There are a lot of talented individuals out there, but do they have what we at GlobalStar consider the “right talent?” Over my almost three decades in the Infor ERP consulting space, I’ve seen enumerable skills, smarts, work ethics, and personality types. First off, there is no foolproof guide as to the perfect team member, but from what I’ve experienced, assembling the right talent begins and ends with leadership, and what type of reputation you want to build as an organization. As a leader, you need to have a level of self-awareness that prevents you from being prejudiced in a situation. Now, that is not always easy to pull off, but critical.

There are certain attributes that embody the consummate right talent team member. I will cover a few here in this post. First off, I tell people all the time that you can be the smartest person in the room, but if you don’t possess the soft skills and finesse needed to win the respect and admiration of your customers and colleagues, then you are not a good fit for GlobalStar. At GlobalStar, integrity, humility, adaptability, intelligence, tenacity, and likeability are the tenants that glue our team together. Basically, the team and the cause are bigger than the sum of its parts. It’s a “team first” environment.

Secondly, we look for people who ask a lot of questions and who are willing to learn. Not someone who answers every question by re-reading you their resume, or worse, just repeats your question back to you. I have found that the right talent aka the “best of best” stays in a perpetual growth mode, because they love to learn. And like fine wine, they get better over time. Basically, when someone says, “yes, I know such and such, I worked with them 5 years ago and they were great!” “Well... you ought to see them now,” is my comeback.

Lastly, are characteristics like passion, enthusiasm, and attitude. It’s amazing how these basic attributes can cure so many evils. From what I’ve seen it’s easy for a consultant (who comes in as the resident expert) to become enamored with their own notoriety. Unfortunately, this can end up being a real blind spot for them. To where they start believing in their own hype and end up less tolerant of people who are not at their level, yet. This is a kiss of death in consulting and the demise of many a career. Don’t let this be you. 

At GlobalStar, we adhere to the Future Hall fame NBA coach, Greg Popovich’s quote: “We're looking for people who have gotten over themselves, and you can tell that pretty quickly. You can talk to somebody for four or five minutes, and you can tell if it's about them, or if they understand that they're just a piece of the puzzle.”