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    Talent Master: 199+ Questions to See Talent from Different Angles
    Talent Master: 199+ Questions to See Talent from Different Angles
    Talent Master: 199+ Questions to See Talent from Different Angles
    Ebook223 pages3 hours

    Talent Master: 199+ Questions to See Talent from Different Angles

    By Pearl Zhu

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    About this ebook

    We live in a time of rapidly changing technology and business dynamic at the dawn of the Digital Era, The knowledge life cycle is significantly shortened, and a huge skill gap in the workforce needs to be filled due to the continuously updated technology and regulation, digitalization and globalization, etc. Growth minds, new skills, or digital capabilities are needed every day. However, who are the future of digital leaders and professionals at the age of Digital? How do you define digital professionals, identify talent gaps, and improve digital professionalism both at the individual level and organizational Level?

    Generally speaking, a professional is an individual with the expertise of some specific area, who earns his or her livings from that expertise. Being professional also means that the individual not only has the skill but also presents the high-quality professionalism such as positive mentality and attitude, fair judgments and good behaviors, creativity and high intelligence.

    The book “Talent Master - 199 + Questions to See Talent from Different Angles“ is the guidebook to help digital professionals shape digital fit mindset, improve multidimensional digital intelligence, build a unique set of digital capabilities, inspire creativity, improve professionalism, and unleash their full talent potential. It is also a playbook to help digital leaders and business managers set updated digital principles to innovate talent management, performance management, acknowledgment management and culture management, to integrate them into a holistic people management solution, and leap digital transformation to the next level of maturity.

    Chapter 1 Digital Fit: “Digital fit” should be first defined as “mind fit.” The right mindset is an utmost quality for being a right fit because the power of the mind is the force to change the business or even the world for better, and then following with attitude fit and behavior fit. Digital contemporary fitness requires envision
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateAug 13, 2016
    ISBN9781483577739
    Talent Master: 199+ Questions to See Talent from Different Angles

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      Book preview

      Talent Master - Pearl Zhu

      Author

      Introduction

      Being a digital professional inherently and inextricably links with high levels of professionalism.

      Figure 1 Five Digital Aspects in Professional Quality

      We live in a time of rapidly changing technology and business dynamic at the dawn of the Digital Era, The knowledge life cycle is significantly shortened, and a huge skill gap in the workforce needs to be filled due to the continuously updated technology and regulation, digitalization and globalization, etc. Growth minds, new skills, or digital capabilities are needed every day. However, who are the future of digital leaders and professionals at the age of Digital? How do you define digital professionals, identify talent gaps, and improve digital professionalism both at the individual level and organizational Level?

      Generally speaking, a professional is an individual with the expertise of some specific area, who earns his or her livings from that expertise. Being professional also means that the individual not only has the skill but also presents the high-quality professionalism such as positive mentality and attitude, fair judgments and good behaviors, creativity and high intelligence.

      The book "Talent Master - 199 + Questions to See Talent from Different Angles" is the guidebook to help digital professionals shape digital fit mindset, improve multidimensional digital intelligence, build a unique set of digital capabilities, inspire creativity, improve professionalism, and unleash their full talent potential. It is also a playbook to help digital leaders and business managers set updated digital principles to innovate talent management, performance management, acknowledgment management and culture management, to integrate them into a holistic people management solution, and leap digital transformation to the next level of maturity.

      Chapter 1 Digital Fit: Digital fit should be first defined as mind fit. The right mindset is an utmost quality for being a right fit because the power of the mind is the force to change the business or even the world for better, and then following with attitude fit and behavior fit. Digital contemporary fitness requires envisioning new perspectives, shaping new boxes of thinking, and building new competency.

      Chapter 2 Digital Intelligence: Intelligence has been defined in many different ways such as in terms of one’s capacity for logic, abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, learning, emotional knowledge, memory, planning, creativity and problem solving. Whether someone is intelligent or not depends entirely on what you are asking them to accomplish with their brain. Digital intelligence is multidimensional and contextual, with ultimate goals to gain wisdom.

      Chapter 3 Digital Creativity: Creativity is the high level of intelligence. Creativity is expressive, productive, inventive, innovative and emergent. The innovators with digital creativity are simply those who can see what’s around, and easily and effortlessly discover a better way to do things. Creativity is a synthesis of two qualities: imagination with which you create new ideas and the concreteness with which you can transform ideas into real work.

      Chapter 4 Digital Professionalism: The online dictionary defines professionalism is the skill, good judgment, and polite behavior that is expected from a person who is trained to do a job well. Hence, it doesn’t mean if you had a profession, you would be automatically a well-respected professional with professionalism. High professionalism is a mindset, principle and discipline.

      Chapter 5 Digital Potential: Potential is about future performance, not past performance. How well do individuals continue to perform and grow in their current roles, how likely can they take on new challenges at work, rapidly learn and grow into next-level roles, or roles that are expanded and redefined as the business changes? Individuals showing potential are distinguished usually by their mastery of new roles quickly and effectively, learning more rapidly than their peers, more innovate in problem-solving. Either at individual or business level, performance helps you motivated and keeps your business running, churning numbers etc, whereas potential can leap digital professionals or businesses to the next level.

      Who are digital professionals? In the following chapters, there are 199+ insightful questions and talent debates listed to see talent from different angles, to make an objective assessment, and to engage readers in brainstorming the future of work and sparking fresh ideas for talent management innovation.

      •   Being a digital professional means consistency: At the dawn of digital age, the bar is actually raised higher for either being a digital leader or being a digital professional. Because, nowadays, the line between our professional life and personal life is blurring, thanks for the technology to make everything so transparent. Being a digital professional doesn’t just mean the face you post at work or the talk you have in the meeting. It’s more about the consistent image you deliver about being who you are or the mentality you have in or out of working hours. It becomes a life attitude as well.

      •   Being a digital professional means the high level of maturity: A professional is someone who has a high level of maturity and treats everyone as a human being. Maturity and humane attitude are necessary qualities of any good human being, including professionals. As our digitized world becomes hyper-connected, over-complex and interdependent, a digital professional is a person who:

      -is thinking independently with the capability to make a good judgment,

      -is clear about his or her responsibility and added value in the organization and the world,

      -has the expertise and integrity to substantiate what he or she stands for,

      -works according to the principles, but with the courage to break the rule, if out of date,

      -is accountable, which first of all means he or she is willing to articulate thinking processes behind decisions and actions.

      •   Being a digital professional means anti-unprofessionalism: A true professional dislikes, and even fights against those unprofessional phenomenon such as: unsatisfactory communication, back-biting and rumor-mongering, bully, obsessive favoritism, discrimination (age, racial, sexual, etc), harassment of any kind, abuse of any kind, and lack of inclusiveness. These are just some of the characteristics -and the numerous possible combinations thereof which make a workplace more or less toxic.

      •   Being a digital professional means to master the special sets of digital capabilities: If industrial professionals make career advancement more base on who they know, due to the traditional silo setting; then digital professionals equip themselves with game-changing mindsets, from discovery, autonomy to mastery, to grow into who they are, by exploring the expanded talent pipeline. Further, the VUCA reality requires digital professionals to have the following skill set to be heading in a professional direction!

      -Capacity to be non-judgmental

      -Tolerance for ambiguity

      -Capacity to appreciate and communicate respect for other people’s ways

      -Capacity to demonstrate empathy

      -Capacity to be flexible

      -Willingness to think differently and acquire new patterns of behavior

      -Humility to acknowledge what you don’t know

      -Capacity to see the bigger picture

      -Capacity to challenge outdated mindsets, inappropriate behaviors and provide feedback

      •   Being a digital professional means to cultivate digital leadership qualities, which include:

      -Learning agility: They need to exercise a strong mix of judgment or creativity in unison with the practical skills they bring to bear.

      -Integrity: Integrity is about the completeness, totality or moral soundness in the behavior.

      -Responsibility & accountability: A professional is responsible for his/her actions. He or she should be accountable to his or her company, to himself/herself or his/her conscience.

      -Respect: Respect others if you want others to respect you, not simply based on their position or power only, more based on their ability and behavior.

      -Humility: One of the true tests of a professional is to know when you don’t know. Having met the professional standard and achieved the credential to practice a profession.

      -Leadership: Lead, Follow or Get out of the way. Leaders are both nature and nurtured, they become leaders by vision, determination, and constant efforts.

      Being a digital professional inherently and inextricably links with high levels of professionalism. A professional is an individual who strives to represent skill and delivers quality. A professional is specially trained to practice a profession without even being employed by someone. A digital professional presents high mature professionalism which means: the mastery of digital capabilities, sound judgments via independent thinking, positive attitudes to fighting unprofessionalism, humilities to the things they don’t know, and polite behaviors to act cohesively.

      Chapter 1 Digital Fit

      Digital fit should be first defined as mind fit, and then following with attitude fit and behavior fit.

      People are always the most invaluable asset in businesses. Hiring the right person for the right position at the right time, is the mantra of many forward-thinking organizations. The question is how would you define the right people? How do you define wrong, average, mediocre, good, great or extraordinary person? Or put simply, for what should they be right? How do you define Digital Fit?

      Figure 2 Digital Professional Fit

      The term ‘fit’ can be interpreted with a degree of variability: "Digital fit should be first defined as mind fit, and then following with attitude fit and behavior fit. Where you want to look for ‘fit’ is in relation to the cognitive intelligence to speed up digital transformation, values you want to build or maintain within your team, and the kinds of behaviors that you would expect to see as a result of, or in alignment with, those values. ‘Fit’ doesn’t mean that everyone needs to have the same thought process, the same personalities, the same preferences, or the same experiences. On the opposite, the beauty is in the color of characters and many shades of creativity. Fit and diversity are not mutually exclusive. Just because two different people have different backgrounds, different approaches, and different opinions, it does not mean they can’t be a good fit. Organizational fit means incluversity, not about cookie cutting or hiring clones. Further more, fit or misfit is contextual. Are you planning to build a homogeneous or heterogeneous team; a complimentary team or a competitive team? Organizations need to be thoughtful about whether you are hiring people who are an obvious fit," and passing on people who are less so, at least on the surface. Thought, skill and experience diversity are what make effective innovation and growth possible, and you are selling short when you hire for homogeneity. Organizational fit from conventional lenses makes relationships easy and perpetuates the status quo, so if companies are satisfied with where they are and going, and then they should pay attention to the profound understanding about the Digital Fit. If things need to change, then they need to quit hiring clones. What is important is that everyone feels committed to the goals of the team, and are comfortable with the behavioral expectations associated with those goals. The fitness is also an important predictor of retention, so finding someone with the right fit can be a significant cost saving over time if turnover has been a challenge for you.

      1 Authenticity

      Authenticity is not only a leadership quality but a digital professional trait.

      Most of the employees at the pyramidal organization in the industrial age are like cogs in the mechanical business wheel, keep working, but lack the big picture about the strategic goals of their organizations as well as lack the imagination about their own potential. Now the new digital paradigm that is emerging is one of a living organization, one that is organic, alive, energetic, fluid, and holistic. Like living cells, the staff can continue to discover and grow, be creative and influential. So an important perspective for either talent managers or employees themselves is to ask tough questions, discover authenticity and purpose of people, unleash the collective human potential and business potential as well.

      Q1: Who are you, as an individual, a digital professional or a leader? There are many good talent theories around from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to Belbin’s team role, or Daniel Pink’s motivation formula of autonomy, mastery, and purpose. The very goal is to discover the people’s potential and keep their energy flow toward the positive direction. When digital workers are inspired to discover who they are, their inner genius, and are empowered to grow into who they want to be, the negative emotions and unhealthy competitions are discouraged and every member can bring some wisdom to the workplace. Therefore, the members of an organization reflect its culture, meaning you select team members who are nature fit. Culture is determined by behaviors - how do you act/react to everything at all times? It is a reflection of the mindset. Successful culture change helps people become who they are. By encouraging people to focus on who they are, and pursue the purpose discovery, autonomy, and mastery, the great culture catalyzes positive mind, attitude, and behaviors; but discourages negativity and unprofessionalism.

      Q2: What is your strength and how can you build a set of distinctive professional capabilities? Be able to see our strengths and weaknesses without self-judgment is possible and healthy. As we begin to appreciate and love our own inner qualities that were perhaps not recognized before except in times of extreme duress. If you truly want to expand and discover the talent and strengths then nothing beats the ritual of us getting out of the comfort zone, strengthen your strength and build a unique portfolio of competency and capabilities, and practice expert power based on critical thinking and creative thinking, insight and wisdom. From talent management perspective, it’s important to encourage authenticity, purpose driven talent development and management, and discourage negative competition or unprofessionalism. Strength needs to be built via continuous practices, and competencies are interrelated with the traits and expertise. Neither one overshadows the other, they complement each other. Knowledge workers, especially high professionals in the digital era should learn and practice their expert power and make influence via persuasion and insight sharing proactively.

      Q3: Are you consistent with what you think, what you say and what you act? Consistency doesn’t mean to keep static, change is only constant, consistency means you can do a lot of different things in your career or life, but keep consistent of having intellectual curiosity, a growth mindset, a learning attitude; and building cohesive capabilities; or you can stick to one thing, but doing damn well, shows consistent progress and keep a beginner’s mindset. It means the digital professionals with consistency can make a better balance, capture the substance of digital professionalism and trace the root at the heart of change dynamic. They are consistent in the habit of learning, delearning and relearning, not only do they keep consistent on themselves; but also they look for consistency in their teams, in their organization as well as in the ecosystem, as consistency harmonizes humanities.

      An authentic leader has character and courage to decide and act; an authentic digital professional can release more positive energy to influence the surroundings. The points like motivation, characteristics, personality and confidence can be the indicator of original thinking which is also a trait of being authentic. Be aware of your strengths and weaknesses, and be aware of how you impact others and your environment. It is crucial to getting to understand yourself and how others perceive you. "But change must always be balanced with some degree of consistency." - Ron D. Burton.

      2 Confidence

      Confidence is a like a ray of sunshine, brightens the surroundings.

      People are always the most invaluable asset in organizations, talent managers always hunt for the best and brightest, but often the best or the brightest need to be assessed via the qualitative lenses, rather than quantitative measurement. Confidence is such a qualitative attribute to make one look brighter than others, but where does confidence come from, and can you be self-confident, not arrogant?

      Q4: Do you have a positive mentality? Confidence is often a reflection of your innate mentality. Being positive is within yourself, reflects your personality, thought process put into action. A positive mental attitude is focused on strength, opportunities, and inspired actions. Confident people with positive attitude see the bright side, they have a special mindset that rain or shine, leads them to positive outcomes. It is about being your best, not beating another in a negative way. The attempting to beat another puts the bar just high enough to beat the other, whereas your best can put your bar far higher. Confidence is not equal to ego, self-centeredness, or arrogance. Ego is actually another major stumbling block. Being confident means you know who you are, you limitation and what you don’t know, so you communicate in a consistent way. If you feel you always need to be the smartest one in the room, you’re missing out. Therefore, truly confident people often ask more than answer; compliment more than humiliate; take more risks than avoid making mistakes, and confident people with a positive attitude do positive things and make positive differences.

      Q5: Can you strike the right balance between confidence and humility? Be confident means to be comfortable in your own skin. Be authentic to be true to oneself and to the world at all times -To have the ability to know that nobody is perfect

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