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The Talent Delusion: Why Data, Not Intuition, Is the Key to Unlocking Human Potential
'This book shows how to find, attract, develop, motivate, and retain stars. It's full of evidence and provocative ideas to help every talent leader' Dr Adam Grant, Wharton Professor, New York Times bestselling author, Originals and Give and Take
'This is the book I want to hand every manager I've ever worked with . . . Every chapter is filled with quotes, findings, and ideas that I want to post on Twitter and share with the world' Dr. Todd Carlisle, VP of HR, Twitter
WHY THE SCIENCE OF PEOPLE IS YOUR KEY WEAPON IN THE WAR FOR TALENT
All organisations have problems, and they nearly always concern how to manage them; whom to hire, fire or promote; and how to motivate, develop and retain high potential employees.
Psychology, the main science for understanding people, should be a pivotal tool for solving these problems - yet most companies play it by ear, and billions of dollars are wasted on futile interventions to attract and retain the right people for key roles.
Bridging the gap between the psychological science of talent and common real-world talent practices, The Talent Delusion aims to educate HR practitioners and leaders on how to measure, predict and manage talent. It will provide readers with data-driven solution to the common problems around employee selection, development and engagement; how to define and evaluate talent; how to detect and inhibit toxic employee behaviours; and how to identify and harness leadership potential.
'This is the book I want to hand every manager I've ever worked with . . . Every chapter is filled with quotes, findings, and ideas that I want to post on Twitter and share with the world' Dr. Todd Carlisle, VP of HR, Twitter
WHY THE SCIENCE OF PEOPLE IS YOUR KEY WEAPON IN THE WAR FOR TALENT
All organisations have problems, and they nearly always concern how to manage them; whom to hire, fire or promote; and how to motivate, develop and retain high potential employees.
Psychology, the main science for understanding people, should be a pivotal tool for solving these problems - yet most companies play it by ear, and billions of dollars are wasted on futile interventions to attract and retain the right people for key roles.
Bridging the gap between the psychological science of talent and common real-world talent practices, The Talent Delusion aims to educate HR practitioners and leaders on how to measure, predict and manage talent. It will provide readers with data-driven solution to the common problems around employee selection, development and engagement; how to define and evaluate talent; how to detect and inhibit toxic employee behaviours; and how to identify and harness leadership potential.
321 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 2, 2017
125 people are currently reading
979 people want to read
About the author
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
27 books108 followersDr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is an international authority in psychological profiling, talent management, and people analytics. He is the CEO of Hogan Assessment Systems, Professor of Business Psychology at University College London (UCL), and visiting Professor at Columbia University. He has previously taught at New York University and the London School of Economics.
He has published 8 books and over 120 scientific papers (h index 41), making him one of the most prolific social scientists of his generation. His work has received awards by the American Psychological Association and the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences.
He is also the director of UCL's Industrial-Organisational and Business Psychology programme, and an Associate with Harvard's Entrepreneurial Finance Lab.
Over the past 15 years, he has consulted to a range of clients in financial services (JP Morgan, HSBC, Prudential), advertising (Havas, Fallon, BBH), media (Yahoo!, MTV, Endemol), consumer goods (Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser), fashion (LVMH, Net-a-Porter), and government (British Army, Royal Mail, National Health Service).
His media career comprises over 70 TV appearances, including the BBC, CNN, and Sky, and regular features in Harvard Business Review, the Guardian, Fast Company, Forbes, and the Huffington Post. He is a keynote speaker for the Institute of Economic Affairs and the co-founder of metaprofiling.com, a digital start-up that enables organisations to identify individuals with entrepreneurial talent. He lives in New York.
He has published 8 books and over 120 scientific papers (h index 41), making him one of the most prolific social scientists of his generation. His work has received awards by the American Psychological Association and the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences.
He is also the director of UCL's Industrial-Organisational and Business Psychology programme, and an Associate with Harvard's Entrepreneurial Finance Lab.
Over the past 15 years, he has consulted to a range of clients in financial services (JP Morgan, HSBC, Prudential), advertising (Havas, Fallon, BBH), media (Yahoo!, MTV, Endemol), consumer goods (Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser), fashion (LVMH, Net-a-Porter), and government (British Army, Royal Mail, National Health Service).
His media career comprises over 70 TV appearances, including the BBC, CNN, and Sky, and regular features in Harvard Business Review, the Guardian, Fast Company, Forbes, and the Huffington Post. He is a keynote speaker for the Institute of Economic Affairs and the co-founder of metaprofiling.com, a digital start-up that enables organisations to identify individuals with entrepreneurial talent. He lives in New York.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
August 6, 2019
This book starts off with a premise I greatly disagree with regarding the concept of talent and connecting it with effortless performance/success. So basically anyone who is dealing with societal bias or intersectional crap, who have to work harder to achieve success, are thus magically not talented, and thus it is ok for the author's talent search company not to identify them for potentially new cool/lucrative jobs.
And the author doesn't really consider that perhaps companies need to be rejigged to enable new groups of people to be successful.
The rest of the book is boring and unremarkable. Employee engagement is important. People's 'negative traits' can be linked to success too.
ETA: for a book about data, the author doesn't spend much time dealing with the issues of systemic bias within most data sets, and for a book about the future of work and 'what to do about a millennial workforce' the author doesn't think much about diversity and inclusion. I mean, suggesting that someone's spotify list would be a good measure of whether they would fit in with the new organization? Great way to get sued, and to hire more of the same.
And the author doesn't really consider that perhaps companies need to be rejigged to enable new groups of people to be successful.
The rest of the book is boring and unremarkable. Employee engagement is important. People's 'negative traits' can be linked to success too.
ETA: for a book about data, the author doesn't spend much time dealing with the issues of systemic bias within most data sets, and for a book about the future of work and 'what to do about a millennial workforce' the author doesn't think much about diversity and inclusion. I mean, suggesting that someone's spotify list would be a good measure of whether they would fit in with the new organization? Great way to get sued, and to hire more of the same.
May 12, 2021
Videos with titles mainly to make you click on the video are clickbait and books with titles mainly to make you pick up the book are pickbait. This book is a pickbait.
The title says 'Why Data, Not Intuition, Is the Key to Unlocking Human Potential.' But in the book which has eight chapters, only ONE is about data! Of the other seven, one is about defining talent where the author writes talent=performance-effort. In other words, talent is effortless performance. In the same chapter he writes,
"This rule (a rule he has put forward) equates talent to an individual’s maximum performance, defined as the level of performance .. one can produce .. if one chooses to exert maximum effort. This definition is so intuitive that it is almost unnecessary to discuss it further."
Yes it is very intuitive to call talent 'effortless performance' AND 'performance produced my exerting maximum effort' at the same time. From previous experience with other business books, these apparently impressive equations (talent=performance - effort, revenue-profit= expenses in Profit First) authors come up with are often nothing more than empty gimmicks.
Major portion of the books goes on talking about personality personality and personality. One thing I liked though was highlighting the importance of the dark side of talent, that is, why we need to think about about Machiavellianism, Narcissism and psychopathy too if we want to measure and develop talent. Tomas does a good job at pointing out the flaws of the strengths based personality assessment. But in the chapter about the usage of data and technology, he presents us what he thinks "probably the most comprehensive public version of a scientifically robust gamified assessment, Red Bull’s Wingfinder game" and it is a strengths based assessment.
There was little cohesion among different chapter of the book. He does talk about the importance of the dark side of personalities but no mention of how to incorporate it into data based assessments. The author's view on Lumosity, an online game claiming to boost intellectual abilities also seemed very ambiguous.
The Lumosity app and Red Bull Wingfinder are a small portion of his discussion on data based HR. The other methods he talks about in this section either categorically depend on intruding employee privacy or categorically compromise in accuracy. In one portion the author literally writes this:
"Too often we are quick to criticize computers for being prejudiced when they are only replicating human prejudice, which we happily ignore!"
If computers make the same prejudices as humans, we do not need computers to do the job. Humans should be good enough. This prejudice we're talking about is basically a computer filtering out people based on how 'beautiful' their voice is!
The author does acknowledge that the newer methods he's talking about might not have an acceptable level of accuracy. But he also has a justification for it:
"... accuracy is not the only thing organizations care about. As a matter of fact, many companies and talent management consultants don’t seem to care about accuracy, which explains why the Myers–Briggs test is the most widely used assessment tool in the world."
Since we don't care enough about accuracy, it's fine to go on with less accurate digital methods. If that's the case, why don't we just go on with our less accurate intuitions? The point of incorporating data into HR doesn't make sense if these methods aren't accurate. And given the awfully shallow and disorganized sporadic discussion of using data in HR, putting "Why Data, Not Intuition, Is the Key to Unlocking Human Potential" in the title of this book makes no sense either.
The title says 'Why Data, Not Intuition, Is the Key to Unlocking Human Potential.' But in the book which has eight chapters, only ONE is about data! Of the other seven, one is about defining talent where the author writes talent=performance-effort. In other words, talent is effortless performance. In the same chapter he writes,
"This rule (a rule he has put forward) equates talent to an individual’s maximum performance, defined as the level of performance .. one can produce .. if one chooses to exert maximum effort. This definition is so intuitive that it is almost unnecessary to discuss it further."
Yes it is very intuitive to call talent 'effortless performance' AND 'performance produced my exerting maximum effort' at the same time. From previous experience with other business books, these apparently impressive equations (talent=performance - effort, revenue-profit= expenses in Profit First) authors come up with are often nothing more than empty gimmicks.
Major portion of the books goes on talking about personality personality and personality. One thing I liked though was highlighting the importance of the dark side of talent, that is, why we need to think about about Machiavellianism, Narcissism and psychopathy too if we want to measure and develop talent. Tomas does a good job at pointing out the flaws of the strengths based personality assessment. But in the chapter about the usage of data and technology, he presents us what he thinks "probably the most comprehensive public version of a scientifically robust gamified assessment, Red Bull’s Wingfinder game" and it is a strengths based assessment.
There was little cohesion among different chapter of the book. He does talk about the importance of the dark side of personalities but no mention of how to incorporate it into data based assessments. The author's view on Lumosity, an online game claiming to boost intellectual abilities also seemed very ambiguous.
The Lumosity app and Red Bull Wingfinder are a small portion of his discussion on data based HR. The other methods he talks about in this section either categorically depend on intruding employee privacy or categorically compromise in accuracy. In one portion the author literally writes this:
"Too often we are quick to criticize computers for being prejudiced when they are only replicating human prejudice, which we happily ignore!"
If computers make the same prejudices as humans, we do not need computers to do the job. Humans should be good enough. This prejudice we're talking about is basically a computer filtering out people based on how 'beautiful' their voice is!
The author does acknowledge that the newer methods he's talking about might not have an acceptable level of accuracy. But he also has a justification for it:
"... accuracy is not the only thing organizations care about. As a matter of fact, many companies and talent management consultants don’t seem to care about accuracy, which explains why the Myers–Briggs test is the most widely used assessment tool in the world."
Since we don't care enough about accuracy, it's fine to go on with less accurate digital methods. If that's the case, why don't we just go on with our less accurate intuitions? The point of incorporating data into HR doesn't make sense if these methods aren't accurate. And given the awfully shallow and disorganized sporadic discussion of using data in HR, putting "Why Data, Not Intuition, Is the Key to Unlocking Human Potential" in the title of this book makes no sense either.
January 7, 2021
The book is armed with many examples which give you insights about the current scenarios in Corporate world. Organisations have their own set of problems, right from managing people to firing people, but the major focus should be on understanding the people working within. This book gives an answer to many such questions. It basically helps HR professionals to inculcate, measure and manage talent, it provides solutions for evaluating talent and identifying the potential leaders.
August 25, 2025
The talent delusion by
tomas chamorro premuzic.
Chapter one, the war on talent, the author argues
Companies carrying out a war on talent. and not for talent. Global macro economic trends support this idea
1. The disengagement epidemic, most people disenchanted and alienated by their jobs.
2. The rise of passive job seekers ,earlier people would start a job and would plan to retire from that place. There is more job hopping.
3. The growing appeal of self-employment, more and more people want to do freelancing and unconventional jobs.
4. The rise of entrepreneurship.
Chapter two defining talent
The rule of the vital view, 20% of people do 80% of the job, 20% of people. Are reasonable for eighty percent growth
The maximum performance route
This rule equates talent to an individual's maximum performance. The best performance that one can produce on demand for a short period if one chooses to exert maximum effort .
More motivated people, will show less difference in typical and maximum performance.
The effortless performance rule
Performance is a function of effort motivation. I'm talent ability.
If something comes from it comes from very easily to you, then you are probably talented at it or at least have the potential to develop those talents faster than others
Write personality in the right place
Examples of people who achieved good in one sector and were bad in another. J.K Rowling.
Chapter 3 measuring talent..
In the raw model, first is the degree of the rewardability, likability.What we refer to organisational citizenship people who know how to deal with others
Second is
Ability, this also comes from expertise. But ability to think critically and problem-solving
Third is, a person's willingness to work hard and general motivation. Talent is performance minus effort.Potential is talent plus effort.
How is talent measured traditionally
Job interviews assessment centers, IQ tests, personality assessment.
Other traditional ones are buy your data. The CV and 360° feedback survey, situational judgment test.
Chapter 4 engaging talent.
Engagement involve in emotional and behavioural component. How your job makes you feel and what your jobs make you. Thus, engagement is job satisfaction plus feeling and action.
3 universal principles of organisations first that humans have always lived in groups. Second, that every group, or unit will have a hierarchy. And third, no form of human civilization can exist without a symbol of meaning. A symbolic universe that enables individuals to make sense of the world..
What guide us in getting ahead, which is manifested in desire for recognition ,power for commerce.
Second, getting along, which is manifested, as hedonanism, affiliation, altruism and tradition.
Third, finding meaning, which is manifested in security, aesthetics, and science.
Chapter five developing talent
Although people can change, they mostly don't. The reason is that change requires self-awareness, effort, and persistence. In the absence of extreme life circumstances, people tend to change by becoming amplified or exaggerated versions of their early self.
The main determinants, of adult knowledge acquisition , are , curiosity openness to experience and self-discipline, are largely dispositional in nature. Hence, they are no more malleable, then other major personality traits.
Coaching, by definition is ,
Result oriented systematic process in which the coach facilitates the enhancement of life experience and goal attainment in the personal or professional lives of non- clinical clients.
So whom should coaching address?
One, people who are valuable, but at the risk of derailing, this will keep in check the dark side of the personality.
Second, the high potentials people who have done key work in previous organisations and previous performance has been good.
Third, newly hired or promoted, who need to learn the new assignments and work profile.
Fourth expatriates, who have to be aware of the local culture.
Coaching is of two types,
One, strength based coaching, which enhances your strength
Second, is the weakness approach , which works on self awareness and course correction
HOGAN development cycle,
1.build awareness.
2.target behaviours.
3. change behaviours.
4. sustain changes .
5. modify reputation
6. build awareness.
Chapter six - the dark side of talent
It is a fact that most talented individuals will have some problematic traits, characteristics, especially the high achievers for an organisation. This is a counterproductive work behaviour.
The major categories are,
1.Narcissism, which is entitlement, megalomania at work.
Examples include Donald Trump and Steve Jobs.
2. the psychopath, the social predators at work, indulged in internet fraud inside of trading corruption.Pony schemes embezzlement
3. Machiavellianism, the dark side of political skills. These are people who experience no guilt for manipulating and deceiving others.
There may be positive side to the dark side, which they are ruthlessly in getting success.
Chapter 7, the future of talent.
How will talent be found in the future?
1. it'll bring in the millennial mindset. We will be dealing with a generation who is self centered and entitled.
2. is the growing importance of 3 critical competencies, namely self-awareness, curiosity,Entrepreneurship.
3. rise of the reputation economy in which the workforce is worthy, only as much as the reputation. The collective and public impression we have of their talent and capabilities
Even though we talk of the world as being uncertain, complex and ambiguous, but it has always been so and over centuries. The technological change at each time
has lead to disruptions.
The millennial mind of the new generation, which has been well off, has not seen wars. It is very easy, have narcissist traits. in 1950 only 12% of students described themselves as an important person by 1980, the figure was 80%. This makes leadership very hard to work with people, each of whom is entitled, needs new approach.
One is through self-awareness to see yourself for what you are. Second is curiosity, which has the capacity to transform information into knowledge, third is entrepreneurship, which is the capacity to turn creativity into innovation.
Self-awareness, an antidote to narcissistic hubris.
Studies indicate that leaders who were more self aware, tend to be more effective.
Curiosity. The importance of a hungry mind, important strategy in Google's recruitment. It recruits higher learning animals. People who show a passion for asking insightful questions and who have the power to unlock deeper insides.
A curious adult is a Child who has survived.
Entrepreneurship, the engine of organisational growth.
The future will need to be people who can generate creative ideas, and more importantly, turn those ideas into actual innovations. Second is a realisation that innovation leads to growth and growth inhibits innovation. After a point, the organisation has to not risk experimentation and has to go in for maintenance of organisation. The third reason is an understanding that the key jobs of the future may be hard to predict.
4 key characteristics that highly entrepreneurial individuals display
1. one is creativity. Creativity is ability to generate ideas that are both novel and useful. Having lots of idea all the time working on some of them.
2. second is opportunism, the tendency to spot gaps in the market. And interpret events, as opportunities.
3. , third, is pro - activity. The tendency to follow through and get ideas implemented and executed. persistence, coordination, organisation and drive are needed to get any creative idea executed.
4. Fourth is Vision, the ability to understand the big picture, find a long term strategy or mission.And sell it to others.
Entrepreneurialism will also be a key requirement for succeeding in non-traditional careers. Such as self employment or the gig economy.
The future talent identification tools.
1. One is web scrapping and social media analytics, where organisations go through someone's Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn profile, and see there likes dislikes on gaugeing the suitability.
2. Second is internal big data and predictive talent analytics.This is done in sports clubs. Go through thousands of data points of each player. Try to build high performing teams. Common approach for collecting in-house data is the use of sociometrics badges. Another emerging methodology, is open source feedback ratings like glassdoor tripadvisor which allow people to give them feedback about the organisations.
3. This is through digital interviewing and voice profiling. This is through an ordinary conversation which is held to decode a candidate's personality . As algorithms merely predicting decisions that human judges would make , even if it is being prejudiced, it only reflecting the already existing prejudices human beings.
4. Gamified profile tools.
There are video games and games such as psychological assessments for selection. There are games in which candidates are asked to play brain teasers/code/ situations , to know their approach to problem solving, IQ and approach.
Chapter eight final thoughts
In summary, to know if individuals possess talent or not, we only have to answer 4 questions .
1. are the individuals part of the vital few who contribute a disproduct amount to the organisation.
2. Second, if not, would they be part of that group, If they performed at their best 3. Third, if not, are they in the right place? 4. fourth, finally, are these individuals aware of how talented they are.
Finding MESSI.
people may change, but don't expect miracles. People behave in fairly consistent ways throughout their adult lives, and these consistent patterns of behaviour can be predicted, once you have sufficient information of the person's past behaviour.
Second, people will not grow unless you help them, most people will only develop if they get help. The main reason is they have a natural tendency to lack self - awareness,
Third , changes and interventions tend to help those who need it and are open to it. The self-motivated people always be open to changes. But people who need to actually change are insufficiently motivated.
Fourth, coachibility is a key ingredient of talent. The more receptive you are, the more open to changes, you are, the more chances of developing
Most people are less talented than they think. All individuals think that they are outliers of the group and not the mere average. This has been proved through various research and studies.And this should be watched out for. As has been said, the world is full of fools,who are so confident of themselves.
Next happiness is overrated. All good things happen when people are a little dissatisfied and motivated to do something more . As Alan watts said. When you try to stay on the surface of the water you sink, but when you try to sink, you float.
Too much of individualism has led us to think of the that being happy at all time at all, places is the ultimate goal. But as philosophers have quoted, I don't know why we're here, but i'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves. By Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Mark Twain wrote it isn't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know, for sure that just isn't so.
tomas chamorro premuzic.
Chapter one, the war on talent, the author argues
Companies carrying out a war on talent. and not for talent. Global macro economic trends support this idea
1. The disengagement epidemic, most people disenchanted and alienated by their jobs.
2. The rise of passive job seekers ,earlier people would start a job and would plan to retire from that place. There is more job hopping.
3. The growing appeal of self-employment, more and more people want to do freelancing and unconventional jobs.
4. The rise of entrepreneurship.
Chapter two defining talent
The rule of the vital view, 20% of people do 80% of the job, 20% of people. Are reasonable for eighty percent growth
The maximum performance route
This rule equates talent to an individual's maximum performance. The best performance that one can produce on demand for a short period if one chooses to exert maximum effort .
More motivated people, will show less difference in typical and maximum performance.
The effortless performance rule
Performance is a function of effort motivation. I'm talent ability.
If something comes from it comes from very easily to you, then you are probably talented at it or at least have the potential to develop those talents faster than others
Write personality in the right place
Examples of people who achieved good in one sector and were bad in another. J.K Rowling.
Chapter 3 measuring talent..
In the raw model, first is the degree of the rewardability, likability.What we refer to organisational citizenship people who know how to deal with others
Second is
Ability, this also comes from expertise. But ability to think critically and problem-solving
Third is, a person's willingness to work hard and general motivation. Talent is performance minus effort.Potential is talent plus effort.
How is talent measured traditionally
Job interviews assessment centers, IQ tests, personality assessment.
Other traditional ones are buy your data. The CV and 360° feedback survey, situational judgment test.
Chapter 4 engaging talent.
Engagement involve in emotional and behavioural component. How your job makes you feel and what your jobs make you. Thus, engagement is job satisfaction plus feeling and action.
3 universal principles of organisations first that humans have always lived in groups. Second, that every group, or unit will have a hierarchy. And third, no form of human civilization can exist without a symbol of meaning. A symbolic universe that enables individuals to make sense of the world..
What guide us in getting ahead, which is manifested in desire for recognition ,power for commerce.
Second, getting along, which is manifested, as hedonanism, affiliation, altruism and tradition.
Third, finding meaning, which is manifested in security, aesthetics, and science.
Chapter five developing talent
Although people can change, they mostly don't. The reason is that change requires self-awareness, effort, and persistence. In the absence of extreme life circumstances, people tend to change by becoming amplified or exaggerated versions of their early self.
The main determinants, of adult knowledge acquisition , are , curiosity openness to experience and self-discipline, are largely dispositional in nature. Hence, they are no more malleable, then other major personality traits.
Coaching, by definition is ,
Result oriented systematic process in which the coach facilitates the enhancement of life experience and goal attainment in the personal or professional lives of non- clinical clients.
So whom should coaching address?
One, people who are valuable, but at the risk of derailing, this will keep in check the dark side of the personality.
Second, the high potentials people who have done key work in previous organisations and previous performance has been good.
Third, newly hired or promoted, who need to learn the new assignments and work profile.
Fourth expatriates, who have to be aware of the local culture.
Coaching is of two types,
One, strength based coaching, which enhances your strength
Second, is the weakness approach , which works on self awareness and course correction
HOGAN development cycle,
1.build awareness.
2.target behaviours.
3. change behaviours.
4. sustain changes .
5. modify reputation
6. build awareness.
Chapter six - the dark side of talent
It is a fact that most talented individuals will have some problematic traits, characteristics, especially the high achievers for an organisation. This is a counterproductive work behaviour.
The major categories are,
1.Narcissism, which is entitlement, megalomania at work.
Examples include Donald Trump and Steve Jobs.
2. the psychopath, the social predators at work, indulged in internet fraud inside of trading corruption.Pony schemes embezzlement
3. Machiavellianism, the dark side of political skills. These are people who experience no guilt for manipulating and deceiving others.
There may be positive side to the dark side, which they are ruthlessly in getting success.
Chapter 7, the future of talent.
How will talent be found in the future?
1. it'll bring in the millennial mindset. We will be dealing with a generation who is self centered and entitled.
2. is the growing importance of 3 critical competencies, namely self-awareness, curiosity,Entrepreneurship.
3. rise of the reputation economy in which the workforce is worthy, only as much as the reputation. The collective and public impression we have of their talent and capabilities
Even though we talk of the world as being uncertain, complex and ambiguous, but it has always been so and over centuries. The technological change at each time
has lead to disruptions.
The millennial mind of the new generation, which has been well off, has not seen wars. It is very easy, have narcissist traits. in 1950 only 12% of students described themselves as an important person by 1980, the figure was 80%. This makes leadership very hard to work with people, each of whom is entitled, needs new approach.
One is through self-awareness to see yourself for what you are. Second is curiosity, which has the capacity to transform information into knowledge, third is entrepreneurship, which is the capacity to turn creativity into innovation.
Self-awareness, an antidote to narcissistic hubris.
Studies indicate that leaders who were more self aware, tend to be more effective.
Curiosity. The importance of a hungry mind, important strategy in Google's recruitment. It recruits higher learning animals. People who show a passion for asking insightful questions and who have the power to unlock deeper insides.
A curious adult is a Child who has survived.
Entrepreneurship, the engine of organisational growth.
The future will need to be people who can generate creative ideas, and more importantly, turn those ideas into actual innovations. Second is a realisation that innovation leads to growth and growth inhibits innovation. After a point, the organisation has to not risk experimentation and has to go in for maintenance of organisation. The third reason is an understanding that the key jobs of the future may be hard to predict.
4 key characteristics that highly entrepreneurial individuals display
1. one is creativity. Creativity is ability to generate ideas that are both novel and useful. Having lots of idea all the time working on some of them.
2. second is opportunism, the tendency to spot gaps in the market. And interpret events, as opportunities.
3. , third, is pro - activity. The tendency to follow through and get ideas implemented and executed. persistence, coordination, organisation and drive are needed to get any creative idea executed.
4. Fourth is Vision, the ability to understand the big picture, find a long term strategy or mission.And sell it to others.
Entrepreneurialism will also be a key requirement for succeeding in non-traditional careers. Such as self employment or the gig economy.
The future talent identification tools.
1. One is web scrapping and social media analytics, where organisations go through someone's Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn profile, and see there likes dislikes on gaugeing the suitability.
2. Second is internal big data and predictive talent analytics.This is done in sports clubs. Go through thousands of data points of each player. Try to build high performing teams. Common approach for collecting in-house data is the use of sociometrics badges. Another emerging methodology, is open source feedback ratings like glassdoor tripadvisor which allow people to give them feedback about the organisations.
3. This is through digital interviewing and voice profiling. This is through an ordinary conversation which is held to decode a candidate's personality . As algorithms merely predicting decisions that human judges would make , even if it is being prejudiced, it only reflecting the already existing prejudices human beings.
4. Gamified profile tools.
There are video games and games such as psychological assessments for selection. There are games in which candidates are asked to play brain teasers/code/ situations , to know their approach to problem solving, IQ and approach.
Chapter eight final thoughts
In summary, to know if individuals possess talent or not, we only have to answer 4 questions .
1. are the individuals part of the vital few who contribute a disproduct amount to the organisation.
2. Second, if not, would they be part of that group, If they performed at their best 3. Third, if not, are they in the right place? 4. fourth, finally, are these individuals aware of how talented they are.
Finding MESSI.
people may change, but don't expect miracles. People behave in fairly consistent ways throughout their adult lives, and these consistent patterns of behaviour can be predicted, once you have sufficient information of the person's past behaviour.
Second, people will not grow unless you help them, most people will only develop if they get help. The main reason is they have a natural tendency to lack self - awareness,
Third , changes and interventions tend to help those who need it and are open to it. The self-motivated people always be open to changes. But people who need to actually change are insufficiently motivated.
Fourth, coachibility is a key ingredient of talent. The more receptive you are, the more open to changes, you are, the more chances of developing
Most people are less talented than they think. All individuals think that they are outliers of the group and not the mere average. This has been proved through various research and studies.And this should be watched out for. As has been said, the world is full of fools,who are so confident of themselves.
Next happiness is overrated. All good things happen when people are a little dissatisfied and motivated to do something more . As Alan watts said. When you try to stay on the surface of the water you sink, but when you try to sink, you float.
Too much of individualism has led us to think of the that being happy at all time at all, places is the ultimate goal. But as philosophers have quoted, I don't know why we're here, but i'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves. By Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Mark Twain wrote it isn't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know, for sure that just isn't so.
February 21, 2021
This book helps you understand what exactly talent is and how as a HR you should focus on Talent management. Examples given in book are very promising and help you understand the concept. This book even talk about negative personality traits and ways to handle them in real life.
June 26, 2020
This 2017 book contains a lot of old-school and outdated info.
Most of its content is common sense and it is clearly missing the new, the interesting, the insightful and the inspiring info I was hoping for.
When, finally, the topic of the future of talent is tackled, after more than 200 pages, the author barely scratches the surface.
One would expect more from a so-called renowned PhD.
In golf terms: a slice.
Most of its content is common sense and it is clearly missing the new, the interesting, the insightful and the inspiring info I was hoping for.
When, finally, the topic of the future of talent is tackled, after more than 200 pages, the author barely scratches the surface.
One would expect more from a so-called renowned PhD.
In golf terms: a slice.
May 15, 2022
It took me two tries to get through this one.
The best I can some up with is "thought provoking," as it's making me think about a number of assumptions currently held as gospel in both corporate HR and the talent industry.
While the book seemed to start from a science-based point of view, by the end I'm having to classify it as a polemic (because the author has a PhD, otherwise I'd call it a bit of rant). I did not find much immediately actionable material which will help me tune my current hiring pipeline.
However, the author exposes so many absurdities in current thinking that I'm inclined to a future reread.
The best I can some up with is "thought provoking," as it's making me think about a number of assumptions currently held as gospel in both corporate HR and the talent industry.
While the book seemed to start from a science-based point of view, by the end I'm having to classify it as a polemic (because the author has a PhD, otherwise I'd call it a bit of rant). I did not find much immediately actionable material which will help me tune my current hiring pipeline.
However, the author exposes so many absurdities in current thinking that I'm inclined to a future reread.
December 17, 2018
Mr. Chamorro-Premuzic's Book "The Talent Delusion" is a fantastic read. As someone extremely interested in psychological profiles, recruiting, interviewing, and training/coaching, this book had a number of great observations that can be utilized in formulating a plan to improve "employee engagement" - although there is a lot in the book for non-managers to contemplate as well. The author's tone throughout the book makes it a very easy read, and his thoughts will definitely stick with me. Well done!
January 9, 2025
This book was recommended by a former colleague. As a Head of HR, I found myself reading and reflecting on how we approach talent and how we can improve our efforts. This book offers some great thoughts, sometimes controversial and sometimes straightforward. It’s a good read, one where re-reading passages from time to time is helpful. I’m grateful for the recommendation and I now also recommend it to others.
November 11, 2019
The Talent Delusion is a book on understanding, finding, recognising and developing talent within a modern company. The book opens different propositions on talent and how to discover it, nurture it and develop it for the best results within a company, especially for return on investment. The author repeatedly emphasises the fact that our own intuition is useless when it comes to discovering talent, which is a great premise that more HR professionals should work on. I will definitely come back to my notes from this book in the course of my HR career.
January 28, 2020
We are unique so not equal.
Some are better(talented) : smarter(experise+cognitive ability, IQ) , motivated(willing, get things done) and enjoyable(not jerks, EQ) = RAW. Motivation accelerates expertise. EQ accelerates expertise via self-awareness.
Some are better(talented) : smarter(experise+cognitive ability, IQ) , motivated(willing, get things done) and enjoyable(not jerks, EQ) = RAW. Motivation accelerates expertise. EQ accelerates expertise via self-awareness.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 23, 2022
This book really challenged some opinions I have regarding people and work environments, raised my curiosity and plan to learn/share with some talent people I know. The journey continues. Recommend this book to challenge some approaches you may have regarding talent.
January 26, 2018
Contents are pretty dry, I thought it will be a book about people data analytics but apparently not. Whoops.
June 4, 2018
A book by a psychologist and ceo about how to manage talent more scientifically with data
October 31, 2019
its good and currently i study with this book
January 23, 2023
Enlightening, a scientific evidence-based approach to my liking.
December 17, 2024
Good book only! It’s a really short book to read as the other half is too much human psychology for me.
September 21, 2025
I gave four stars for the first-half, the rest were no need to read.
June 28, 2022
Decent book based covering relevant academic research that then seems to uncomfortably move into Orwellian territory - I know, shocking.
Highlighted enough to get the good practitioner bits when/if needed though by 2021 quite a bit is already dated.
Highlighted enough to get the good practitioner bits when/if needed though by 2021 quite a bit is already dated.
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