The Talent Myth

The Talent Myth is a concept conceived by Malcolm Gladwell in a July 2002 article in The New Yorker. He comments on the hiring and promotion process that occurs in firms and how what is defined as 'talent' is misconstrued and leads firms to be worse off than expected. Talent in the firms' eyes, he stresses, is described as something separate from employee performance. Therefore it is unclear how and why this same 'talent' is used for promotions.

Contents

• The talent myth why you aren t successful yet
• Jacob kaplan moss the talent myth at the wharton school
• References

Gladwell introduced this concept of the "talent myth" to explain how some firms with excellent reputations and the apparent ability to attract the best employees often exercise this power incorrectly. His work examines different managerial and administrative techniques that companies, both winners and losers, have used. He states that the misconception seems to be that management and executives are all too ready to classify employees without ample performance records and thus makes hasty decisions. Specifically, he cites how Enron in particular prided itself on only choosing the best and the brightest from its pool of applicants and then offered disproportionate rewards and promotions to what they deemed as 'star' performers. At Enron, employees were reviewed annually and placed into three categories, and from there either rapidly promoted with large bonuses, given moderate bonuses, or, for the worst performing, possibly layoffs. However with the quick rise of inexperienced workers with little in-depth performance review, promotions are often incorrectly made, putting employees into positions they should not have and keeping other more experienced employees from rising. Enron supposedly experienced this many fold, where 'stars' were deemed based on irrelevant factors and thus promoted to positions for which they were unfit. Gladwell states that this system of promotion was part of the reason Enron would eventually face its demise.

He also points out that under this system, narcissistic personality types are more likely to climb the ladder, since they are more likely to take more credit for achievements and take less blame for failure. He states both that narcissists make the worst managers due to their reluctance to relate to their workers, look to others' guidance, and accept responsibility for mistakes.

Gladwell believes that the most successful long-term companies are those who reward experience above all else and require greater time for promotions. Under this basic system, real talent can be measured through more accurate evaluations and position employees in the appropriate positions.