The Keep-Getting-Better-Focus N° 6

Talent
Recruiting AND
Mentoring.

Now, that’s what everybody in business is after: Good people. No choice to do else. However: »A good pal nowadays is hard to find,« as the line of a famous Broadway musical went (okay, back in the last century, in the 20ies at that – but still perfectly valid). A »pal« is of course something like a »chum«, a friend even, and thus not exactly what organisations should be looking for. But then, the expression »pal« still gives a hint at why any organization must hold Talent Recruiting + Mentoring dear: As pals are desirable in life, young talent is desirable in business. Organizations must show and tell (and mean it): That young talent is of utter importance to the organization.* That the organization wants young talents to join. That young talents will not be merely »hired« – that they will be »cherished«, »nourished«, supported, developed, made to grow. Don’t fool yourselves here: For young talents it’s not just a question of money whom to join. Not in the first place. And, don’t forget: Young people are ambassadors, too. If they are hooked by your organisation’s styles and cares, they might be going to hook others (their pals?), too.

(*No doubt this goes for all the organization’s employees, whether young, »old«, future or on board for ages. Coaching, mentoring, »corporate caring« (as we call it) are highly effective measures to be provided for all employees – for them to grow, to develop, and to stay happy, and healthy.) 

One more sentence:

// The continuous process of liberating our minds from the programs implanted in our brains is a prerequisite of personal evolution. We can embark on that process of liberation only by constantly and consciously testing the ways in which our personal variety has been and is being constrained by the very things we tend to hold most dear. //

Stafford Beer (1926–2002)
British Economist, »Cybernetic« and Behavioural Psychologist