The Nature of Talent

I thought that I should bring our reader's attention to a new, short paper by John H. Fleming, PhD., and Jim Asplund of Gallup, Inc.

The paper:

"Understanding the Nature of Talent: Managers must distinguish what’s innate in their employees (talent) from what can be changed or acquired (knowledge and skills)".

by John H. Fleming, Ph.D., and Jim Asplund
Excerpted from Human Sigma: Managing the Employee-Customer Encounter (Gallup Press, November 2007)

The paper can be found here.

In it, Dr. Fleming and Mr. Asplund seek to draw a distinction and sharp contrast between "forced stack-rankings / purging" and a more reliable system for hiring employees based on a greater understanding of "talents".