Recognizing and Developing Talent

Over the past weeks I have been watching America’s Got Talent – a show where people from all backgrounds and talents take a shot at becoming the next big performer in Las Vegas. I do not watch this show solely for the entertainment, but rather to see how talent is discovered, and once given a chance to move forward, how those talents develop. The phases of this show can so easily be applicable to our corporate or business world in so many ways as there are some take away on people, talent, feedback and development.

Last night I watched the performance of one gentleman by the name of Kevin Skinner who is a Chicken Catcher from Kentucky. A man who radiates humbleness has made it to the semi finals. A plain and simple farmer who, when he walked on stage for the first time, gave the impression that he could possibly be just another guy trying his luck at the game of talent! But when he sang and played the guitar, he melted his way into the hearts of everyone.

On the night of his first performance, the quiet spoken Skinner with a rustic farm look and a shy smile gave a heartfelt performance. He sang with sincerity and a passion that seemed to have come from the bottom of his soul and shone through his eyes, penetrating the minds of his listeners. It is often said on many talent shows that the best singers are those that perform with emotion and are able to transmit that emotion to their audience and that was what Skinner had going for him. After the judges’ feedback and standing innovations from the audience, Skinner quietly said, “I believe this is my time to shine.”

Performing at the semi-finals, Skinner the tender heart farmer got teary eyed as he listened to the astounding feedback from the judges, including Pierce, the British judge who is the known for his very harsh feedback at times. Pierce was also moved to tears with Skinner’s passionate performance. Skinner is on his way to the finals!

Just following his passion of becoming a singer, Skinner took the risk of putting himself out there and putting his heart and soul into his first audition. The judges, who are versed in recognizing talent, saw the potential and so did America. Skinner was moved to the quarter and then semi finals and with each performance, demonstrated what he really is – a brilliant country singer, guitarist and song writer – not a chicken catcher. By following his passion, finding the right channel to show it and being in front of the right talent promoters, Skinner was transformed.

So where am I going with all of this? The lesson here is two-fold. As individuals, we need to follow our passion, pursue that which we are versed at doing and more importantly, finding the right channel to show who we are. As managers, we need to know what to look for when we are reviewing potential new hires or promoting from within. Many high potentials fall through the cracks either because the individual did not know how or when to demonstrate his/her abilities or that managers failed to recognize the potential or did not have the confidence in giving the individual a chance to grow. Like a singer who gets better over time, so do talented people in organizations once given a chance. Experience, genuine feedback and the passion to excel is what helps talented people to grow and become their best.

Another lesson from Skinner’s case could be summed up as “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Skinner could perhaps be compared to Susan Boyle, a 48 year old of Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland who appeared on the Britain’s Got Talent and also made it to the finals. Like Skinner, she was also a quiet woman from the country who guarded her talent for many years but was deeply passionate about singing. When she got on stage in front of the judges, they had already formed an opinion based on her looks. Little did they know the talent she possessed until she sang a powerful rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream.”

The lesson is – don’t prejudge. Those who are dressed for the part may very well not be the best player. Get to know a person, see what’s behind the face; get the feeling they are transmitting. Observe what they bring, how they communicate about themselves, thier passion. Challenge them.

In summary, individuals must always be ready to showcase their talent by being passionate about what they do and managers must always be on the look out for high potentials and get a little closer to those they think have hidden potential. Have honest and open feedback and encourage career discussions. It’s strange what we can discover when we really are looking and really conversing.

Health care reform through the lens of Change Communication

Many of us who are graduates of the communication field can look back upon those college days when we were taught the many different theories in communication, be it interpersonal or organizational, and back then we wondered, “Do we really have to know all this theory stuff?” I can remember sitting in a class one day during the introductory class titled “Strategic Communication Theory” and as I listened to the professor, everything seemed puzzling and it seemed the world was just one orderly place until language was invented and things became chaotic. The chaos developed further as civilizations developed, cultures emerged and each saw, described and interpreted the world and human behavior through their own terministic screens. Hence today, communication is no small feat and today, as I look back to those graduate classes, I now value the theories I learned because now they make all the sense in helping me to organize and understand human communication and more so to drive effective communication.

So how does all this apply to Change Communication, you may ask? Look around you and examine all the instances where you were involved in or simply observed communications on change? How many times was the desired outcome achieved in a clear, coherent and inclusive manner? How many times did a stakeholder or an impacted group be brought into the communication loop too late or too early or did some group fall totally out of the process? How many times were there opposing views and misinterpretations or just simply bad explanations? These have happened time and time again because planning and understanding are two key elements of the communication process. Having a background in communication theory and putting the respective theory into practice is what can help us communicators to be successful and always vigilant in covering all the bases.

Driving change means understanding what you want to change and why you want that change; who gets affected and what will that affected group have to change or adapt. Has the affected group been engaged in conversations for their feedback and input? What is the breath and depth of the change and who are all the key stakeholders. Do these stakeholders change along the communication process and do we have a stakeholder map that guides us – that plan that we should have at the beginning of the process?

A great example of change communication failure and one that we can all identify with or at least know about is the current health care reform. Applying all the above questions to this situation, I am sure you can see the problem. So the president proposes health care reform and the public agrees that the health care system needs improving. That’s all good. But did that give the president and his policy makers the green light to simply go ahead, decide what the best solution is, write it up in a volume of more than a thousand pages and then they all take turn at trying to communicate what they have proposed? No wonder the outrage of the affected group is so dominant. The affected group cannot clearly or concisely tell what the proposed reform really is. There are distorted messages from different angles, and the affected group (the population) now feels that their health care is threatened. This is just one good reason why change communication is a delicate matter that needs its experts to guide it. How we drive change and how we communicate it go hand in hand, and first we must seek to understand the problem, its pros and cons, who are the affected parties, who are the major stakeholders and how would change be perceived at all levels. Engagement of stakeholders and affected groups are key. Most of all we must determine whether we are conducting a transformational or a radical change – which best fits the situation.

Stepping back to my opening on theories, if the Obama administration had any really good communication strategists and policy change specialists who understood the theories And dynamics of communication, perhaps they would have handled the whole health care reform differently and perhaps they would have taken a more transformational rather than a radical, time pressed approach; and not with the thinking that they can write the edict of health care reform in their high chambers and then announce it to the poor peasants who will be ever so grateful!!

Hurray to the population for standing up and seeking to understand what exactly it is they are being told and how exactly all of this will be sustained. Let the debate continue for this issue is not a one sided rhetoric; the affected group needs to be heard as well.

Unfolding before us in all these debates are the empty, non-directional government rhetoric and misunderstanding of the complex health care issue that the government pretends can be solved rather easily with a plan that did not involve perhaps some of the key stakeholders! Health care reform on such a grand scale, unless this is a dictatorship, cannot be radical and simply handed down. Like communication, change is also a two way conduit.