top tips for talent b&t 6 aug 2010

10 BANDT.COM.AU AUGUST 6 2010

‘Stand Up’ or ‘Move Forward’? That’s the prosaicchoice of bodily motion major political parties aresuggesting Australians contemplate for the dura-tion of this election campaign, in what is shapingup to be perhaps the drabbest in modern history.

Both slogans, and the campaigns they support,are an abject study in the blandness of outcomeachieved by a purely research driven approach.

To be clear, the precision of the wording, thepresentation of issues and check-a-box approachto policy outline from both sides is masterful.

Check out content of the opening advertisingconstructions from each party. Both candidatesare for a strong economy. Genius. Tick that box.Border security? Tick the Labor box to ‘stop peo-ple smugglers’ and choose Liberal to ‘stop theboats’ – each word carefully tested and crafted.The precise use of the term ‘boats’ chosen to evokethe term ‘boat-people’ and tap into the fear of acertain constituency. Sustainable population. Tick.Schools and solar power. Check.

Research shows Tony Abbott has a problembeing perceived as truthful? The solution? Arm himwith a signed ‘Action Contract’ complete with offi-cial looking seal. Leave aside the impression creat-ed by a man who needs a document as a proxy forhis honour – make no mistake the device is a care-fully crafted response to the data.

For Julia Gillard, her strategists will have ‘highfived’ at the duality of meaning in the line ‘Let’smove forward together’. It distances the PM fromRudd’s demise and positions Abbott as a throw-back to Howard’s era. That we are left with no realsense of where we are moving to doesn’t seem tomatter: we can be sure the line tested well.

Then there’s the predictable ‘heard it all before’swag of negative attacks ads. Increasingly thesefeel like they do more to denigrate the politicalprocess than land a killer blow on either candidate.

The result of this numbers-driven frenzy iswork from both sides devoid of vision or inspira-tion, or worse, any compelling sense of personality.

Arguably, Australia stands at a pivotal moment.As a nation we’re starting to grasp that our recenteconomic performance is a function of our new-found place in the world’s fastest growing time-zone. We are starting to look forward to the futurewith a mix of genuine opportunity and optimismtempered with a concern for global issues such asclimate change. Lamentably, both campaigns aredevoid of any real connection to the potentialwatershed occurring within our national psyche.

Last year Seek published its annual Satisfaction &Motivation report, which identified the top thingsemployees most hated about their current jobs.

Number one was the quality of management.Number two was personal stress levels. Numberthree was lack of feedback. And the fourth highestwas career development (or the perceived totallack of it). This suggests many of Australia’s boss-es aren’t all that great when it comes to develop-ing the talents of their direct reports. And this hasled me to the conclusion that talent developmentis something better not to outsource.

On this note, I’d like to volunteer three top tipsfor young talent:

Tip 1. Be your own ‘Talent Manager’. There’s anold cliché that “there’s no ‘I’ in Team”. I’d like to con-tribute to the cliché yearbook by adding: “There’sno ‘U’ in Talent... but there should be”. Ultimatelyyour personal development is down to You. Youngtalent must take full responsibility for careerdevelopment rather than leaving it to The Boss.

Let’s face it, nobody is ever going to care asmuch about your career as you.

Tip 2. Manage Your Personal Brand. OK, so intruth people are people and brands are brands.

But if you think of the professional identity youproject as being your ‘brand’ then it might help youavoid some talent pitfalls. The biggest mistakeyoung talent often makes is a failure to managetheir image, especially when social media isinvolved. Professional embarrassment is poten-tially only ever a Google search away. Be carefulwhat you post and tweet and be careful of the pho-tos you tag.

Tip 3. Patience is a Virtue. David McDonnell,learning & development manager for The Herald &Weekly Times, has some words of advice for Gen Y:“Being so keen to progress, I think young talent canget a little ahead of themselves at times, with con-fidence sometimes outweighing capabilities.

They must be very careful to ensure they don’tburn any bridges with older generations withintheir network who may not understand their ‘mustget there now’ mentality, when these older work-ers may well have spent 20 or more years gettingto where they are. The advice here is: “slow downto speed up.”

As for me, the single best piece of careeradvice that I’ve ever been given is to strive tomake yourself become “indispensible”. Make your-self very good at the one thing people around youat work can't manage well without.

comm

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THE DULLNESS OF CAM-PAIGNING BY NUMBERS

AUSTRALIA’S GOT PLENTYOF YOUNG TALENT

TO MAKE A COMMENT EMAIL EDITORIAL@BANDT.COM.AU

Ben ColmanCEOColman Rasic

Adam Joseph Readership director, Herald Sun, Melbourne

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