In my recruiting and management career, I have come across many talented individuals, people with amazing innate skills such as an aptitude for figures, incredible memory and great intelligence. These skills are great to have but on their own are not a ticket to success. The desire to put these talents to work is as important as the talent itself.
How many people have you come across who are talented but not committed to success? I have certainly come across plenty. On the other hand, people who are committed, have initiative and work hard are more likely to move on in life. These people have what we call the energy based and motivational traits. Sometimes, they have to try a bit harder than the talented people but they do get there.
As hiring managers, it is our task to unearth both talent and energy based traits. In our "Hiring Top Performers" workshops, we introduce everyone to these concepts and get the workshop participants to uncover these traits through role playing. We associate these traits with successful achievements in the candidate's professional life. By doing this, we are very likely not only to uncover these traits but also to ascertain if the candidate's past performance is comparable to our future needs. At the end the hiring process, we all want to hire someone who is not only talented but who can also apply hersef to the job and to our environment.
Performance-based interviewing unearths both innate talents and the skills and experience that are necessary for the candidate to be successful in his new position. You do not really need to have lists upon lists of cleverly constructed questions to get to the candidate's talent and ability to do the work. Just a few key questions and some follow up questions are enough to understand what the candidate brings to the table. Real talent is important but if you can also find a lot of energy, initiative and comparable performance, then you are on track to hire someone special.