Better Boss & Brighter Future
I’ve started a new book entitled, “Talent Magnet: How to Attract and Keep the Best People” by Mark Miller. The premise of the book is about how the talent within an organization determines whether a company is going to win or lose. True talent is rarely looking for a new opportunity – they will nearly always already have a professional home that satisfies them, at the very least, for the moment. It is really difficult to just put a job description out on the job boards and expect true talent to come to you on their own. In this book, the author strives to present solutions on how to create an organization where talent is standing in line to join your team.
So far in the book, the author has identified two things that are slightly obvious, but yet critical, for when you are setting the table to attract talent into your organization.
1. Top talent wants a “better boss.” Talent understands that the future of their career and the future of the organization is determined by the leadership. The leader leads the company AND the individuals. Your company must be very good and clear about telling an attractive and compelling story of the leader who is driving the company. The company also must be sure that the hiring manager can sell themselves well enough so that the recruit can visualize the person they could be working for as an individual who is going to set a high standard and make them better professionally and personally.
2. Top talent wants a “brighter future.” The author defines a “brighter future” as one in which the talent will be refined both professionally and personally within the company they join. It is not enough just to make an engineer a better engineer. You have the responsibility of not only improving their professional skills, but furthermore teaching them how to lead in their role, more than just as an individual producer. You have the responsibility to grow that person’s life skills and grow them as a better individual person.
Leaders make their company go or stop – all the way down to the talent recruiting front. If you have weak leaders on your team, or if you are not leading the team to your full potential yourself, your company will be penalized for it. It is not enough to just lead your company production to success. That, of course, is an obvious requirement of leadership and your top focus; but as you grow your company, you must pour into your people, too. You must grow them professionally AND grow them personally. Make sure you are doing that just as much as you do anything else.
On this point, I have put together some resource guides on some of my top leadership principles.