企業如何慧眼識珠 廣納良才

Karen Hester had no thought of becoming a manager when she started a cleaning job at Adnams, the British brewer based in the seaside town of Southwold. “I wanted evening work, so my children wouldn’t miss out during the day,” she says. Twenty-six years on, she runs Adnams’ entire operations and is about to join its board.

在英國海濱小鎮索斯沃爾德(Southwold)，當卡倫•赫斯特(Karen Hester)成爲當地釀酒商Adnams的一名清潔工時，她從未想過自己有一天會當上經理。“我當時想上夜班，這樣白天就有時間和孩子們呆在一起了，”26年過去了，她現在負責Adnams的全部運營工作，並且即將加入公司董事會。

Her potential was spotted after she became a purchasing clerk simply bec¬ause she needed to change her hours when her children started school − “there had been no complaints about the cleaning”. In her new role, she met Andy Wood, now chief executive but then supply chain head. Im¬pressed by how she project managed the purchase of his company car, he asked about her background. When he discovered she had qualified to drive heavy goods vehicles as a 17-year-old army recruit, and gained two promotions in record time, he persuaded her to join the transport division and became her mentor.

赫斯特在擔任採購員後，有人發現了她的潛力。當時她之所以換崗位，僅僅是因爲她的孩子開始上學，她需要改變工作時間，“對清潔工作沒什麼抱怨的。”在新崗位上，赫斯特遇到了安迪•伍德(Andy Wood)。現任Adnams首席執行官的伍德當時是供應鏈主管。赫斯特爲公司採購汽車時的項目管理方式打動了伍德，於是他詢問了赫斯特的履歷。當他得知，赫斯特還是一名17歲的新兵時就取得了重型貨車駕駛證，而且以創紀錄的時間兩度獲得晉升，他說服赫斯特加入運輸部門，並親自擔任她的指導。

“Karen wasn’t an obvious model for a future business leader, but she displayed a tenacity, an inquisitiveness and willingness to learn that marked her out,” Mr Wood says.

“卡倫並非未來商界領袖的典型榜樣，但她展現出的堅韌不拔、求知慾和學習意願讓她脫穎而出，”伍德表示。

Individuals with underused talents — even if not on the scale of Ms Hester’s latent abilities − exist in all walks of life. But many organisations struggle to judge people on their true merits.

就算沒有赫斯特那麼大的潛能，各行各業都有才能沒有得到充分發揮的人。但很多企業很難評判人們的真正長處。

First, talented employees with unconventional backgrounds may have to overcome the unconscious bias of superiors to reach senior roles. Even if we try to be “neutral judges”, says Francesca Gino, a professor at Harvard Business School, we tend to view people with whom we feel some affinity — whether because of education, gender, ethnicity or some lesser connection − more favourably.

首先，擁有非常規資歷的有才能的員工，也許必須克服上級無意識的偏見，才能晉升到高級職位。哈佛商學院(Harvard Business School)教授弗朗西斯卡•吉諾(Francesca Gino)說，就算我們試圖做一個“中立的裁判者”，我們還是更傾向於認同與自己有一些相似之處的人，不管是教育、性別、種族還是一些比較次要的關聯。

Likewise, as institutions, businesses may create barriers for individuals who do not fulfil stereotypical expectations. A case in point is fast-tracking graduates over other employees. Executives “must be bright enough” to do the job, as John Mervyn-Smith, chief psychologist at UK-based talent consultancy eg. 1,observes. But he adds that qualities such as energy and drive, emotional maturity, ability to solve problems and learn quickly − at which Ms Hester excelled — are often better predictors of successful leadership than academic qualifications.

同理，作爲組織的企業或許會給那些不符合固有期望的員工設置障礙。研究生比其他員工晉升得更快，就是一個明證。總部設在英國的人才諮詢公司eg.1的首席心理學家約翰•默文-史密斯(John Mervyn-Smith)說，高管“必須足夠聰明”才能勝任工作。但他補充稱，與學術背景相比，諸如干勁、情感成熟度、解決問題和快速學習的能力等品質——這也正是赫斯特所擅長的——往往更能準確地預示出某個人可能成爲成功的領導者。

What can businesses do to find potential that may be hiding in plain sight, especially if the individuals concerned may not think promotion is for them and so do not put themselves forward?

企業該怎麼做才能發掘藏身在眼皮底下的可造之材？尤其是如果這些人或許不認爲自己是合適的晉升人選，所以沒有毛遂自薦的話。

Creating a variety of routes into senior roles helps. Having previously concentrated on honing the leadership skills of executives near the top of the organisation,Vodafone has introduced a career development programme, known internally as “Retail Spine”. The initiative spots promising shop floor employees and equips them with skills and experience they will need to become general managers and ad¬vance into the top jobs.

開創多元化的高級職位晉升途徑能有所幫助。沃達豐(Vodafone)原本專注於磨練高級管理人員的領導才能，後來引入了被公司內部稱爲“零售骨幹”的職業發展項目。該項目旨在發現一線員工中的可造之材，幫助他們獲得成爲經理以及晉升最高職位所需的技能和經驗。

Candidates nominate themselves or are put forward by a manager to be as¬sessed for potential to think strategically, manage through inf¬luence and adapt to change. “By taking people out of their day-to-day role and looking at them from a broader perspective, we aim to spot potential early and pull people up through the organisation,” says Jenni Heyes, who runs Vodafone’s employee training and development operations.

自薦或者經經理推薦的候選人將接受評估，內容包括進行戰略性思考的潛力、通過影響力管理的能力以及適應變化的能力。主管沃達豐員工培訓和發展的詹尼•海斯(Jenni Heyes)表示：“通過讓人們脫離日常角色，從一種更寬廣的視角來觀察他們，我們的目的是及早發現可造之材，並在組織裏提攜他們。”

Another approach is to encourage employees with thoughts on how to im¬prove the business, wherever they are in the pecking order, to pitch for re¬sources to put their ideas into action. At L’Oréal, 33-year-old James Taylor has spent three years managing a £4m IT project to improve planning and forecasting processes. He had the idea while working as an account manager in the UK consumer products division and entered an internal innovation competition. Now he is about to begin a global role, at director level, at L’Oréal’s The Body Shop. “The project gave me exposure to senior managers across Europe . . . and [an opportunity to show] what I was capable of achieving,” he says.

另一個方法是，不管員工職位高低，鼓勵那些對改善業務有想法的員工爭取資源把自己的想法付諸實踐。在歐萊雅(L’Oréal)，現年33歲的詹姆斯•泰勒(James Taylor)花了3年時間管理一項總投資400萬英鎊、旨在改善規劃和預測流程的IT項目。他在擔任英國消費者產品部門客戶經理時萌生了這個想法，於是參加了公司內部的創新比賽。現在他即將在集團旗下的The Body Shop擔任全球總監職位。他表示，“那個項目讓歐洲各地的高級經理們注意到了我……也讓我（有機會）展示自己能夠勝任的工作”。

When businesses talk of leadership diversity, most think of gender and ethnicity. But organisations can also be dominated by personality types. Studies suggest there are far fewer introverts in leadership positions than extroverts, and the more senior the role, the more extroverts predominate. But according to research led by Whartonbusiness school, quiet, reflective managers in charge of entrepreneurial colleagues tend to produce better results than outgoing and assertive managers. The quiet¬er bosses, the 2010 study found, were more receptive to their team’s ideas than the extroverts, who did most of the talking in the group.

當企業談到領導層多樣性的時候，大多數人想到的是性別和族裔。但企業其實也可能被特定類型的人一手把持。研究表明，擔任領導職位的外向型人才比內向型人才多得多，而且職位越高，外向型人才的比例就越高。但是，沃頓商學院(Wharton business school)在2010年開展的一項研究顯示，管理具有創業精神的員工時，沉穩內斂的管理者往往比外向自信的管理者效果更好。該項研究發現，相比於在團隊中滔滔不絕的外向型領導者，較爲沉穩的管理者更善於接納團隊成員的想法。

To spot the potential of quieter personalities, businesses may need to undertake a more searching approach. Debbie Hance, head of business psychology at Head Light, a talent management software provider, observes that companies already gather 360-degree feedback from subordinates to pinpoint areas where managers need to improve. However, such intelligence could also help organisations identify staff who ex¬cel in the quieter, nurturing aspects of leadership, such as mentoring peers, that sometimes go unnoticed. “There are certain strengths, such as empowering others, that people display to those below them more than they do to their bosses,” Ms Hance says.

要發現這些較爲沉穩的人的潛能，企業或許需要採取一種更具洞察力的方式。人才管理軟件提供商Head Light的商業心理學主管黛比•漢斯(Debbie Hance)表示，企業已經從下級那裏得到全方位的反饋，從而可以精確確定管理者需要改善的地方。然而，此類信息同時也有助於企業發現那些具有沉穩和培育性領導力特質的員工，比如指導同事等特質有時會被忽視。“某些長處，比如激勵他人，人們更多是展現給職位低於他們的人、而非他們的老闆，”漢斯說。

Observing peer group dynamics can also be instructive. Tom Mendoza, vice-chairman of US-based data management and storage business NetApp, says he looks for “the go-to guys” to whom others turn for advice.

觀察同級員工的動向也可能具有啓發意義。總部設在美國的數據管理和儲備企業NetApp的副董事長湯姆•門多薩(Tom Mendoza)說，他在尋找大家遇到麻煩時都會向其諮詢的“靠譜之人”。

In the early 2000s, the habit led him to put sales rep Joe Santamorena in charge of the New York office’s rapidly expanding financial salesforce, even though his immediate bosses argued against the appointment. They fretted that he had never managed anyone, or hired staff.

在本世紀初，門多薩的這種習慣讓他指派銷售代表喬•桑塔莫雷納(Joe Santamorena)主管紐約分公司快速壯大的金融銷售隊伍，儘管桑塔莫雷納的直接上司們反對這次任命。他們擔心，桑塔莫雷納從未管理或者招聘過員工，恐怕難以勝任新職位。

But Mr Mendoza was convinced that Mr Santamorena was a natural leader after observing him spontaneously mentoring less experienced reps. Today Mr Santamorena runs NetApp’s commercial sales group for the Americas. “His one big negative was that he’d never hired anyone, so [the challenge] was to give him the help that he’d need not to fail on that particular task,” Mr Mendoza says.

但是，在注意到桑塔莫雷納自發地指導經驗較淺的銷售代表後，門多薩相信他是一位天生的領導者。如今，桑塔莫雷納主管NetApp全美範圍內的商業銷售隊伍。“他的一大短板是他從來沒有進行過招聘，所以（挑戰）是，爲了讓他不會在這個特殊任務上失敗，給予他所需要的幫助，”門多薩說。

Having taken an unusual route herself, Ms Hester says she keeps a weather eye open for untapped potential, taking particular care not to typecast people. “I never assume the warehouse-worker in blue trousers and a blue top isn’t capable of doing the same role as the person in the shirt and chinos,” she says.

赫斯特說，由於自己就是走的不同尋常的職業之路，因此她會隨時留意未經發掘的可造之材，尤其注意不要固化人們的角色。她說，“我從不認爲，穿着藍褲子和藍上衣的倉庫工人不能幹那些穿着襯衫和斜紋棉布褲的人的工作”。