical context in which they operate and when they know how to listen.

However, today many of the pyramidal organizational charts of companies seem frozen in time and also untouchable; In these times, this pharaonic pyramidal "formation", this organization structure, authority, and command requires innovation, mobility, and flexibility because the market is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous and requires imagination to consolidate other forms of work organization, authority and power.

I reiterate that creating value also depends on the structure, alignment, or organizational chart; this can help the recruiter define how a talented worker could generate value and thus find the person needed.

By contextualizing our reality, making a diagnosis of our position in the market, and knowing the vision and strategy of the organization, we can look for talented people who can, in this circumstance, in this particular organization, with this unique culture and this specific organizational chart, add value.

The good attitude of workers is not enough: companies are a system with myths, rituals, policies, beliefs, and practices that facilitate or hinder staff performance. Organizations are SYSTEMS in action.

Thinking strategically is an intrinsic function of the Senior Management of any company, but is it a fact that many of them are immersed in the most operational tasks such as answering emails, according to Harvard, reports after conducting a study among thousands of senior managers.

Middle Management then works based on the "past" because no one is guiding them with a powerful and inspiring vision and perhaps no one is giving updated signals to innovate. This brings fatal consequences and distorted observations: There are not enough talents they say..., or maybe there are no organizations in which the talented want and can add value...

Today, profits and competitiveness continue to be sought by lowering “costs”, and offering “low salaries” when it is common knowledge that paying adequate salaries does not cause unemployment and helps with permanence, loyalty, and competitiveness.

But company managers are busy with a task as minimal as answering emails and middle management walks like a hamster spinning the wheel perpetuating old and 20th-century practices.

In 2022, productivity was 26.6% higher than in 2000. Productivity has increased due to access to education, technology, and other factors, however, the way of organizing a company continues with obsolete models, which replicate social models, that have nothing to do with democratic life and the technological society in which we work.

Today, AI is used without having previously defined what and when it should be used and, without training it, so it can not serve our purposes effectively and efficiently.

To properly use AI and build a better future, talent is needed. The available talent requires a company formed according to the reality of the third decade of the 21st century and, talent demands to be listened to, leaders with vision and a company with a structure away from obsolete pyramidal forms, and rigid friends of bureaucracy. They do not need a more Kafkaesque environment.

Senior Management has the possibility, power, and authority to change the structure and adapt it to the new reality, to attract and grow with talents. Senior Management has the possibility, power, and authority to change the structure and, adapt it to the new reality, to attract and grow with talents. Will they do it?