. I found it very thought provoking from the perspective of someone who has built and managed software teams. They define four key activities of a great manager: Select for talent, define outcomes, focus on strengths, find the right fit. Except for the second, the other three are about talent.
Talent is, as they describe it,
" a recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behaviour that can be productively applied".These patterns are formed early in life and become progressively harder to change. By the time one is getting out of one's teens they are fixed for life.
Therefore, when selecting an entry level software engineer, one must be very clear about what talents the organization expects of a software engineer. What it expects has to be based on what are the organizational values and culture (more on values and culture in a subsequent post). Values and culture decide how the talent will be used. A person may have a talent for problem solving. The problems the person likes to solve is decided by the person's values. No company wants problem solvers whose values do not prevent them from hacking the company's accounting system.
In appendix C the authors list some talents which are most frequently required across different roles. In the next post I will discuss some that I would look for in selecting at the entry, and team lead levels.
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