Matthew A Sloane's blog

Change brings with it anxiety, excitement, and a desire to know and affect our future. Yet when it comes to predicting how we will feel when the change is accomplished, we are not very accurate. Sometimes we believe we will experience pure joy, and other times, extreme conflict — what makes us think we can know this feeling ahead of time? Let's look at an example of change in the workplace that illustrates what I mean.

Talent - the natural ability to advance to an above-average skill level with minimal or no effort - is overrated. Yet many organizations hire for talent, and place "talent" at the top of the list of preferred employee attributes. The problem with emphasizing talent over other factors is this: talent merely determines where you begin at a certain point in time, not how you improve towards mastery of a skill over time.