Talent-based Skills Aren't Interchangeable

Several business positions (entrepreneur, creative advertising, software design, and sales, to name a few) are based on innate talents, not training or education. All the training in the world won't make an advertising genius out of someone who doesn't have the natural talent.

If a position is not critical to your business, average or general skills may be good enough. A sports analogy can make this clear. If you re selecting a baseball player at the lowest levels, e.g., "T" ball, then the goal is not necessarily to win, but rather to train kids in team work, having fun, and getting healthy exercise. Selection criteria are general, and only two are typically used: 1) the child isn t ball shy and, 2) the child has enough dexterity to swing a bat without falling over.

By the time athletes reach college, coaches have more specific criteria (winning, while theoretically not everything, is important). Criteria for making the team now include running, fielding, throwing, and hitting. A pulled pitcher often goes to the outfield because the pitcher is also usually one of the team s best hitters.

At the pro level where winning is critical, coaches recognize that the skills for pitching are so different from playing shortstop, that the positions are not interchangeable.

In business, talent-based positions will also depend on very different criteria. The best "hunters" who are great at new business development seldom make good "farmers" who can retain and service existing customers well. Likewise, design engineers suffer in production engineering positions, tele-marketers don t do as well in the field, etc. This also explains why sales stars are often not good managers, and the best managers played and understood the game but usually weren t the superstars. Hence the expression "promote your best salesperson (or engineer, artist, designer, etc.), and three bad things happen: you gain a mediocre (at best) manager, you lose a great salesperson, and nobody is happy." We can help you choose a winning team.