According to the "Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance," a 900-page academic book due for publication next month, the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers — whether in sports or surgery, ballet or computer programming — are nearly always made, not born.

One of the most interesting findings from this research is that there is little hard evidence that anyone could attain a level of exceptional performance without spending a lot of time perfecting it.

This is not to say that all people have equal potential. But it does mean that a certain kind of practice (called “deliberate practice” in the study) is needed to build on whatever potential you have. So, our mothers were right, it’s practice that makes perfect – if that practice has two key elements: immediate feedback and specific goal-setting.

According to the findings, rather than saying you don’t have the talent for something, a more accurate statement would be that you don’t have the desire to devote the time, energy and focus that it would take for you to excel.

Thinking of changing jobs – careers - industries? Then find something you love and go for it! If you don’t love what you do, you are unlikely to put out enough effort to get very good. And if you do love your work, you’ll be surprised at how “talented” you can become.

Innovation, People, and Change Communications

The company 3M, one of the first organizations to fully embrace innovation as the essence of its corporate brand, defines it as "new ideas - plus action or implementation - which result in an improvement, a gain, or a profit."

Good definition, but it needs another element. People.

Innovation is people using their imagination, experience, curiosity, instincts and relationships to develop and implement ideas that create value.

Innovation is the fuel of our future -- new products, new services, new markets. But it is isn’t just the “next big thing.” It’s also a million small things. Innovation is about people working within a philosophy of continuous improvement and change.

If you are looking to communicate this kind of innovation, here are a few thoughts to keep in mind:

1) Let leaders know that whether they lead a team, a work group, or an organization, they can’t innovate alone. They must involve and rely on others.

Isolating leaders as the sole visionaries in the organization simply won't cut it anymore. Thirty years ago, by the time an idea got to the senior leadership, it had been sifted through several layers of management. Now, savvy executives encourage e-mails and phone calls directly from people on the plant floor to get their opinions and suggestions.

2) Help leaders recognize that the heart of innovation is trial and error. While I’ve never worked with an organization that truly encouraged failure, I have worked with leaders (at all levels) who created environments where failure is acceptable. Where it becomes a learning experience, and not something to be punished.

3) Tell stories that show how mistakes can become successes. One such story: For years Charles Goodyear labored to find a way to make rubber commercially useful. Then one day Goodyear accidentally spilled a mixture of rubber and sulfur he was holding on a hot stove. The chemical reaction of heat applied to this mixture resulted in the discovery of the vulcanization process used to manufacture rubber tires. And with that “mistake,” an industry was born.

4) Help stamp out the Not Invented Here (NIH) mindset. An example of generating motivation to break that mindset came from General Electric in the days when Jack Welch was in charge. Welch made it clear that the sharing of good ideas across the organization was a high management priority. This posed a challenge for GE managers because of the size and diversity of the company. If you did have a good idea, how could you identify the people in other businesses who might benefit from it?

The Chief Learning Officer at GE came up with a simple solution. He created a “hot line” to be manned by his team. This operated similar to a dating service – only instead of matching people to other people, it matched good ideas with business units that might benefit from them.

5) Whenever you communicate this topic, look for ways to broaden the definition of innovation. Go beyond the creation of new products and services to include strategic innovation - new ideas about mission, values, and goals; administrative innovation - changes in internal systems; field level innovation - front line workers inventing solutions to better serve their customers; and incremental change that encompasses everyone in every job thinking about ways to do things differently and ways to do things better.

Bill Toppeta, president of MetLife International, told the Fordham Leadership Forum, “What you need to know as the leader is what motivates your people, not what motivates you.”

To bring this philosophy into reality, here is the simple, yet revealing exercise Toppeta uses: He hands out a questionnaire to managers and their direct reports. The manager ranks the items on the page in the order of what she believes most and least stirs her direct reports’ passions. At the same time, the direct report also ranks the items on the list. The lists are compared and then dialogue ensues.

Toppeta says that, for the most part, managers do horribly on this exercise. They think they know what their people are passionate about, but they don’t.

But, of course, that is the point. And as the insuing dialogues take place, people get to know each other as people, not simply as functions that help the department make its numbers every quarter. And best of all, it is the very essence of employee engagement. Individuals in the workforce have a voice in where they can best make their personal contribution to the company.

And talk about a “win-win” situation. The outcome of marrying personal passions to organizational goals breeds deeper job satisfaction for employees and more profits for the company.

Think back to the last meeting you attended where executives addressed an employee audience. Did anybody mention the elephants in the room?

Not likely.

Elephants are those forbidden subjects and hard questions that lurk in the back of everyone’s mind - and which senior management hopes have gone unnoticed.

Every organization has its own elephants. But if you listed them, you’d be surprised at how the same themes exist in company after company. Here are some verbatim examples from email surveys and focus groups at various organizations I’ve worked with.

• Senior leadership paints a picture of Utopia. What world do they live in?
• I’ve met with the mayor of this city more times than I’ve met with my department leader.
• We have managers, not leaders.
• How can our executives say, “We are all in this together” when they get all the benefits and we get all the cuts?
• Our best people are leaving and the “dead wood” is staying.
• No one cares how hard we work.
• Loyalty is a one-way street here.
• They talk about collaboration, but we don’t get rewarded for it.
• The wrong people get promoted into leadership positions.
• Leaders don’t tell us the whole story.
• We don’t believe what leadership says about the change/takeover/downsizing/merger/restructuring.


What if, at the next employee meeting, leaders introduced the elephants in the room? What if they used that opportunity to set a tone of openness and candor? How do you think people would react?

Well, in my experience, a well-planned session around these unspeakable issues would build employee engagement better than all the “rah-rah” motivational speeches ever could. It would break down barriers, create equity between leadership and workers, and jolt people out of their complacent or skeptical mindsets.

Here’s how I’d recommend designing such a session:

1. Use email and focus groups to uncover key issues. Capture exact words and phrases.

2. Create a “Top 10 Elephants” list.

3. Prepare executives for the process, but don’t let them see the list beforehand.

4. Bring in an outside moderator to ask pointed questions and push for real answers.

Sound risky? Sure. But how risky is it to believe that employees can focus on strategic objectives while surrounded by a herd of elephants?

Earlier this year I was in Germany working with a group of “high potentials” - employees who had been selected by their managers as outstanding candidates for the next generation of leaders. My client (an international organization in the high-tech industry) is investing substantially in training, coaching, and mentoring opportunities for this talented group of professionals.

The company’s commitment to leadership development is in direct contrast to what I’ve seen in many other organizations. Definitive, purposeful succession planning is rare, even at the very highest corporate levels. Too often the “bench strength” in leadership is so poor that careers stall because no one else has been groomed as a management successor. Companies that don’t address this issue now are going to be at a serious disadvantage in the very near future.

By the year 2011, the leading edge of the Baby Boom workforce will be 65 years old – eligible for full retirement. And that generation’s collective wisdom will leave with them unless it has been transferred to younger employees. Which in turn makes succession planning and knowledge sharing increasing important to an organization’s financial strategy.

Effective leadership is a crucial source of competitive advantage, and corporations can’t just wait for leaders to arrive, fully developed. Organizations must actively seek out people with leadership potential and find ways to nurture and develop that potential. It takes a serious commitment of both time and resources to do it right. But that is the key to what separates great companies from good companies. Great companies make developing leaders a priority.

Here’s how . . .

The process begins with the early identification of leadership talent, and the realization that under certain circumstances, leadership potential is easy to spot. In an area of complex problems or in times of crisis, there are people who organically rise to the top. They are proactive, reliable, thoughtful, and they automatically take control. These natural leaders speak up – and other people listen to them because they’re providing solutions, not just stating problems.

Joseph Pieroni, president of Sankyo Pharma, notes the emergence of informal leadership in his organization: “Every time we are in a tough situation, people point to the same two or three individuals because we feel confident these ‘leaders’ will go well beyond their area of responsibility – and do whatever is needed.”

Identifying new leaders is something that all current leaders should be responsible for – and that policy is most effective if it starts at the top. CEOs and presidents need to spend time focused on this issue, assessing leadership strengths as well as current and future organizational requirements. And leadership development should start early. Ten or fifteen years before a person is expected to be at their full potential, current management should be discussing how to develop this individual. The most valuable conversation will center on how people use their time: How can their skills be leveraged in new ways? Who needs to know these people? Who should be working with them, coaching and mentoring them? What experiences would be the most advantageous?

Spotting potential leaders is also a smart move for managers who want to advance their own careers. As one savvy leader told me, “The minute I begin a new assignment, I start looking for people who can be groomed as my successor. I know that I won’t be able to take the next step until someone else can take over my current job.”

At Federal Express, employees identify themselves as candidates for leadership positions, and CEO Fred Smith discovered early on that not everyone has the unique traits that leaders need to succeed in the FedEx environment. His observation: “Our Leadership Evaluation and Awareness Program explains the demands of management as well as the personal characteristics and traits needed for successful leadership. I find it interesting that, once they know the demands and requirements, some 70 percent of the participants drop out of the program.”

However future leaders are identified, the next step is to find ways to nurture their potential. Along with formal educational opportunities, mentoring relationships, and personal coaches, leading-edge companies make sure that key candidates receive the kind of assignments that help them grow and develop.

The head of Ketchum’s brand practice, also the associate director of their New York office, was offered the director position in Atlanta as a way of rounding out her expertise. That was a decision made to advance her career, and looked at from the standpoint of what would add the most value for her. Another example from Ketchum is a director from the San Francisco office who was moved to a leadership role in London so that he could gain international experience.

But leadership development isn’t only about acquiring business skills. It’s also about effective mental preparation. According to Bob Dilenschneider, CEO of The Dilenschneider Group, the key is learning to keep a sense of perspective: “Keeping your balance at all times can be extremely difficult. Since leaders play the game at the highest and lowest levels, they experience the glory of the victories as well as the disappointment of setbacks and failures. The trick is not to let the glory go to your head nor let the disappointments devastate you.”

I agree with Bob. Giving people the freedom to succeed and fail – and the guidance to help them deal with both – may be the best leadership development strategy of all.