A New Breed of Performer. Are You One?
This morning I was laying in bed doing my usual “Sunday Morning Tweeting” from my iPhone and a series of tweets started a thought process that totally revolutionized my thinking as it pertains to Personal Branding, Talent Management, and the Creative Economy. Interesting mix, I know… BUT I am hoping that over the next few months, I can completely get this idea out in a way that compels Business Leaders to start thinking about business and talent procurement differently.
Personal Branding - Until now I looked at it in the same way that a LOT of people do. I looked at it from this perspective…
1. Discover what it is you like to do, or that you you do at a very high level…
2. Package this “thing” in a way that the world understands…
3. Write an incredible description of the “thing” that you do AKA “elevator pitch”
4. Jump in the marketplace and “monetize”
NOW… This is a very basic topographical view of the process BUT it gives you a clear idea of how Personal Branding is viewed, OF course there are a LOT of other factors that come into play, like, trust building, relationship building and many other actors BUT at the core of it… ALLL of these things are to support three functions - 1. Finding 2. Packaging 3. Monetizing a human being. Period.
Industrial Economy vs Creative Economy
As we all know - we are in the dawn of a very interesting transition. We are transitioning from the Industrial age where it was all about bigger ads, more production, and market saturation TO the creative age where it’s about niche markets, relationship marketing, and fringe interaction…
Again… VERY basic view of a pretty complex thing BUT I am just setting a stage of thought here…
Talent Acquisitions and Management
THIS is where things are getting hazy, and I authentically feel that I have found where the gap is between organizations tapping into what I feel could be one of the most dynamic workforces we have ever seen and not tapping in.
FOREVER we have looked at talent as these “cut and dry” lines that defined the attributes of a persons skill set. For instance… Before we could find a “Designer” who all he/she did was “design” OR we could find a “Writer” and all he/she did was “write” - BUT NOW as we move into the Creative Economies and as we see that more and more people are tapping into what has now been tagged their “DNA”, that thing they were created to do, we are seeing a totally different type of Performer being born. These people do not work solely for a “pay check” IN FACT many times they work for the passion of their crafts and they operate at a VERY high level because the thing(s) that they do, are AUTHENTIC skill-sets.
Sounds exciting right? People working in their DNA, doing what they were designed to do… WELL it’s exciting UNTIL the people doing this run into a BIG brick wall when it comes to monetizing what it is that they do. I see this all the time in the Social Media space… People who are master “Connectors” of people, and brilliant “Conversationalist” which if you have been in Social Media for any length of time, you KNOW these are key roles in the Social Media puzzle, absolutely have the hardest time monetizing their DNA…
Here are some thoughts…
What if we are totally approaching the Personal Branding process wrong? What if we are branding people from a industrial mindset and not a creative mindset? What if the marketplace is NOT ready for a new breed of Performer? WHAT IF the marketplace does not even know WHAT TO LOOK FOR? Thus making it hard for the individual who has found their DNA hard to monetize? What if the people at Corporations are not using the right “filters” to find talent? REAL TALENT? DNA driven talent? What if I am a “Connector” by DNA BUT I have to call myself a Public Relations Pro, FOR the sake of the industry understanding what it is that I do… ONLY TO DISCOVER that I am NOT a Public Relations Pro BUT I am a Disruptive Breed of Performer? What IF I am a hybrid between a Public Relations Pro and a Microblogger a “Connector”?
Okay… All of this may be somewhat confusing. OR you may be having the exact same “ah-ha” moment that I have been having for the last 48 hours.
In todays business landscape it is going to be imperative that two things happen…
1. People have to start realizing that hey are Human. Multi-dimensional and multi faceted, with unique skill sets, and the branding process has to start there. NOT some pre-packaged defined role that we have had forever - BUT fresh new roles that are specialized and powerful…
2. The Marketplace has to rethink how we find talent. We have to be willing to go beyond titles and start looking at the actual work that’s being produced from todays talent and leveraging these unique skill-sets to bring about authentic and relevant innovation.
