July 22, 2009

Finding the Best


"There is something much more scarce, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability."


Robert Half

Founder, Robert Half Staffing


If you could do it all this wouldn't matter but you can't and it does, particularly if you are a manager.

I think recognizing talent in others is the first job requirement for a good manager, with being able to make the best use of that talent, the second.


What do you think?


3 comments :

  1. i couldn't agree more.

    i've always believed that some of my most critical responsibilities as a manager are to:

    1. identify the best talent and put him/her in the right position
    2. provide him/her with the resources and training to be successful
    3. get the hell out of their way
    3.

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  2. And the hard part is #1.

    Most of us focus on learning a business skill be it accounting, marketing, salesmanship, etc., with a few progressing to management positions of others who do those things. There are management courses but I don't recall anything in my two undergraduate business degrees nor my MBA that put as much emphasis on developing management skills as I now believe should have happened.

    Tomorrow's quote from Jack Welch is another, somewhat different take on this.

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  3. I missed this one but the photos says it all.

    If only it were so easy to spot the best employees among them all.

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