© 2017 Martin Zafirov, PhD Student, New Bulgarian University
((F29144) What Is the Role of Talented Employees in Multinational Companies?)
Edited by: Yara Mohamed, Mona Timor Shehata
Published by: Ahmed Mohamed Hassan
The presence of several talented employees in the company may lead to a massive difference in its performance. This trend has a long history known as the Pareto effect. On a company level this means that in every organisation there is a group of people who make a disproportionate contribution to the collective output. Around 20% of individuals are responsible for 80% of the output and vice-versa, or in other words, around 20% (or less) of the employees of a company tend to account for between 80% and 98% of performance.
Thus, according to Premuzic, talented employees (most often several of whom are of vital importance to the company) become the main drive for the company’s success. The results of their activity are the element which leads to a much higher return of the investments made in the company. In my opinion, this rule is totally valid, not only with regard to the talented employees , but also the companies they for which they work. In almost every organisation, a nucleus is formed which is directly responsible for achieving its higher results, as well as for the increase in its efficiency.
But the presence of “talented” employees in the organisation leads to the question of how they should be managed. In other words, the question is how to motivate these employees and whether it is necessary to use a specific (individual) management approach.
Roger Martin presents his opinion on this question in his article “The 3 Simple Rules of Managing Top Talent”[1] and I personally agree with it. Martin claims that there are few talented employees whose motivation for work and good results is additional remuneration. During his fifteen years of managing talent as dean of the Rotman School of Management, he has managed some of the best and brightest in professorial talent and the strategy-consulting industry worldwide. Over this combined quarter-century of experience, he developed three rules for managing top-end talent.
Treat Them as Individuals, Not as Members of a Class
Top-end talent does not want to be treated as a member of a class—even if it is an exalted class.They want to be treated as individuals. Each member of the top-end talent class spends their life striving to be unique; to stand out from the other talented persons. According to Martin, any other type of treatment would lead to disagreements and reducing their motivation to work.
Provide Opportunity Continuously
Martin claims that the biggest enemy for top-end talent is blocked opportunity for self-expression and promotion. Most often the talented employees are motivated to become the top talents in the company and thus, want big challenges – their philosophy is the earlier, the better. If they get blocked and are left waiting for a chance to show their capabilities, this would lead to their lack for motivation to work, and in many cases, also to their leaving the company.
My personal opinion is that this management approach has many unknown factors and dangers. They are mostly related to the degree in which talented persons should be allowed to express themselves and more specifically where the limit to the challenges set before them is. In other words, a leader who decides to encourage the ambition of a talented employee who wants to prove their capabilities may make a mistake by giving the employee too difficult a challenge, thus causing the employee’s failure. It is possible that a failure may have a demoralising effect on the employee and lead to worse performance at work on their part.
Managing top-end talent requires careful consideration of the specific approaches used on them. The granting of opportunities should be limited within what is acceptable and possible, so that the employees would be presented with the necessary conditions for continuous development and gaining of new knowledge and skills.
Give Pats on the Back
Martin says that he sees a lot of managers making huge mistakes on this front. Top-end talent is not indifferent to praise, even though they can be highly driven and internally motivated. Talented people spend all of their time working hard in order to continuously maintain the high level they have achieved. Because of this, they need regular pats on the back to show them that their efforts are being noticed and valued. Otherwise, they get frustrated and in many cases, may leave the company. In order for the organisation to be able to rely on talented employees, it is very important to treat them right as persons; to find them a way to receive a chance for self-expression and proving their abilities.
To summarize, on the one hand, it can be stated that talent undoubtedly exerts important influence on the results achieved by the company; and on the other hand, on the new management concepts which should be applied with regard to the talented persons in the company. In short, talent is more important than people think. Maybe it is more underrated than overrated. The only aspect of talent which is overrated are people’s evaluations of their own talents:Most persons are not as talented as they think, especially when they do not have talents.
List of References:
- Martin, R., The 3 Simple Rules of Managing Top Talent, published on: 24 February 2017, available at: https://hbr.org/2017/02/the-3-simple-rules-of-managing-top-talent
- [1] Martin, R., “The 3 Simple Rules of Managing Top Talent”, published on: 24 February 2017, available at: hbr.org/2017/02/the-3-simple-rules-of-managing-top-talent