terrains of veiled assets

We are always looking for more. The next or newest talent. Seeking outside of our Companies to look for the greatest People to add to our Teams. Those great People are out there. Once we have them though, what do we really do with them? What mould do we squish them into? 

What if those great People were already under our nose? What if it was a matter of moving the People we have, out of the moulds we crammed them into? What if we actually let the People we already hired flourish?
Consider how much more Value those same People could add to our Companies. 
It is like not checking the pantry before you got to the Store. You come home and realise that you already had 10 cans of corn in there! 

Examine how you employed the People within your Company. 
What process they went through? 
How you determined what Value they could bring and what Value you could offer in return?
What were the parameters that surrounded that Value? 
Did you ask them about their Talents? Their Skills. What is important to them. What ideas they have? 
How they could contribute what they do well to enrich themselves and the Company?
At what point did your Company's Goals intersect with theirs? How and why they have chosen to come work with you?
Would they be a Customer? 
Did you ask these kind of questions. Or did you employ people simply to fulfil the outline of a role and have no idea how much they could contribute to the Company's success?

Discovering the treasures that we have within our Companies, is not only an effective way of elevating our ability to succeed. It is an approach to elevate the way in which our People can succeed. This is the epitome of investing in our own Companies. There are millions of dollars invested in seeking talent from outside of Companies every year. The cost of cultivating existing Talent is much less and the pay off far greater. If you are a into placing bets, where would you rather put your money? On your horse or someone else's? 

The modern Company does more hiring than those historically. Overlooking internal assets to fill openings. To alleviate pressures that the very structure of our business has instigated to begin with. Employing People to merely fill job descriptions, not be their best selves. They may be more than capable of fulfilling those requirements, is the position really somewhere they could shine? 
There is always that one puzzle piece that could work in that spot early on and then as the picture comes more into focus. That piece throws the whole thing off.

Data demonstrates that most People hired aren't looking for positions. More often than not these hiring processes  are based on Salary, Compensation Negotiations or removing effective People from Competitor Markets. Passive Job Seekers are less engaged in investing themselves into Companies, than Active Job Seekers are. Active Job Seekers are less invested again than the People you already employ. 
If our current people aren't invested to that level, then as Companies we need to start asking ourselves why that is? And how we got there?

Am I making you think yet? 

This revolving door game decreases our retention ability. It incites People to be jumping about between Companies, looking for the best contract. Serving no purpose to themselves or the Companies they work for. Treating People in this way, isn't it natural that they will always be looking for greener grass somewhere else? 

As Companies we have the ability to create the mould for our Companies as we see fit. 
The models, structures and hierarchy conformity currently utilise has alternatives. Organisations can exponentially benefit from creating models around the talent of their People. 

An old adage of Business is we manage what we measure. Queue the dust from the pages of that encyclopedia. Cough.
What is your KPI or measurement capability for People's Skills? That is saying that you create an environment that allows them to utilise their very best Skills. We establish measurements for Sales, Margins, processing Metrics, the list could go on. We do not measure how an individual's strengths translate. And that is usually because they are not in a Role that highlights them. In most instances we wouldn't even know what they were. People are employed to fill that Job Description and meet the Metric Measurements pertaining to it. And it is quite literally in vain. For the purpose of making spreadsheets read like we want the to. This can be short lived or it can be limiting the height of success we actually have the potential to achieve. Either way it looks pretty in the mirror, but isn't what great Businesses can be made of.

I met this woman once. She was working for an International Company. When I met her, she was part of the Customer Service Team. Managing the daily operations for an Account Base and excelled. She certainly deserved to advance her Career. As per a conforming Company model. The only  natural progression of her Career was to move into Sales. 
This concerned me from the beginning. She was brilliant and had an array of skills. Yet none of those strengths lent to the world of Sales. What a waste.
I spoke with her a few months into her new Role. She was finding meeting the Role requirements difficult. The Role didn't lend to her strengths. Allowed no room for her to really use them. Despite the fact that her Account Portfolio mainly comprised of Clients she had worked with in her Customer Service Role. 
Here are the limited options in a standard Company Structure;

• Regress to her Customer Service Role
• Remain in Sales until she is burnt out. The confidence in her ability is shot and the Company was hurting from the position being unsuccessful

Neither of those options are in the best interest of her Career, herself or the Company's. 
So me and my big mouth, suggested a third more unconventional option. Design her own Role and present a Proposal outlining the Value that Role and her Strengths, could create for the Company's advancement. 

I wasn't sure she would do it. Going against the status quo takes some doing. I would know, I tend to make a habit of it, laughs. I also couldn't assure her that the Company would be open to such a Proposal. All we can do is stand up and ask. Her other options sounded unappealing for everyone involved.
Her Proposal paid dividends in full. For both her, the Company and the Team she integrated with. Elevation in a domino affect, from naturally capitalising on her Skills. 
From a Company point of view, there was little cost involved in facilitating an unusual position. The pay off included Business Growth and retention of a very talented Person. High fives all around. 

Stunting Ambition and Skill is from the era of the Industrial Revolutionary. When it was necessary. We as People are evolving. So too can our Companies. Sustainability is rooted in learning and transforming. Rather than sticking to the tried and tested. 

Ask the forward thinking questions of the People that have been in the trenches, who know the gears of the business. Allow them to use their talents to drive the future. 

I am an advocate for hiring slowly. If we do there will be no need to fire fast. We will have the right People, contributing their Skills to our Companies in the way that pays the highest dividends to us all. Improving Retention, performance and results. 

To do this successfully, ask where your Companies can eliminate the squishy feeling around their Culture, Values and Goals. Then invest in first understanding it. Be able to clearly communicate it and you will find the synergy that is created when People can invest in it too. 
Expand your pool of success with the ripples already made from within it.