“Overwhelm a problem with talented people” –Rob Morris
Leaders that are outstanding at recruiting, developing, retaining and launching new leaders have a different mindset than those who don’t. Spend ten minutes with one of these leaders and you will quickly see, they simply think differently than most of their contemporaries. Do you want different results? Think different thoughts.
A recent talent summit I got to spend time with three phenomenal leaders who have this growing others mindset in buckets (Rob Morris, Chris Walker & Luke Cook).
Mind-attitudes on developing talent in your organization:
1- “Everything is a journey,” (Chris Walker). Not only is everything a journey, but everyone is on a journey. Some people are headed in the wrong direction and some people are heading in the right direction. If you want to develop leaders, then you better get good at understanding the journey. You also better understand that you yourself are on a journey. So when it all falls apart one day, don’t panic –it’s all apart of the journey.
2- “Courage to do what I needed to do,” (Rob Morris). Because developing people is a journey, there will be some people that don’t belong in your caravan (the journey you are on with others). Far too often leaders lack the courage to confront their own inability to make the tough decision. Developing others takes a courage a mindset because you will have to confront others and sometimes even cut them out of your organization. It takes courage to promote someone new over existing leaders, it takes courage to acknowledge you failed as a leader, and it takes courage to let someone you care about leave the organization for the overall health of the organization. There is no true leadership development without a courageous mindset.
3- “The Key to concentration is elimination,” (Luke Cook). Leaders who are great at selecting and developing talent have a more focused mindset. Your intentions must become intentionality! This means you often must eliminate all the things that are urgent, but not important. Leaders who have this mind set, can more quickly filter through the pressing for the perfect. Simply put if you don’t focus your organization and your own mindset on talent development, then all the other things that are urgent will prevent you from what is important. Elimination is the key.
4- “Don’t forget, you’ll attract who you deserve,” (Rob Morris). If you look around and you don’t have the talent you feel you deserve then you haven’t looked in the mirror lately. If you want to attract better talent, then become more attractive. You are the magnet that will draw or repulse talented people into your organization. If you can’t seem to keep talent and they keep leaving you, it’s your fault. Start looking in the mirror. Start a personal board of directors (mentors & truth-tellers) who can speak into your life on all sides. Listen to them. Adjust. Recalibrate. Change. This mindset makes no excuses and takes ultimate responsibility in the organization for the talent attracted, kept and developed.
5- “Choose adventure everyday,” (Luke Cook). It’s your choice. It’s your mindset. You can choose boring. You can choose mundane. You can choose stagnation. Or you can choose adventure. Leaders who are great at developing talent see the journey as an adventure–really a shared adventure. Leaders who don’t have this adventure mindset get more frustrated, make new systems that won’t work and send their budding talent off on wild goose chases that produce more misadventure than adventure. This mindset is contagious, exciting and shouts “we are going somewhere beyond here…we are going on adventure!” Talented people love adventure.
“Talent isn’t passed down in the genes, it’s passed down in the mindset”
Carol Dweck