Here is an excerpt from an article written by Jeff Haden for BNET, The CBS Interactive Business Network. To check out an abundance of valuable resources and obtain a free subscription to one or more of the BNET newsletters, please click here.
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“To succeed, surround yourself with great talent.” Like most platitudes, sounds great.
Also sounds expensive.
Facebook has the resources to buy companies in order to get excellent people. Most businesses do not.
So how can you surround yourself with Ferraris when you have a Hyundai budget?
Start by thinking in stock market terms: People, just like stocks, are often underappreciated and undervalued.
Who is typically undervalued? People who are skilled but inexperienced. People with extensive education in the “wrong” field. People whose current job lacks sufficient “status.” People who suffer from negative social stereotypes.
The key to finding great talent at a price you can afford is to be a hiring contrarian. Go against the grain and against conventional wisdom. Then you can find your next superstar — and give someone a chance to show what they can really do in the process.
Here are some examples of talent hiding in plain view:
Career switchers. Take teachers. Many love to teach but hate the pay. (Can’t blame ‘em.) Teachers are excellent trainers, understand how to manage different personalities, and are great at motivating, encouraging, and nurturing other people. While you can train skills, do you have the time and resources to “train” qualities like those? Where career switchers are concerned, the key is to ignore their industry and look at the qualities the person possesses: A firefighter works well under pressure. A salesperson is a self-starter. A mechanic is an excellent troubleshooter. Toss an outstanding person out a plane and she will probably excel no matter where she lands.
Athletes. Granted I might be biased, but sports are an excellent training ground for business. A recent graduate who played a sport is self-disciplined, motivated, great at multitasking, able to overcome adversity, understands the value of teamwork… all qualities you can definitely use. Every year approximately 400,000 college student-athletes enter the job market. Snag one.
Ex-convicts. This category probably ranks highest on the “give someone a chance” scale. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s FIFTEEN restaurant hires 18 unemployed people a year, providing education, training… a chance. Seventy-five percent of the program’s graduates go on to successful careers. Many companies routinely reject anyone with a criminal record; do that many of your new hires — all of whom at one point you felt were sure things — turn out to be excellent employees? Probably not.
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I realize undervalued assets tend to appreciate as their true value is recognized. Someday the teacher you hired to run your customer service department may be a hot commodity and leave for better pay. That’s how it works; eventually the market recognizes the value of a superstar. And that’s also okay; wish him well and be glad you had him while you could afford him.
In the meantime, keep unearthing gems so your talent pool stays stocked.
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To read the complete article, please click here.
Jeff Haden learned much of what he knows about management as he worked his way up the printing business from forklift driver to manager of a 250-employee book plant. Everything else he knows, he has picked up from ghostwriting books for some of the smartest CEOs he knows in business. He has written more than 30 non-fiction books, including four Business and Investing titles that reached #1 on Amazon’s bestseller list. He’d tell you which ones, but then he’d have to kill you. You are invited to visit his website at: www.blackbirdinc.com