Talents Vs. Skills And Why They're Important

Dear Import/Export Compliance Manager,

In your answer to Overjoyed in Oxnard regarding what type of person to hire for the second position in his/her import/export compliance department, you mentioned that you prefer to hire for talent versus hiring for skills.  Can you please expound upon this?  Thank you.

Hiring in Honolulu

Dear Hiring,

When going into the terms ‘talent’ and ‘skill’, the Import/Export Compliance Manager is using the definitions provided by a wonderful management book, First, Break All The Rules, by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.  The main ideas are that a) there are talents, which cannot be taught, and skills, which can and that b) great managers place employees in positions which will utilize their talents while teaching the skills.

Let’s use the example of public speaking.  Some people, the Import/Export Compliance Manager included, absolutely LOVE getting in front of groups and giving speeches or presentations.  Not only do they love to do it, they have become good at it, always getting rave reviews from the audience for being informative and entertaining.  For those people, public speaking is a talent.  For others, public speaking is not.  Perhaps they are petrified of it.  Perhaps they can do it but speak in a monotone and read off of their slides.  For this group, public speaking is most definitely not a talent.

What is a manager to do, then?  Should she allow the employee with the talent for public speaking to do all of the in-person trainings required for the Import/Export Compliance Department?  Or should she split the duties between the talented speaker and the untalented one, all the while attempting to increase the proficiency of the latter?  Buckingham and Coffman convincingly argue that great managers will let the talented speaker do all of the presentations as it is not worth the time to try to get the untalented speaker up to a level where they would both be good at and enjoy public speaking.  Instead, she would work on the talented speaker to make them even better.

Everyone has specific talents which absolutely cannot be taught.  In the Import/Export Compliance Manager’s opinion, the main ones in the world of import/export compliance are attention to detail, public speaking, empathy, indignance with the status quo, relationship-building, eagerness to learn, research, the ability to make sense of complicated information, creativity and data management.  To give another example, someone who is very shy in a public setting may be taught how to work a room but they will likely never be a natural at it.  It is imperative to know what talents are required for each position within the Import/Export Compliance Department and ensure that everyone has the ability to utilize their talents in their positions.  If necessary, change peoples’ responsibilities to correct any imbalances on that score.

Skills, on the other hand, can be taught.  Creating a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel is a skill.  Writing is a skill.  Filing export licenses applications is a skill.  Reading is a skill.  Yet, managing a 60,000 line spreadsheet with 15 columns is a talent.  Writing with verve and a flourish is a talent.  Ensuring that an export license application has all of the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed is a talent.  Reading a fifteen page legal brief and pulling the relevant details out without getting burned out is a talent.  You can teach the skill but not the talent.

How is this relevant to import/export compliance?  Well, when you’re hiring a manager, you need someone with both the required talents and the skills such as knowing how to work with government officials, all of the relevant import/export lingo and all of the potential risk areas.  When you’re hiring an Analyst or Specialist, it is better to, when choosing between the two, to hire for talent and not for skills.  You can teach the skills but you will never be able to teach the talent.  Maybe you will be able to make the person a little better with regard to the parts requiring talents but, within a six months of hiring, the person with talent may very well be ahead of the person who came in with skills. 

This is a high-level summary; read First, Break All The Rules to gain a better understanding.  These ideas may not work for everyone; perhaps you have seen exceptions yourself.  However, in a field like import/export compliance where there can be a paucity of experienced candidates, you’re always going to have to teach the successful candidate many concepts regardless.  Do whatever works for you!