‘Harnessing talent’ is another expression you hear a lot, usually about young talent. But harnesses are thick pieces of leather used to strap down, control and direct cattle and horses. So the last thing we want to do is harness talent. We want it de-harnessed, set free, challenged to try new things, to take ideas further than we were brave enough to.
I met a young leader recently who had just unharnessed herself from a big job. She just walked. They must be furious with themselves for losing her. And she is so frustrated and angry, talented and successful. She could not understand why established leaders were so intolerant of the young. Finally she burst out, “Why should we grow up when you lot refuse to yourselves?” I thought it was a good question.
At Common Purpose I am watching some of our young talent fly high and wide, and what a joy it is. But the harnessers do seem to dominate; you almost feel it’s that they want to harness talent so that it too can suffer and survive “as we did”. I hope the harnessing stops soon because we will need all the young talent we can set free to accelerate, when the time comes, out of the chaos we now find ourselves in.
I think there are so many young professinals having exactly this feeling. What can we do to open the eyes of the bottle necks? I get so upset that those old more experienced can be allowed to stop the your colleagues fruitful ideas. Thanks Sofie
By: Sofie Sandell on 3 February 2009
at 12:31 am
The strong materialistic paradigm of business breeds fear and insecurity. This is true even in the media. Ethnic Diversity is another example of huge talent and different leadership styles, but this is a threat to the elite. Modern realities of global warming, greed excesses are all challenging the fundamental paradigms of society. This does require fundamental shift in leadership, of which Common Purpose is a great example. If you look at Grammar Schools in UK, top performers tend to be ethnic minorities. What will happen when they graduate? If they migrate, it will be our huge loss.
By: Atul Shah on 17 April 2009
at 9:50 am