Talent
How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World
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3.8 • 11 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The art and science of talent search: how to spot, assess, woo, and retain highly talented people.
How do you find talent with a creative spark? To what extent can you predict human creativity, or is human creativity something irreducible before our eyes, perhaps to be spotted or glimpsed by intuition, but unique each time it appears?
Obsessed with these questions, renowned economist Tyler Cowen and venture capitalist and entrepreneur Daniel Gross set out to study the art and science of finding talent at the highest level: the people with the creativity, drive, and insight to transform an organization and make everyone around them better.
Cowen and Gross guide the reader through the major scientific research areas relevant for talent search, including how to conduct an interview, how much to weight intelligence, how to judge personality and match personality traits to jobs, how to evaluate talent in online interactions such as Zoom calls, why talented women are still undervalued and how to spot them, how to understand the special talents in people who have disabilities or supposed disabilities, and how to use delegated scouts to find talent. Talent appreciation is an art, but it is an art you can improve through study and experience.
Identifying underrated, brilliant individuals is one of the simplest ways to give yourself an organizational edge, and this is the book that will show you how to do that. Talent is both for people searching for talent and for those who wish to be searched for, found, and discovered.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Spotting talent is a talent itself, according to this thoughtful guide from economist Cowen (The Complacent Class) and entrepreneur Gross. Most businesses miss out on excellent would-be hires because of their "bureaucratic approach" to searching. To spot candidates with great potential, the authors recommend ditching interview questions that elicit canned answers, and opting instead for "larger picture" questions such as "Which of your beliefs are you least rational about?" There's advice, as well, for interaction online now that the "talent search has become more global": in Zoom interviews, leaders should remember that they're "looking at distorted filters." (Someone being too loud, for example, may just be unsure "how sound is reproduced in virtual meetings.") On diversity and inclusion, Cowen and Gross write that minority candidates face extra challenges: women who are perceived as "aggressive," for example, earn less than men who are (which, to remedy, the authors recommend giving the "non nice girl" extra consideration). Their point that one should get beyond one's biases to spot talent is well made, and their unconventional suggestions actionable. Managers looking to shake up the interview process will find this worth a look.
Customer Reviews
Thought-provoking if wrong
Daniel Gross is a venture capitalist I haven't paid much attention to, but Tyler Cowen definitely has a national profile. I'm always eager to read what he has to say, even if I don't agree. I disagree heartily with a lot of the conclusions and perspectives they take on certain things, but overall I thought it was worth the time to read their book.