I don’t care about talent (anymore)

If you are anything like me, you develop allergies for words that are repeated over and over again. The word which has been giving me rashes recently is “Talent”. I know, by now half of the HR community within my contacts will be reporting this article to the LinkedIn Police, but bear with me for a few more minutes, just in case.

“Hey Google, What is Talent?”

For many years, as a manager with a particular interest in Human Resources I was passionately helping my company to recruit “Talents”. Or so we were saying. What we were not fully appreciating at that time is the fact that we were looking for “Great people”. I get it, “Talent” sounds better than “Great people”. After all the world seems to be in constant need of catchy words or phrases. But here’s my reflection: “Talent” is a deeply exclusive or non inclusive concept. So bad that, when you actually think about it, it may bounce great people away from your organization.

By now I think I should have your attention so let me share with you a quick “Word cloud” which I generated by searching definitions of “Talent” on the internet.