Mining the talent at ones disposal

"The point is that this week, while being interviewed in connection with my book, which is only five days away from launch, a red thread emerged that passed through the interviews on how exactly do I make a difference? And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that apart from the structured methods and all the tips and trick I suggest in ‘Making a Difference’, it largely comes down to mining the talent at ones disposal.

Far too often I see companies recruit brilliant performers, only to see that within a few months (sometimes even weeks) of their being recruited, they are not deployed for what they were recruited but are pointed in a different direction. Consequently, their real talents gradually become buried, along with their promising CV, deep down in the bottom of the bottom drawer of their bosses filing cabinet.

For example: A young marketing executive, is recruited for their originality, passion and clear thought. Two weeks into their new job their N+2 urgently needs some product sales figures analyzed and put in a presentation which he will give to his board. Because the new recruit is available, she is given the task. She does a really great job, crunching the numbers and displaying them in exactly the way her N+2 wants. She surprises him by the speed of her result and the original way she displays the information, emphasizing the strong points and burying the less attractive ones. Instead of asking himself ‘what else can this person do?’, from that day on, she is seen as the Queen of MS Excel and analytics. Ten months later, when the novelty has worn off, she feels under valued and is looking for a new opportunity."

Gelezen op de weblog van 9 september van Harley Lovegrove.

Op de website zelf staat enkele stukjes uit zijn boek over interim management 'Making a Difference', en het volgende vond ik typerend :

Let’s have a party (The difference between a CEO and COO)

CEO: ‘Let’s have a party’!
COO : ‘Great idea, when?’
CEO: ‘Tomorrow’
COO: ‘Tomorrow?! No, no, that’s far too soon’
CEO: (irritated) ‘Why’?
COO: ‘because, we’re broke, we’re going to need a sponsor, a theme, a venue and a reason’!
CEO: ‘you’re so negative, why can’t we just do it’?
COO: ‘We can, but not tomorrow. In June when the weather’s fine, everyone’s getting into holiday mood, the market will be ready and we can do it outdoors and save the cost of hiring an hotel – who likes stuffy hotels anyway?’
CEO: (dejected) ‘Oh God, you’re right as always. Just make sure you remember the party was my idea’!

An interim manager should be able to easily take the role of COO in this play, but will never be able to play the CEO, because an interim manager gets far too big a kick out of getting things done, whereas the CEO hates anything logistical and ‘boring’. On the day of the party the CEO will be out front welcoming everyone, and if the COO is lucky he might get some kind of acknowledgement afterwards, on the lines of:

CEO: (still fired up) ‘That was a great party! we should have one every month’!
COO: (exhausted) ‘Right, I don’t think so!