Leaders often ask me “how do I attract the best talent in my game?” My honest response “you don’t!” You see a truly talented person is not someone you usually attract. Take any great sports star or celebrity-status person; companies and clubs hardly ever attract them; they decide where they want to go and what they want to do. My personal take on the whole ‘talent management’ approach is that leaders would be far better off to let go of this ideology and start searching for potential and aptitude. As a result, the ‘war’ is not so much in finding talent for your organisation, but rather ‘investment grade’ individuals.

Potential is an open canvas ready to be pained on. One can either completely mess it up or put it in the hands of a true artist. Aptitude is said to be “inborn potential to do certain kinds of work whether developed or undeveloped.” Where a talented person is naturally good at something, aptitude is a genetic predisposition towards certain things; however, requires a great amount of hard work and effort to master that competency. Considering their commonality, both potential and aptitude is something that will take time and investment to grow and develop towards optimal performance. So let me close with the question, how effective is your company in attracting great potential and remarkable aptitude?

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