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Here is not a bad article from HBR about “unleashing overlooked talent,” and I’ll just direct you to the part that matters before we get into this more deeply:
Leaders everywhere are desperate for new insights, new products, new sources of energy and creativity. One way to find those things is to embrace new ideas about who gets to contribute and how, whether they are inside or outside the organization. The talents and passions of your colleagues and customers are too valuable to waste.
I think all that is largely true and I don’t think many people would disagree with it. Right? OK. Let’s move on.
Here is the “cool anecdote” section of the article, which all business journalism needs to have. The problem with “cool anecdotes” is that oftentimes it allows executives to dismiss an idea or concept by simply saying, “Well, that’s not my vertical.” Sad, but true. Anyway, this is cool:
Now, try to imagine an executive in a company doing that. He would probably set himself on fire before he let security guards do anything except the $14.55/hour he was paying them to do, i.e. “Don’t let anyone seemingly random inside our fortress here.”
So the first question you need to ask is: why? Why does talent get ignored?
Yes, WHY does talent get ignored?
Let’s run through the key reasons:
- Most managers are either actually busy or constantly tell themselves (and everyone in earshot) how busy they are, with usually “busy” supposedly meaning “productive” (it does not, truly) and usually “busy” also meaning “I get a lot of email, most of which I could delete, but I don’t delete it so I can complain about the volume of email.” But when you’re perceived as very busy, you can get out of everything by saying how busy you are — and that means you don’t have to notice quality people, talent, and skill sets right in front of your nose. You just say “It’s the busy season!” or “Everything is so crazy right now!” and you’re good. That allows you to not notice talent.
- Everything about white-collar work is…
