Need Talent for Your Organization? Change Where You Look for It.

A long time ago I was a backpacker… It was so long ago that we used topographical maps, not GPS. (Now I prefer a very nice hotel with a restaurant, a shaded area near a pool, and, of course, a cold Diet Coke.) One time, I was backpacking with friends in the Delaware Water Gap which is home to Sunfish Pond. This 44-acre pond is beautiful and looked like it was ready to be fished. One of my friends fished for a few hours but didn’t catch anything. That’s when we learned from a passing hiker that the pond is basically sterile – very few fish live in it due to its acidic nature. In other words, if you want to catch fish, you need to change where you are looking for them.

The same thing is true when looking for human capital – where you look and how you look matters. If your organization requires a regular supply of talent, take a careful look at where you are fishing and consider a different approach. Here are 4 ways to think differently about your talent needs.

1. Look at who is already on your team.

How did one person become CEO of a company with $242 billion in revenue, 600 US stores, and 128 million members throughout the world? By driving a forklift. For over 40 years, Ron Vachris worked his way up in Costco going from a forklift driver all the way to CEO.

Businesses and nonprofits often look for college graduates with MBAs to fill management positions. And while that is one place to look, it isn’t the only place. There is often talent standing in front of us, but we do not see the person’s competencies and innate skills because we are blinded by the fact that they do not fit the criteria we have in our minds. Even if that criteria has no proven correlation to success.

Over the years, I have worked with a multitude of successful leaders and owners who did not align with specific criteria including the “right age,” “college degree,” “specific major,” or “professional experience.” Talent is all around us, we just need to look for it from a different perspective.

2. Don’t allow stereotypes to cause you to miss out on high-potential people.

Elijah Hogan was a 19-year-old young man from New Orleans. He didn’t have a dad, lost his mom when he was 12, and he was homeless. Yet, he graduated as the valedictorian of his high school class with a 3.93 GPA. Stereotypes can cause us to miss out on high-potential talent. Labels can blind us to the real potential in people. Jesus reminded some of those who surrounded him to stop judging by appearance and instead to judge correctly.

I know of a guy who barely passed 8th grade Spanish, hated high school (except for gym class and shop class), and testing in high school said he would make a good lumberjack. He never took his SATs because he never planned to go to college, yet, years later, he has master’s and Ph.D. degrees. How crazy is that! And yes – that was me. While I was always a very hard worker and liked work, I would never have been the LinkedIn post for academic and intellectual achievement.

Elijah attributed his success to his case manager at the homeless shelter where he lived saying, “She helped me get through it even when I was showing a lack of faith in myself. She’s been there no matter what.” As leaders, we would be wise to look past the stereotypes and look deeper for the real potential that people may possess.

3. Take some risks.

Investors take a risk when putting money into a start-up business. Consider the famed Shark Tank investors who select which ideas and people they want to take risks on even though they do not always get it right. One product called the “Breathometer” claimed to measure blood alcohol levels. All five sharks believed in it and made a combined investment of $1 million, but the product was a dud, and the government mandated a refund to consumers who bought it.

In this case, the investors made a bad bet. But far more of their investment gambles succeed. Leaders also need to take some risks regarding their bets on human capital. Leaders should not let a few failed hiring gambles hinder them from having the courage to still take risks. Over all my years leading different organizations, I have taken risks in hiring with many successes as well as some failures. And in the past, people took that same risk on me.

Leaders of professional sports teams, law firms, medical practices, engineering firms, banks, social service agencies, and churches all make a gamble on those they hire. Just because a candidate for a job does not meet all of the criteria on the job profile does not mean that they cannot be the next star of your team.

4. Think differently - education is bigger than college.

Parking garages have their gates. Clubs have their bouncers. Medicine and law have their licensure. And computers have their passcodes. These are examples of something or someone who controls who gets in or has access. For at least the last 75 years, higher education has become a gatekeeper to many careers. No college degree – no access. Other careers such as the trades (think HVAC, electrician, plumbing) have training that specifically aligns with the work someone will do. And it is done either at a fraction of the cost or you get paid while learning and working. This is in contrast to spending $150,000 for a degree that may include career-equipping classes such as Lawn Games, Spongebobology, The #selfie, UFO in American Society, and Advanced Hand Puppet Theatre.

I remember interviewing a young person who was working in a retail store but had a degree in Art History which she was still paying off. I asked her, “Did anyone ever mention to you that there aren’t a lot of jobs in that field?” She said, “No, but I wish they had!” Another time, I was working with the owner of a successful business that moved extremely large pieces of equipment (called rigging). The things they moved were huge! I asked him if he had a degree in engineering, assuming so since how else could someone learn how to do this? He said no, he learned it years ago by starting small when he and his dad were asked to help another business move equipment. And his business grew from there!

I am a big believer in continual learning, and I taught at a college for many years. But, when looking for human talent, there is seldom a direct correlation between higher education credentials and potential for success. Colleges would be wise to look more closely at what employers need and less at maintaining the present model of education which hasn’t changed much in decades and has grown exponentially in both costs and debt. And organizational leaders may want to think about what kind of learner someone is, not just what kind of degree they have.

Contact us to learn more about how you can build a culture that will attract top talent.

Jay Desko is the President & CEO of The Center Consulting Group and brings experience in the areas of organizational assessment, leadership coaching, decision-making, and strategic questioning. Jay’s degrees include an M.Ed. in Instructional Systems Design from Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Leadership from The Union Institute.