You rarely see them: job advertisements looking for incapable consultants or salespeople. Most companies are looking for talent, which makes sense. There is a downside to this focus however, as was shown by Californian psychologist Carol Dweck.
After the Enron-scandal in 2001, Dweck was wondering how successful companies discern themselves from others. After lots of research, she concluded that the path to success is having people who aim to be better and keep asking themselves which skills their company and they themselves need for the future. In the terminology of the psychologist, those are people with agrowth mindset.
Blindness to shortcomings
What was Enron doing in the time when the sky was the limit? The company was awaiting the biggest talents at the gate of the university and jubilantly brought in one after the other. This went wrong because of two reasons. Firstly, the predicate ‘geniuses’ made the company blind to the shortcomings of these hipos. Whenever something went wrong, it must have been due to their unconventional way of thinking.
Fixed mindset is in the way of success
Next to this, the company created an atmosphere where employees felt forced to present themselves as being talented. This moved them into a fixed mindset, according to Dweck. A mindset that stands in the way of success. Why? Because people with a fixed mindset do not dare facing their shortcomings. They rather keep up appearances than develop themselves further.
Talent as a starting point
As a manager it is therefore important to convey your belief in the development and growth of people, rather than naming them talent of the year. Of course you are looking for that talented salesman, but at the same time you should propagate that negotiating, communicating, advising etc. are dynamic skills that can be continuously developed and refined. Look at talent as a starting point.
Watch Carol Dweck’s popular TedTalk here (https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve), or read "Mindset: The new Psychology of Succes".
