Individual
Assignment 6
Pfeffer and Sutton discuss the
concept of talent in Chapter 4 of their book.
I found the concept of training employees to bring out their talent as
useful. An example used in the book was
Toyota, who stopped and took the time to retrain all of their employees. This in turn helped them to be more
productive and lowered their turnover rate.
Companies, like Toyota, should take the time to train their employees and
develop the talent that they already have.
This chapter also discusses how star employee could potentially attract
more start employees. The concept that
managers hire people who are more like them could stand true for their talent
as well. If a company obtains an
excellent manager, than that manager could hire people who have traits and
talent more like their own. This allows
an organization to acquire more star or talented employees.
Kym Ward Gaffney’s Focusing on
Feedback was another concept that I found interesting this week. Many people view feedback as a negative
thing, myself included. The discussion in
this video made me realize that does not always have to be the case. Feedback should be welcomed to develop a
person’s professional skills. Gaffney
uses AWARE as an acronym to describe how people should handle feedback. 
She
states that you should ask for feedback to know what areas you need to work
on. People should watch their emotions
and not feel like the other person is criticizing you. After the person has given the feedback some
thought, they could ask questions to clarify their understanding of the
feedback that they receive. If they are
not satisfied with the feedback employees could ask different people to get different
perspectives. Finally that person should
engage their potential and apply the feedback to enhance their
performance. I found this helpful because,
as a stated before, I always seen feedback in a negative light. This video gave me a better understanding on
how to handle feedback.
She
states that you should ask for feedback to know what areas you need to work
on. People should watch their emotions
and not feel like the other person is criticizing you. After the person has given the feedback some
thought, they could ask questions to clarify their understanding of the
feedback that they receive. If they are
not satisfied with the feedback employees could ask different people to get different
perspectives. Finally that person should
engage their potential and apply the feedback to enhance their
performance. I found this helpful because,
as a stated before, I always seen feedback in a negative light. This video gave me a better understanding on
how to handle feedback.
Sharon Florentine discusses how the
market is changing for IT professionals in her article “It’s
a Seller’s Market for IT Professionals.”
In her article, she states that IT professionals are turning down jobs
that are not paying enough because the demand for IT jobs has rose. Employees are also going elsewhere if they
are not satisfied with their current positions.
Much of the data that Florentine uses is from surveys given by Dice.com
and MRINetwork to recruiters and employees.
The article is evidence-based because the information collected is from
recruiters and professionals themselves.
The article shows that in the field of IT, talent is getting professionals
the upper hand to choose an organization that they want to work in.
Overall I enjoyed all of the
information and concepts that I learned throughout this semester. There are many new and different ways that I think
about things that I would not have before.
All of the concepts that I learned this semester will allow me to make
better decisions in my future career endeavors.
