"I see five specific bad talent habits over and over again. They all threaten the effectiveness of the modern organization," according to Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, professor of organizational psychology at University College London, in the Harvard Business Review website. He is also a vice president at Hogan Assessment Systems, a company focused on psychological assessments of job applicants and employees. So what mistakes do companies make?
1. Insufficient knowledge of corporate culture
The view of a company from the top down, i.e. from the highest levels of management, is often quite different from the view of ordinary employees. There is therefore a primary need to focus on what your corporate culture really looks like, not how you wish it looked.
2. Confusing employee engagement with satisfaction
The main goal of work is not employee satisfaction, but productivity. This can be achieved by improving employee engagement. In short, this means that managers should consider how to create interesting challenges for their employees instead of worrying about their satisfaction.
3. Ignoring office politics
Office politics include informal and often invisible forces that emphasize individual self-interests above the interests of the organization as a whole. The forces are everywhere and the more noticeable the more stress and dissatisfaction they cause. Office politics can even make employees consider leaving the company. Companies should therefore not underestimate this psychological phenomenon.
4. Misunderstanding leadership
Most managers are unfortunately, still being selected on the basis of their technical expertise or personal charisma rather than by their ability to build and manage teams. Charismatic leaders, moreover, often struggle with prioritizing their own interests ahead of the interests of the organization. The result is the absence of good leadership and even managerial incompetence.
5. Inability to use data
It is difficult to manage talent if you do not know which of your employees are talented. Employees should not be hired and promoted based only on intuition, but use hard data.
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