Assessment Made Simple: Look For the Gold

At one time Andrew Carnegie was the wealthiest man in America.

He came to America from  Scotland as a small boy, did a variety of odd jobs, and eventually ended up as the largest steel manufacturer in the United States. At one time he had forty-three millionaires working for him. In those days being a millionaire was rare; conservatively speaking, a million dollars in his day would be equivalent to at least twenty million dollars today.

When a newspaper reporter asked Carnegie how he had hired forty-three millionaires, Carnegie responded that those men weren't millionaires when they started working for him but had become millionaires as a result.

The reporter's next question was, "How did you develop these men to become so valuable that you've paid them this much money?"

Carnegie replied that people are developed the same way gold is mined. Tons of dirt needs to be moved to find a single ounce of gold. But you don't go into a mine looking for dirt--you go looking for the gold.

That's exactly the way we managers need to view our people. Don't look for the flaws, warts, and blemishes--they're too easy to find and they're abundant.

Look for the unique expression of talent that caused you to hire a person in the first place.

It's a fact: you'll find exactly what you decide look for.
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( "All Things Workplace" has been selected as one of the 10 finalists for the 2009 Best of Leadership Blogs competition hosted by the Kevin Eikenberry Group. It's an honor to be selected. If you are interested in voting for your favorite, please vote at Best Leadership Blog 2009 by July 31st.)

Comments

[Mike Rogers]

I love Caregie's analogy. And getting the dirt off takes effort, doesn't it? A lot of effort. Leaders are in the business of developing people. If they are in it to make more money, power, pride etc... Then they are in it for the wrong reason.

Leaders should be in it because they like taking the dirt off and seeing what's underneath it. And the reality is, everyone has a little bit of gold in them.

[Lynn M]

What a great post! I think we often see what we want to see. Part of the problem is seeing the same people, in the same settings, doing the same things, day....after day....after day. Perhaps a good approach to moving the dirt out of the way is to change things up. Take a staff member out - take them somewhere unexpected or unusual. Have conversations that branch out from the norm.

[peter vajda]

I like Lynn's point. This is why many relationships - at work and at home - go stale. Familiarity, routine, habit, patterns, assumptions and worst of all, history...

One major key to maintaining healthy relationships is to find ways to allow freshness.

Suppose you woke up and decided that (within reason) that everyone you knew you would engage today as if you never met them and there was no history to inform the relationship.

Simple, but not easy. The question really is, "Why would I choose not to do this?"

And, by the way, at one time or another, IMHO, most of us were a "diamond in the rough" in some way, shape or form and we were blessed that someone, at some time, was kind enough, loving enough, compassionate enough and caring enough to see through the "rough."

[Wally Bock]

I had never heard that story or analogy before, Steve. Thanks.

As for how you do it, I think a good analogy is to love. They say that conversation is what makes love grow and remain fresh. That same is true for other relationships. If you have conversations with your team members you can't help but find out things about each other.

[Lluc Potrony]

In Spain it is not the custom to look for the gold but to buy gold alreadey mined. A few people mine. The result? Tons of gold getting lost.

[Steve Roesler]

Lluc, that is an astute observation in a very few words!

[Danika]

'Look for the unique expression of talent that caused you to hire a person in the first place.' I love this statement!