How to express yourself
at best a talent?
How do you build a sample?
Personally, I've never looked for ready-made champions, partly because they cost too much and I couldn't afford them, or sometimes they were too self-conscious and a bit arrogant, so to speak. So I looked for a high-potential talent , someone who had tried to do things in life, had made mistakes, and was somehow hungry for redemption and a second chance ... that was the ideal candidate...
Simply put, for example, Francesco, my first sales representative: a guy from a very ordinary family, who didn't graduate so he could work and help his family, a basketball lover, a smiley face, who had tried to start a business venture but hadn't fully succeeded... who didn't know much about digital but wanted an ambitious project like representing FiloBlu in Milan, a guy who saw an opportunity for every problem and looked for a solution.
A real stubborn guy, if you like, but he kept trying with clients until he got something. Francesco worked with me for 10 years, and together we've seen it all. The first six months of onboarding were crucial in my journey; I tried to spend as much time together as possible, with daily #stand-upmeetings (even at 8 in the morning to test him) and activities carried out together, supporting him: I expected him to be perfect in every single activity of the client acquisition process , of course, with his personal style, but with my standards, because he had to represent the company in my absence. I bothered Francesco about his posture, if the car or Mac were dirty, if he hadn't brought the projector, if he was slightly late, if I didn't like his jacket, if he hadn't asked the right questions during the negotiation or hadn't listened to the client, if he shifted too much in his chair back and forth and made his thoughts clear, if there was a typo in the offer and so on, giving constant #feedback (in private) on what I wanted and why I wanted it (feedback is another fundamental topic for me that I will return to soon and which is given little weight).
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Search for high-potential talent
Affiancamento e responsabilizzazione
A very close relationship was almost always established between me and the talents , which I had to reshape as the company grew, because they could no longer have a direct, continuous line, but had to become #responsible and take charge of the "little piece of the dream" and #team up with each other and bring me ready-made #solutions; the principle was simple: if I found the solution, things would go faster but they wouldn't take responsibility and my phone would ring continuously and the modus operandi would not be #scalable, I would become a block (which unfortunately happens in many companies due to a mania for control).
Looking back, I have to say that the greatest satisfaction is that the guys I personally supported at the beginning, and who I bothered the most, turned out to be the most loyal and long-lasting in the company and were able to create their own team; all this amidst sometimes bitter clashes, new challenges, successes and moments of uncertainty and problems overcome together with flying colors . I honestly don't believe their growth is ultimately my merit: I think I simply enabled them to express themselves ; much of the credit goes to them for not giving up, for they were able to find their own path, their daily motivations, take on the responsibility and lead by example .
And then there was the acid test… I'd end the new hire interview by saying, "Welcome aboard, learn quickly because starting tomorrow you have six months to find your deputy and replacement, because in six months you'll be needed at other tables; find someone better than you or you'll have no problems"… usually the response was, "But how? I still have to start..."
It might not have happened in six months, but within a year, that young person would certainly have moved on to another job, either in the same specialty but at a higher level, or in a new role: for example, from customer care to sales assistant, then store manager, retail manager, and business analyst. Or from customer care to back office sales, then independent in project development and client management, to account manager and sales manager: this is Samantha's rise over her 10-year career with the company.
Crash test and baptism of fire
There are so many stories like these, as well as those of many young people who have decided to start their own companies or become super consultants.
Have we created a talent pool?
I don't know, but I think there's simply little faith in young people in Italy, and sometimes even in women in certain roles. Go to China, for example, and you'll see 23-year-olds managing complex teams and million-dollar projects. And in Italy? In business, but also in sports, we continue to bet on tired and uneager horses, out of shortsightedness , for fear of taking risks, and a lack of a culture of error. We play it safe with choices that most people won't criticize.
But let's get back to us. The growth path wasn't for everyone... because in between there were the so-called "crash tests"... during the probationary period, and I must say with a certain cyclical nature in the company, it was my job to make the talents "explode"... not in the positive sense of making them flourish, pushing them to the breaking point to understand their #limits and to what extent I could trust them... I remember that on a trip to China I went with Francesco, another Francesco, a business analyst with us... We spent endless days in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, and even cities in the heart of China, visiting the most famous marketplaces: I was so impressed by their size that I wondered if it still made sense to try to do something in Europe.
I remember we were rushing around like crazy, and Francesco was in charge of arranging trips and meetings… he had prepared a series of address sheets in Chinese… in careful succession. I moved quickly and drove him crazy, but he never gave up, always smiling, while sweating like crazy to please me… It was his baptism of fire, and he passed with flying colors… with flying colors because I discovered unexpected sales skills : with his physicality and manner (he was a bit corpulent, fair-skinned, and cheerful), he inspired confidence in his presentations and was more effective than me (who appeared thin, dark-skinned, and didn't smile much)… Chinese culture worked like that, how funny!
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Autonomy and passion
For me, it was essential to push the guys to their limits because that way I knew if and until when I could trust them to #delegate and no longer have any major worries. Sometimes they'd explode, get pissed off, but then come back stronger; sometimes they'd give up and suddenly leave, almost by osmosis... because the team itself rejected them... because they weren't deemed up to our challenges.
“Christian, this boy doesn't deserve to be here, he doesn't deserve to be on our team because he doesn't put in the same effort as us, he's not a team player... he's not humble and he doesn't make himself available.”
or, “Christian, who does she think she is? She may have managed a great project, but she doesn't get her hands dirty and doesn't want to learn our work method, so she doesn't help us even though she has a lot of experience” or even “she's too slow, it's not possible, no matter what, she finishes every evening at 5:30 and doesn't study on her own”.
This was actually a good sign; the team had become aware and autonomous , they knew what they wanted and could thus #search, #find, #grow. Sometimes I even worried because I wouldn't hear from them for weeks, so much was their desire to handle even major "messes" on their own to prove they were there. Or they would come asking for new challenges and with #opportunities they wanted to tackle, new technologies, working methods: "Christian, we're a bit tired, we need new projects!" or "We want to create our own headless interface, it would be useful for the store management team and marketing, it's not on the market, we'd like to try", or even "We're working with Google to create the first completely cloud-based architecture in Italy capable of managing multiple independent stores: it will be a mess hahah, but we believe it will solve performance issues during critical periods like Black Friday and thus increase conversions".
It was all energy and a natural word of mouth was triggered among the kids who wanted to join our team: what a satisfaction to be a center of attraction!
Author - Christian Nucibella