In the world of sports, great teams win championships.
Sure there can be the debate that teams like the New York Yankees or Miami Heat capture titles because they “buy” talent, but even those teams don’t win every time. That is because the team that best uses its talents from top to bottom is ultimately the one that wins.
The analogy doesn’t change much in business. Companies with great talent that works as a team tend to see drastically better results than organizations with lesser talent, shaky cultures, or a combination of the two.
While this seems obvious, I see so many organizations that miss it. They don’t make personnel a high enough portion of the strategy, and outcomes end up suffering.
One of the biggest areas I see minimized in an organization’s human resource plan is talent development—moreover the plan to develop talent from within rather than just hiring outside whenever a need arises. This is a mistake I’ve made and have seen happen time and time again.
As a sports fan, I call this a weak farm system. (For those who aren’t sports fans, every organization in major league baseball has a system of minor league teams focused on developing ball players.)
Likened to business, this is hiring an entry level person with the intention of them growing into an associate, management or even executive level position over time with the right nurturing, training and development. It’s an ideal approach, but one that most companies do not do well.
