Modify hiring practices to ensure a well-rounded team, not well-rounded individuals.

Most leaders create a list of skills and experiences they’d like a job candidate to have—things like two years of customer service experience, intermediate Microsoft Word skills, apparel industry experience, etc.

Very few leaders have a feeling for what talents are required for the job. Talents are habits and tendencies that are wired into our brains from an early age—things like: leadership, flexibility, love of learning, or empathy.

Knowledge and skills can be learned and mastered through experience. Talents can rarely be taught and, therefore, should be hired in. If talents could be learned, we’d all have the potential to be LeBron James.

The next time you’re looking to fill a job opening, use the eighty-twenty rule. Spend 80 percent of your time defining and interviewing for talent and 20 percent on knowledge and skills.

In addition, use a proven, repeatable process, such as topgrading, for sourcing and hiring A-level talent. Read the book Topgrading by Bradford Smart and review their tools at www.topgrading.com.