Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World

Can this person get you where you need to be way faster than any reasonable person could?

Or when conscientiousness truly does matter, make sure you interview the person’s references as well,

In essence, skinless scouting games boost variety at the expense of precision. You can engage a broader set of actors working on other things to send you their deal flow in exchange for value. This is a good idea if your filtering costs are low. Conversely, if deal costs are high, you might want to consider some element of risk. Either financial ri

“I want to see you leave this institution for a better offer than that—and you will!” is sometimes the message you need to send them. That too is an instance of raising their aspirations. Don’t assume that your best and most productive workers actually know what they are capable of, because very often they do not and need nudging in the right direc

When this person disagrees with you, do you think it will be as likely you are wrong as they are wrong?

Ethics are hard to test for. But watch for any whiff of less than stellar ethics in any candidate’s background or references. And avoid, avoid, avoid. Unethical people are unethical by nature, and the odds of a metaphorical jailhouse conversion are quite low.

So very often, if you are looking for a start-up that will hit it big, do something counterintuitive by seeking out people aiming, at least at first, to please smaller and weirder audiences.

“What is it you do to practice that is analogous to how a pianist practices scales?”

Status-seekers focus on maximizing attention from the perceived elite. Idea-seekers, on the other hand, want to advance knowledge and stimulate curiosity, speaking to the entire room and holding the attention of the group.

Those individuals must show initiative and daring, and they must wish to impose their will on the world in some way. At the same time, they will be called upon to perform many different duties and take on many different roles, often with no advance warning. They must be flexible and resourceful at a very deep level, open in some critical ways, yet