Habits of Truly Great Talent

Want your manager to regard you as truly great talent? Try to follow these habits.

I'm interested in what sorts of employees make for good companies. I discuss this from time to time under the heading of "leadership" (blog thread, wiki page).

"Jim Collins: How great companies turn crisis into opportunity" (Fortune Magazine) touches on this topic.

How do you distinguish the truly great talent from the rest?

The right people don't need to be managed. The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you've made a hiring mistake.

The right people don't think they have a job: They have responsibilities. If I'm a climber, my job is not [just] to belay. My responsibility is that if we get in trouble, I don't let my partner down.

The right people do what they say they will do, which means being really careful about what they say they will do. It's key in difficult times. In difficult environments our results are our responsibility. People who take credit in good times and blame external forces in bad times do not deserve to lead. End of story.

I like this bit about committing to doing what you say you'll do, so being careful what you commit to. I've been in lots of project planning meetings where the project manager is putting together the schedule. (Putting aside how silly it is to try to schedule a year-long project on Day 1.) Often, a developer will give an honest estimate of how long a task will take, the PM will say that's too long and cut the estimate in half. Then the developer inevitably falls behind the unrealistic schedule and the PM spends the project treating the developer like he doesn't keep commitments, a bad situation for all concerned.

By contrast, I was in a planning meeting recently where the lead (playing PM) asked questions like "When do you think you can comfortably get this done?" Also, people gave status like, "I thought I'd be further along than I am so far, so looks like I'm going to need more time." The PM scheduled things accordingly, because arguing about it and belittling professionals doesn't change the reality of how long the effort takes to do properly.

Part of why the recent meeting worked well is because the participants are all skilled professionals and act like it. They don't goof off; they try to get their work done. If they get done early, they say so; if they're taking longer, that's because the work is proving to be more difficult than expected. Which gets to the other point made in the article, that the "right people" don't need to be managed, they meet their responsibilities, and not because it's their job but because they're professionals.

Nanobots

This reminds me of another article, "Away From the Desk...Always" in a special section of The Wall Street Journal.

Empowered by their mobile devices and remote access to the corporate network, nanobots [Nearly Autonomous, Not in the Office, doing Business in their Own Time Staff] put in long hours, sometimes seven days a week – just not at their desks. Different from mobile workers, who usually stay in close contact with managers, nanobots thrive on their driven natures and on the personal freedom with which they are entrusted.

Managed correctly, nanobots can be a huge asset to their company. Point them in the right direction and they will do their best to hit the target without further input.

. . .

For many nanobots, success is defined in highly personal terms, such as problems solved, or influence wielded as a consequence of personal credibility. To them, hours present in the office count for less than achievements. In many cases, they regard the quality of their intellectual input as their most important contribution to the company.

I think the WSJ's nanobots are Jim Collins' right people. The focus with nanobots is that they use mobile technology to work independently, out of the office, which is not Collins' focus. But in both cases, the workers are highly independent who focus on achieving goals more than on working enough hours, typical hours, or following rigid processes. This is what Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales calls treating employees like volunteers, that companies should hire dedicated individuals who want to be successful and therefore will manage themselves to do so.

What This Means to You

Like I've said before, you should strive to be this sort of volunteer employee, one of the right people, a nanobot (whether or not you're mobile). Not only are you doing your job, but you're doing so more effectively and with less overhead, which can only make you more valuable to you employer.