Do It Now
At their weekly update, Blake could hardly wait to tell Charles about Clint’s first day on the job.
“Good morning, Blake,” Charles said as he walked in the office. “How was last week?”
“Outstanding. I attended a seminar—wish you could have been there.”
“A seminar? I didn’t hear about it. Were you out of town?”
“No, it was at my house. I learned about creating a Talent Magnet from my son.”
“Have Clint and his friends been strategizing again?”
“No, he actually found a job. It sounds like all we’ve been trying to create.”
“Where is it?”
“The other side of town.”
“Is it a big place?”
“A few hundred employees.”
“What else do you know?” Charles asked.
“I know we have to move faster on this,” Blake said. “When my son and his friends graduate from college, they are not going to work for us. They are going to work for people like Julie, Clint’s new boss.”
“We’re on it, Blake. I’m here today to share our latest thinking. We’ve been working to understand what it takes to create a powerful Talent Magnet.” Charles laid it out in a simple equation:
“The strength of our Talent Magnet is equal to our ability to deliver on our promise: Better Boss, Brighter Future, and a Bigger Vision multiplied by the Awareness of our promise,” he said.
“Where did you get the formula?” Blake asked.
“We were inspired by the real formula for the force, or strength, of a magnet. The B stands for the density of the magnetic field, and A equals the surface area of the magnet.
“In our case, the density of the magnetic field is determined by how well we deliver on our promise—all three elements. Then, rather than A for area, we’ve switched it up to refer to Awareness. The parallel is striking: a magnet with a small surface area is weak, and in our case, if awareness is low, we will have a weak Talent Magnet.”
“That’s interesting—and, it makes a lot of sense to me. What do we do next?” Blake asked.
“We’ve created a draft of leadership best practices you and I discussed in our last meeting. We know this list is just a start—there are many other ways to strengthen our Talent Magnet. However, we believe having a list of actual behaviors will be huge for improving our execution against the promise. Without our leaders’ ongoing and daily involvement, we’ll never become a Talent Magnet.”
Charles shared the list with Blake:
After a moment, Blake said, “I have two thoughts. First, I love the list! It moves this idea of a Talent Magnet from a clever metaphor to an actionable plan for competitive advantage. Please tell your team I said thanks. I’ll stop by myself soon, but for now, please relay my heartfelt appreciation.
“Second, I agree with something you said a moment ago.”
“You do? What was that?” Charles asked.
“You said we would never be able to create a Talent Magnet without our leaders. You are correct. That’s why I think these leadership best practices can be a game changer for us. The clarity is refreshing.” Blake reached out to shake Charles’s hand and said, “Thank you!”