Australia’s got talent & retaining employees

I confess to having watched half an episode of Australia’s Got Talent. My my, its an eye opener. I wonder if there is a use for my shower voice after all. But it got me thinking that in business, there are people like the guy in the dodgy wig and way-too-tight pants singing ‘Chunky chick’. And while the judges booted him off, the crowd were pretty excited about him and his duet partner, the chunky chick. Maybe it isn’t just about what the person brings, but its also about the environment around them, and what the person becomes with the support and guidance of the right team.

Lets imagine that this dodgy wig guy is full of passion and energy in his workplace. He is the ideas guy – he comes up with innovations and gets the team revved up. His manager has white hair by now, or perhaps it’s all been pulled out, but maybe this guy is the one who has come up with an idea for a new ad campaign, or new technology for dispensing water in a vending machine, or for digging under the opera house and putting in a car park. Who knows. But that car park is something amazing, if you ask me.

The point is that people come to work with something to offer. Do we do as the judges did and effectively wrap a straight jacket around dodgy wig guy and send him backstage to sort the mail. Or do we look at him differently and offer him a nurturing environment to share his creative edge, his gutsy approach to life, his passion for life and his gravitas. Do we only hire people who we feel have some sort of generic talent, or do we hire people who have the right talent for what we’re looking for, who we can encourage to bring out their best. As Terry Kabachnick author of I quit but forgot to tell you says, ‘A business doesn’t make people successful, people make a business successful.’

So you start with a guy who is working somewhere that appreciates him and it doesn’t take a big leap to conclude that he will probably stay longer, work harder and be happier in a culture where he feels he is making a real impact and a difference and that his manager and organisation care whether he comes in to work each day.