Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World

Key Takeaways

1. I should be looking for talent that is on its way up rather than that which has a long track record. Seek those cool spark good questions how benefit and move an institution forward or start their own institution. Talent is increasingly scarce at honing how you think about it or make it more likely that you find retain and inspire it
2. Finding talent is hugely inefficient today and this book will hopefully help rectify that problem in a small way
3. Talent search is both an art and a science
4. How to interview and hire
   1. What are the open tabs in your browser right now? – downtime revealed preferences are what you’re looking for. How do people spend their leisure time. Personality is revealed during weekends
   2. You need to show genuine curiosity and prove deeply. Conversational tones are more effective at learning about the candidate than checklists
   3. Seek to determine resourcefulness by asking questions they’re likely not prepared for such as the question above or asking about something unusual they did as a child
   4. The best interviews are not formal and give you a clear glimpse into a drains thinking and values. Change the setting, find ways to get them to show and share emotion, etc
   5. Did you feel appreciated in your last job? How and why?
   6. What are 10 words a friend or spouse would use to describe you?
   7. If you weren’t here in 3-6 months, what would have happened? What about 5 years?
   8. How ambitious are you?
5. References
   1. References are key, especially for more senior hires
   2. Try to get at someone’s drawbacks through reference calls
   3. Would you happily work for this person? Can they get you to where you need to go faster than a reasonable person could? When you disagree, is it as likely that you’ll be wrong as they are?
   4. Track record of actual achievements appears to be the most reliable predictor of future success
   5. Intelligence is of course important but is likely overvalued in relation to other traits
6. Seek someone who is better every time you meet them. Also, those with perseverance, grit, open mindedness, stamina, an action for bias, conceptual frameworks,
7. Many sectors rely on scouts to find and refer talent. The search portion is important today but keep an open mind that measurement may improve over time, making it easier for systems to better know the likelihood of someone’s potential talent and success
8. Raising others aspirations is one of the most important uses of your time

What I got out of it

1. Developing a deeper understanding of how to find, spot, keep, inspire talent leads to advantageous divergence. Tyler and Daniel do a great job of discussing it at a fun, abstract level but also giving you pragmatic tips on how to think about the hiring process