Talent Where?

Talent tends to be the elephant in the room, but we really must address the topic.

There are specifically 3 types of talent for our focus:

  • Blocked Talent - This is how many entrepreneurs feel right before making the leap from an employee to a full time entrepreneur. Individuals leave employers for many reasons, however, it is not uncommon for an individual to leave specifically because they don't feel fully utilized creatively, intellectually or simply because a lack of career advancement.

  • Independent Talent - This is the where most entrepreneurs and startups operate. You are small and agile and can take risks. You will be using parts of your talent like never before and may even find new areas of interest. As you hire on early employees you have latitude to make decisions and you aren't constrained or blocked from using your talent. Even your early employees will feel the independence to using their talent having more control of decisions with room to learn and grow. This is the optimal place for all talent, you and employees.

  • Engaged Talent - This is following on the heels of Independent Talent. Engaging talent should be your focus as you grow from a startup to a small business and larger. It is important as your venture grows to keep talent excited and on board with your direction. Creating a personal dialogue with each employee helps your feedback loop. This will help determine if they are happy and productive and it's also a great time to listen. Find out if the employee wants to increase their knowledge with cross training in another department or wants to get more education. Find out if the employee has any suggestions to improve their current role or increase their efficiency. Most importantly, find out if they have ideas related to your specific business or other areas. If the employee has aspirations and ideas about your business or another area, you are looking at an intrapreneur. This is the point the employee must feel engaged and valued to your venture. If they are ignored at this point for an extended period of time they will become Blocked Talent. This is a great time to give them creative latitude to work on a pet product or idea to add value to the company in an existing revenue stream or a completely new source of company revenue.

Keep this loop in mind and close it so you are only cycling between Independent Talent and Engaged Talent because it is very likely Blocked Talent will either become direct competition (starting their own venture in a similar space or working for a competitor) or indirect competition (starting their own venture in a difference space that may still take customers or clients from you).