I apologize for breaking the flow of this subject last week. It was not intentional.
In principle, there is nothing wrong in engaging new talent if there is reasonable guarantee or reason to believe they can bring on board an injection of new energy and performance that challenges and provokes the people they met in the organization to higher levels of excellence, especially when the area of expertise is a critically needed one. However, as is often the case, new talent may not be the silver bullet you need when there is a shortage of capacity in-house.
If the new talent comes in with a pip on his shoulder, and wastes no time in letting everyone he meets on ground know that he is the “Mr. Fixit”, the magical elixir for all the mess that “they” created while also leaving them in no doubt that he was specially head-hunted with a mouth-watering package that dwarfs the take-home of another person in the organization who was performing a similar function and had done so for several years, you have just brought wholesale trouble on board! The results could be disastrous and could cause more damage in and to the organization than the problem it was intended to solve!
In order to avoid this potential landmine, before engaging new talent for a role, the first thing a Manager needs to do is to ensure that a needs assessment has been conducted in the organization that makes the engagement of new talent an absolute necessity. The need must also be time-bound and due diligence should be done to ascertain that there is nobody equipped to perform the role within the organization and there is no time to build necessary capacity internally.
Thereafter, inform existing staff and let them have a significant buy-in to the idea. Sometimes, you need to find a way of making it “their” decision by painting the picture of the need and its urgency in a way that makes them suggest the hire of new talent. People don’t generally resist a decision that they can own!
Build a resilient, cohesive and engaging culture that thrives on innovative thinking that permeates the entire spectrum of the organization. If there are enough innovative ideas being generated in an organization, there may not be a need for new, replacement or substitutionary talent. Talent gaps become very evident when people function more in silos than they do in teams.
See and treat every employee as a stakeholder in the business. It should be very evident that loyalty pays good dividends. Nobody wants to spend his life and significant time serving an organization that is willing to throw him under the bus at the slightest opportunity in exchange for untested “new” people. People treat leadership with suspicion when there is evidence of the “aayo” syndrome in talent management.
Make people comfortable with change. Create an evolving learning environment that encourages periodic interrogation of systems and the adoption of new processes. Prioritize development over performance. There is no age limit to learning and growth. Create a learning organization as well as a conducive environment for individual growth and career advancement. If you have refused to train them, don’t complain about them. People don’t improve in performance because you insist. There is no age-limit to learning. Create a culture that challenges people to turn up every day with an improved version of themselves. Knowledge drives performance. Nobody can function beyond what he knows! We become the knowledge that we have internalized and by extension, we all do what we have become. When excellence becomes a culture, there is no end to greatness. Did you say that old dogs cannot be taught new tricks? You may be right. Except that the people who have invested a part of their active lives in your enterprise are not dogs! They are PEOPLE with flesh and blood, your first customers!
Experiment with hiring new talent on contract basis. That way, they are likely on their way out before the animosity from those within begins. Proceed to identify in-house staff who have the right attitude and aptitude and who can be drafted or promoted to do what the new talent is expected to do. If and when you identify them, invest on training them in the required knowledge or skill for the job, beginning from making them shadow the new talent who is on contract.
Seek new talent only when you have no other option. When there is a new opening for talent, encourage existing staff who believe that they have the capacity and have so demonstrated apply for the position just as external candidates do. Let an unassailable interview process determine who gets the position. I have seen organizations that expressly forbid in-house staff from applying for advertised higher positions in the organization. That is morale-dampening and repressive. It is one of the greatest breeding grounds for mediocrity and disloyalty.
A long tenure is not a curse. Never make people regret their loyalty to the organization. Reward loyalty over, or at least side by side, with novelty. Then integrate both. New talent does not have the historical information – a necessity for continuity – that the old staff members have. They may have higher qualifications or skills, but they may not have the on-the-job experience of current staff, especially in this day and age when many CVs are generically produced that may not be accurate reflections of reality. It is not unusual to find that the “aayo” still has to master the ropes through guidance by the staff he was employed to supervise! Let current staff know that there is room for career growth. That gives them a motivation for putting their best foot forward.
If you ever need to onboard new talent, key them immediately into the corporate vision and the need to think and work “team” rather than a cocky superstar silo. Superstars are not necessarily good team players and don’t usually feel comfortable when the limelight is not on them! So, you must be DELIBERATE and INTENTIONAL about the integration process. Never create the impression that the new hire, at any level, is superior in value to existing staff. If you do, you just created an internal war in your organization that can leave everyone with a bloodied nose. When that war breaks out, you only know the beginning. Nobody can tell the end. Even if you eventually kick a few people out for peace to reign, the atmosphere is already polluted and potentially toxic to everyone remaining.
If not properly managed, the aayo syndrome that breeds favoritism, will do more harm than good to any organization, resulting in lacklustre performance on the part of hitherto dedicated and loyal staff and the chip of arrogance on the part of the uncommitted new talent who, who like a bird in constant flight seeking the next available tree to perch on, will not hesitate to jump ship when the rubber meets the road! Properly managed, an aayo can signpost possibilities by opening the eyes of other staff to possibilities they did not know existed, thus challenging them not to rest on their oars!
Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!
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