The Talent War

In the past, the only way to become an Army Special Forces soldier was to have prior military experience. Then, in 2000, the creation of the X-Ray Program (or 18X) created a path that prepared civilian candidates for direct access into Special Forces assessment,...

Once you hire a talented individual, your job has only just begun. Talented candidates have the potential to be high performers. It is up to you to turn that potential into performance, and you do that through leadership. So, if there’s a break in the potential-to-performance pipeline, you might have a leadership problem, not a talent problem.

If your company has a talent problem, your hiring team is one of the first places you should look. Nearly every leader says that hiring is significant, but their hiring teams often tell a very different story. More often than not, their hiring teams are not set up to...

The following is adapted from The Talent War. In the military, succession planning is so ingrained; it is like muscle memory. It is one of the things the military does better than nearly anyone else.  On a micro level, in battle, you never know when a leader might be...

The following is adapted from The Talent War. Herb Kelleher, iconic business leader and co-founder of Southwest Airlines, once said, “We draft great attitudes. If you don’t have a good attitude, we don’t want you, no matter how skilled you are. We can change skill...

The following is adapted from The Talent War. You are biased. It’s not a criticism but a simple fact of life. We’re all biased and naturally drawn to the people who look and think like us.  While people similar to us might be likable, that’s not a good reason to hire...

The following is adapted from The Talent War. Everyone can put up a good-looking facade when things are easy, but who cares how people act when they win? What happens when things don’t work out the way they expect? In Special Operations, the assessment and selection...

I felt as if I'd won the lottery. Through a highly selective veteran hiring group, I had been offered a position at one of the world's largest big-box retailers.  According to a company representative, they looked for driven leaders who knew how to mentor, lead, and...

The following is adapted from The Talent War.  Following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Army Special Forces units (colloquially known as Green Berets) were among the first boots on the ground in Afghanistan. They were faced with a...

Payroll. Employee Relations. Benefits.  Hiring. Onboarding. Learning and Development. Performance Management. Endless climate surveys. These may answer the question, “What does HR do?” but it doesn’t begin to explain who we are or begin to explain, when organized and...