Talent Wars: The “A” Player Hoax

We love easy solutions: take a pill and lose weight; go to the right schools and become a zillionaire; hire the right “A” player new talent while clearing out the “C” deadwood and make your business a great success.

But life (mostly) is not that way. As Ronald Reagan said, “It’s simple, but not simplistic.”

And here’s the hoax – the canard; the idea that if you just hire those “A Players” – people like the Legion of Super Heroes (pictured right)  – the folks in the top 10% of their roles – and “release” the untrainable B and C players to their future career path you’ll have stocked the right talent to have your company become a success.… Read the rest

Your Goal? Good Stories About Tough Times

Wendy Mogel, author of New York Times bestseller The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children was in the City this week. I caught her presentation at the Hamlin School along with a bevy of parents from various independent schools.

Mogel has great on-stage presence and funny charm, fitting for someone whose father published the National Lampoon.… Read the rest

(More) Risky Business: How to Leap Tall Buildings

Sometimes the greatest risk you can take is to take no risk at all.

Or as James Dean phrased it, “Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.”

Three events this week brought that thought squarely home.

  1. A colleague who was nudged out of his role with a firm asked for more separation pay than the organization indicated it customarily offered.
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The Myth of Talent & Achievement Takes Another Blow: San Francisco Giants Win World Series

The myth that talent leads to achievement took another hit to credibility this week. The San Francisco Giants –  a crew of “misfits and outcasts” –  brought the ultimate symbol of North American professional baseball achievement and winning in the form of a World Series pennant back to the City by the Bay.

Talent, it turns out again, is overrated.… Read the rest

You Did What? (And How To Get More Common Sense)

Thomas Edison noted “The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are first, hard work, second, stick-to-itiveness, and third, common sense.

Carol Dweck, Anders Ericsson, and Angela Duckworth have the first two qualities well-covered, I’ll take a crack at the third.

“Common sense,”  it’s been said (C. E. Stowe) “is the knack of seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done.”Read the rest

The Trouble with Success

Given the choice between career success and career failure I’ll likely take success. Heck I’m like anyone else; who do you know who hates succeding?

The trouble with success – one of many – is that most of your learning comes from the bumps of failure, not the sweetness of accomplishment. The biggest derailer in my experience as an executive coach is a lack of smaller mistakes and failure early in someone’s career.… Read the rest