The Rare Find. Spotting Exceptional Talent Before Everyone Else,

Citation

Nolan, S. (2012), "The Rare Find. Spotting Exceptional Talent Before Everyone Else,", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 11 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2012.37211caa.011

The Rare Find. Spotting Exceptional Talent Before Everyone Else,

The Rare Find. Spotting Exceptional Talent Before Everyone Else

Article Type: From: Recommended reading Strategic HR Review, Volume 11, Issue 3

George AndersPortfolio PenguinISBN 978-0-670-92094-5

This book brings a wide and fresh perspective to the topic of talent. It stems from the author’s experience as a business book author and feature writer with The Wall Street Journal Fast Company magazine and other publications. His work brought him into contact with a range of scenarios where he had the opportunity to research how successful participants/individuals were identified – from stock market investors to dot com entrepreneurs. While coming in contact with a diverse range of situations, he identified patterns of key habits shared by those that were most successful and he went on to dedicate two and a half years to furthering this research and publishing his findings.

Taking talent risks

The result is The Rare Find – a book that encourages talent spotters to go beyond looking for competent people to seek out those with “breakthrough potential” and to take a risk on people whose talents are unproven. Anders’ perspective is fresh because it brings together such diverse examples of talent spotting and overcoming related challenges at organizations ranging from Google to the Army Special Forces and the FBI and in settings as diverse as medical school, sports talent spotting and the stage.

Throughout there is focus on turning current systems on their heads in order to spot exceptional talent, from reading resumes “upside down” to learning how to deal with the “maybe” applications that come in, focusing on character attributes rather than other skills that can be taught or developed, and giving students with erratic grades a chance to shine. It is about breaking away from a formulaic approach to talent and spotting characteristics and experiences that indicate an exceptional performer.

As well as providing inspiration to take a new approach to talent, the author provides practical insights that can be applied to areas such as resume sifting and interviewing, while the final chapter ties all the pieces together with a useful summary of how to change your approach to talent spotting.

Sara NolanEditor, Strategic HR Review