Oct 21 2010
“Gifted and Talented”? Phooey!
Award-Winning Bumper Sticker
My Kid Can Beat The Crap
Out Of Your Honor Student!
Such is the assessment that many entrepreneurs are born of. (And don’t end a sentence with a preposition! But there are no rules in business!) Entrepreneurs are misfits. They hate authority, and hate being tested or categorized by others. They love the stimulation of surrounding themselves with responsive, passionate people.
Rarely though, it seems to me, do entrepreneurs comfortably dismiss the recommendations of others they respect, even when those suggestions fly in the face of what they seek to accomplish.
If you’ve been suckered in by federal government-partnered teachers unions whose memberships haven’t a clue about what makes business –or the economy– click, and have swallowed the “Gifted and Talented” malarkey hook, line, and sinker, you are thinking like a fool!
First of all, every human being
on Earth is “gifted and talented.”
Parents who proclaim or pursue having their children anointed with these three words have no sense of reality, and are probably neurotic and insecure to say the least. Business owners who try to sort through job applicants using any form of these three words as a yardstick are just plain shortsighted.
Let’s look at it this way: You own or operate or manage a business. That makes you some form of entrepreneur. You are heavily invested with time, effort, energy and/or money in your business and probably look for prospective employees who seem to be out of your mold. Are you looking for some elite MBA school graduate credentials or someone who will follow your lead and act responsibly?
The bottom line is that the recruitment process shouldn’t hinge on what other people thought of a job prospect, as much as what your impressions are of what you think a particular candidate is capable of, in the context and framework of your thinking and your organization.
In other words,
take the recommendations of others
who are not part of your business
with a grain of salt. Instead,
trust and follow your instincts.
Sure you could be wrong. Everyone makes bad judgments at some point. But odds are better when you use your own sixth sense about some one’s potential than if you trust what others have to say. No, I am not suggesting you discount references, referrals, and recommendations. Certainly, a prospective employee’s job history has evaluative value. But your gut feelings mean more.
This is not a 100,000 employee organization we’re talking about. There are not 37 spiral-bound pages of job qualifications and requirements sitting ominously on your HR director’s desk awaiting line-by-line comparison with every candidate. It is all about you, your business, what you know needs to take place to grow your venture, and what kind of people you believe can make that happen.
“Gifted and Talented”? YOU have what it takes to have gotten you this far. YOU are gifted and talented. YOU know what it takes to make your business work. Trust yourself. Judge prospective employees by your own guidelines and impressions.
Looking for some helpful guidance in this direction? Give me a call.
HELP SAVE THE ECONOMY November 2nd. Vote to
move small business front and center…support those
who endorse free market competition healthcare
and job creation tax incentives for entrepreneurs!
____________________________________
www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US