The Rare Find: How Great Talent Stands Out

by George Anders

One of the nation's biggest music labels briefly signed Taylor Swift to a contract but let her go because she didn't seem worth more than $15,000 a year. At least four book publishers passed on the first Harry Potter novel rather than pay J. K. Rowling a $5,000 advance. And the same pattern happens in nearly every business. Anyone who recruits talent faces the same basic challenge, whether we work for a big company, a new start-up, a Hollywood studio, a hospital, or the Green Berets. We all wonder how to tell the really outstanding prospects from the ones who look great on paper but then fail on the job. Or, equally important, how to spot the ones who don't look so good on paper but might still deliver extraordinary performance.

Over the past few decades, technology has made recruiting in all fields vastly more sophisticated. Gut instincts have yielded to benchmarks. If we want elaborate dossiers on candidates, we can gather facts (and video) by the gigabyte. And yet the results are just as spotty as they were in the age of the rotary phone.

George Anders sought out the world's savviest talent judges to see what they do differently from the rest of us. He reveals how the U.S. Army finds soldiers with the character to be in Special Forces without asking them to fire a single bullet. He takes us to an elite basketball tournament in South Carolina, where the best scouts watch the game in a radically different way from the casual fan. He talks to researchers who are reinventing the process of hiring Fortune 500 CEOs.

Drawing on the best advice of these and other talent masters, Anders reveals powerful ideas you can apply to your own hiring. For

Don't ignore "the jagged résumé"-people whose background appears to teeter on the edge between success and failure. Such people can do spectacular work in the right settings, where their strengths dramatically outweigh their flaws. Look extra hard for "talent that whispers"- the obscure, out-of-the- way candidates who most scouting systems overlook. Be careful with "talent that shouts"-the spectacular but brash candidates who might have trouble with loyalty, motivation, and team spirit. Each field that Anders explores has its own lingo, customs, and history. But the specific stories fit together into a bigger mosaic. In any field, there's an art to clearing away the clutter and focusing on what matters most. It's not necessarily hard, but it requires the courage to take a different approach in pursuit of the rare find.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Leadership, Self Help, Recruitment, Historical Romance, Personal Development

303 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2011

Reviews

[Amy Nielsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

For anyone thinking of hiring a CEO, a football player, a basketball player or a Harvard Law Business School Administrator, this book is a great find. For the rest of us who are likely only going to be hiring nurses, clerical workers, marketers, accountants etc for our businesses, it is doubtful that anything other than the premise of "ask a lot of questions" and "go deeper" will be of benefit to us. I surely would love to hire a CNA that wants to change the world but the opportunity for her to do so will probably only extend to her next patient. I do like the idea that people want to be challenged. This does extend to a large group of people and might be instrumental in motivating your current workforce. All in all, I don't think reading this was a waste of time. Reading a lot of books can help anyone get a more well-rounded approach to management.

[Glenda Burgess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend Anders examination of identifying and selecting out those among us who are capable of exceptional success: thinking in new paradigms, defining new pathways, and how to identify those characteristics for our companies and our projects. The author examines the highly unique, breakthrough talents among us. The accidentally recruited, mistakenly ignored, insightfully developed and tragically overlooked, sometimes blindingly successful people who express great potential despite oversights in the military, entertainment industry, research and science fields. Empirical insights also suggest tips to encourage the best foot forward when that talented person might be ourselves or someone we nurture.

[Shane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This easy-to-read book discusses modern thinking in talent recruiting. Despite the title, it's more than just finding the very top talent; it concerns how to identify people that will survive and excel when most would quit. The book focuses on finding talent that conventional methods would disqualify.

For me, the book's greatest value may be when it's turned on its head: rather than recruiting talent, what can I do to make myself a better competitor? I highly recommend this book for any career- or achievement-oriented person.

[Yinnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book about finding talent in the long tail of probability and the importance of character and grit/persistence. Examples from the special forces to TFA to Taylor Swift and Pope John Paul II. Highly recommend this to anyone interested in talent management and building a sustainable organization.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting approach to finding game-changing talent. It actually provides an intellectual framework where the quirks of big law firms actually makes sense.

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this more for the interesting narratives than for the useful take-home pieces of advice (I didn't have any, as I was already reading resumes with the kind of open mind he describes). It's VERY readable, and I appreciate the approach of going into a variety of situations (my favorite was the Special Forces training), describing it thoroughly, and teasing out the ways in which the lessons can be applied in wildly different fields. I thought the last chapter, on how to get hired if you consider yourself a rare find, was by far the weakest, and I found a lot of the advice annoying.

[Jim Razinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this on my professional shelf at work for a few years and took time to dig into it. In Anders' Introduction, he bemoans the ability to identify great people as having deteriorated. My margin note was "we all want 'great' people, but not everyone is great. Not by a long shot (90% of all Navy officers used to be in the top 10%)". The parenthetical aside recalled the old evaluating system, where if someone was not in the top 10%, it was a career killer, so everybody was - except the ones who needed a new career. The Introduction is littered with superlatives like "crucial new terms", and definitive pronouncements like [a notion] "will show"...yes, I understand if you're selling a concept, you have to guarantee something, but that's a mental eye-roll for me when I see stuff like that.

Anyway, there are nuggets to be found in here for the "regular" hiring supervisor/manager, but they are hidden in plain sight among a lot of anecdotes that really don't apply to that regular world. Fortunately, some of those nuggets are bolded. Not all of Anders' bold choices are usable, but I'm sure some will be for some readers. I'll share here a few I flagged. Here's a nebulous one: Find your unlikely stars by noticing what others don't see. Sure. As it happens, I take a little pride in that. I also know I miss some of "what others see ". One of the takeaways wasn't bolded. In the anecdote about how Army Special Forces candidates are selected, Anders says "Every few years, Army statisticians analyze candidates' records to see if there is an easier way of identifying winners, without churning up so many thousands of hours of assessors' time." Brigadier General Sacolick, at the time of writing's head of Special Warfare Center Fort Bragg has a simple answer: "There is no shortcut."

In the chapter titled "Decoding the Jagged Resume", a bolded sentence is probably the best advice: Compromise on experience; don't compromise on character. Maybe a resume doesn't have what (you think) you are looking for. Unless there is an unbridgeable gap, knowledge can be learned, character...is innate. Go with character.

In the chapter "Where Insights Are Born", Anders quotes from Lou Adler's Hire With Your Head: remain objective throughout the interviewing process, fighting the impact of first impressions, biases, intuitions, prejudices and preconceived notions of success. This way, all information collected during the interview is both relevant and unbiased," Ander's nails it with: "That's a fine way to pick a lawn mower. It's not a great way to choose people." I do not do this, but I have seen it too many times in the past 11 years, both with hiring people and hiring consultants and contractors. Later in the same chapter, Anders mentions the 1950s corporate reliance on personality tests for hiring decisions. Yes, sixty years later, we've probably gotten away from that, but I've seen a resurgence of post-hiring use of what I called flawed assessments. Just an editorial opinion of mine.

In "Talent That Whispers", Break down barriers that restrict where you look. This is good advice. If you look where everyone else does, you'll miss the diamonds in the rough. Another bold, When you're exploring, ask: "What can go right?" is also good advice, and Anders follows up immediately with "Most conventional assessment is all about finding candidates' flaws. [Ooh! He is about to expose...] That's appropriate in the final stages of selection, when the top-tier candidates have already established their allure." And ..crash and burn. You're not looking for flaws to eliminate, you're looking which of the finalists will work "best". (I detest the amateurish question "What is your biggest weakness?" - rare that you'll get an answer that means anything.) And, Figure out how to take tiny chances - so you can take more of them. I like Tom Peters' take on that: Fail fast and fail often.

In "Talent That Shouts", Great talent is no substitute for the right talent. (there are more bolds, but I found them less useful.) Right talent. Yep. And pedigree rarely crosses job profiles - Anders says, "A brilliant Cabinet secretary stumbles as a university president." I say be wary of pelts on the wall, accolades, ...beware of the shiny.

Concluding chapter, "Fitting the Pieces Together", Anders has a section heading "Widen Your View of Talent" - I know people like to think they think outside the box, rarely recognizing there is always a box. My margin note was "stay away from boxes". Yes, there is always a box, and you can make the box bigger. Make sure you are careful with the shiny: Insist on the right talent. I've made some good hires, none really not that good, and have been part of someone else's hiring processes and lost the argument when too many on the team couldn't see past the glitz. Not my problem is a cop-out, because the whole organization suffers, but I can still sleep at night knowing it is someone else's problem.

Jumping off point: find The Algorithmic Image by Robert Rivlin.

Format criticism: another book with a Notes section (14 pages) and zero, nada, zilch references in the main body! Maddening. I actually checked this time before reading past the Introduction, but it is a colossal waste of time to flip back and forth, wondering if anything was endnoted.

[Sandip Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic account with real life examples from history on how bright and talented people can be identified and spotted by looking beyond conventional wisdom. The best and brightest are around us if we care to look deeper away from the usual stereotypes... recommended for all practicing managers and HR leaders

[David Fish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a very good book with insightful points. However, I felt like the stories took up much of the book and there could have been more elaboration done on the elements of these ideas presented by each story. The book did a good job of concluding by calling back to previous points of IDing talent, making for a concise reference to page through easily.

[Oswaldo Rhyslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Less Compelling

[Christopher Litsinger · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is probably primarily useful to those who are either (a) in charge of a large-scale search, or (b) in charge of a very high-end search for a specific role such as a C-suite executive. However, there are plenty of small nuggets that I found thought provoking for designing interview processes as a hiring manager.
The book is short and fairly enjoyable for a book about hiring – I found many of his specific stories, especially the description of the selection process for Army Special Forces, surprisingly entertaining.
Anders’ attempts to make things personal can occasionally feel a bit like a politician’s campaign speech. Like this bit:

TFA [Teach For America] wanted people like Emily Lewis-Lamonica. I met her in the summer of 2009, after she had finished two years of TFA service as an eighth-grade history teacher…

This book is strongly focused on identifying rare talent, while almost entirely ignoring enticing them or retaining them. This is somewhat forgivable, given the title of the book. This next segment is one of the rare exceptions where Anders digs in a bit further:

For bosses like John Cameron, it’s not enough to discover talent that shouts. That much is easy. The great challenges come later, once such people are on the payroll. That is when everything hinges on an ability to make the most of such people’s wide-ranging ambitions and restless spirits. If top performers don’t feel tied into the organization that hires them, all their marvelous potential may be useless. Their careers may be marked by quarrels, betrayals, squandered opportunities, and repeated job-hopping in moments of anger.
In extreme cases, organizations decide it isn’t worth accommodating such high-intensity turmoil. No matter how brightly a star might shine before a hiring decision is made, everything can blow up once a contract is signed. If events don’t play out as planned, talent that shouts can turn impatient, selfish, or frustrated. After too many such failures, some leaders retreat. They would rather surround themselves with amiable plodders than tangle again with the unruly side of talent.
Fortunately, there’s a way around this agony. Top teaching hospitals like Hopkins are a fine place to look for clues. So are elite military units. These organizations don’t flinch at filling their ranks with ambitious personalities. That’s because they know how to get everyone pulling together toward shared goals, rather than ending up with a quarrelsome bunch of prima donnas. Step into the corporate world, and similar triumphs exist as well. None of these organizations equates talent and treachery. Instead, they are the world’s best snake charmers, if you will, figuring out how to get the most out of high achievers without being led astray.

My biggest complaint about the book is how little it focused on diversity in hiring. Aside from a few mentions, such as a Lehman Brother’s strategy to hire women as analysts rather than salespeople, diversity as a hiring goal is quite absent. When it does appear, it feels like it’s exploitative, when he could just as easily focus on the value that a diverse team offers.
On balance, the book is worth reading, although I think it falls a bit short of its promise.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent Book, Sum It up To Looking Past Resumes & Looking For Character. Nothing Special Here

Depending on who you are this book would make either a fine or excellent read. If you are one to believe that resumes / CVs are everything, then yes, you are in no doubt in need of this book. But if you are the type that understands that everyone is different and you can't look on a resume and determine whether a person is a perfect fit for a company, then no you won't be in for such a treat in my opinion

If you have seen the 1987 film "Wall street" then you know gordan gekko says to bud "Most of these MBA types don't add up to anything, give me a guy whose poor, smart and hungry" and that's kind of what the essence of this book is all about. It's about looking past conventional ways of hiring people, if you have ever tried to get a job at certain firms. you would notice that all they seem to care about is what's on your CV. And the message in this book is towards people like them, "Stop paying attention to numbers/statistics so much and look at the actual person!". He makes his points by giving a bunch of real life story examples. he speaks about the army, Wall street traders, programmers, venture capitalists and more. Reading this book you really get the sense that the author does know what he's talking about by his constant referencing and so fort.

But all in all, i think it's important that you know, this is Not a "how to guide" more of a "Story about looking at things different" I did buy this book with the intent of learning a bunch of special techniques and tools i could use to to find quality people. But i was sadly mistaken, this book is not written in that format at all. so if you enjoy a good story, then i think you should pick this up. But if you are looking for hard facts and details then No! No! No! You will not get that in this book

"Moneymavericks92@Gmail.com"

[May-Ling · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is aptly named. i wouldn't say the average HR manager would find this helpful, but organizations looking for standout stars to lead greatness (personally, i think ALL should), will especially find the book engaging. for those in a rush (and i think he should publish it as a tiny e-book, you can simply read the wrap up for the conclusion on pp. 236-247.

anders follows many organizations and looks at how they find these amazing performers in the interview process, which can sometimes be an audition. although he talks about it when seeking top-level executives, my main takeaway to use in interviews moving forward is to pursue a "civil, but relentless hunt for information." asking for more seems to be the best way to learn about candidates' qualities and experiences.

each organization is looking for different qualities in a hire and this book talks about how the FBI seeks the following talent, which other places also value.

initiative, perseverance and compatability
discipline, trainability and judgment
loyalty, leadership and maturity

beyond the ideas in the rare find, i plan to investigate more about aggressive listening and topgrading, which were interesting concepts brought up in the book.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anders offers a wide bandwidth of different industries, jobs, talents required and talent sleuthing techniques. Within each, he provides enjoyable narratives which make you want to read on to see the outcome of each search and the multiple doors that could have been chosen to walk through, but the one door that ultimately made the most sense for long-term success...or alternatively, the door that was chosen for all the wrong reasons and led to disaster.
This is not a how-to book for talent search. It should be read as a work that provokes alternative views of approaching recruiting for talent and pokes at the old, linear thinking that pervades so many fields from the corporate world to the arts to sports to medicine and more. In reading the book, one's peripheral vision is improved to take in a wider of view of where talent might be found and how talent itself might be re-defined for the greater good of an organization. Next time you interview, you might be more thoughtful about "the possibilities" of the person who sits in front of you.

[Andrew Rhomberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on how to spot truly exceptional talent.

My favourite parts are the "Jagged Resume" and "Talent that Whispers".

The book is very clearly and logically structured,

It also breaks with a number of conventions. It highlights that people that are top of their class contribute magnitudes more than others (winner takes all economy), but often have very unconventional resumes.

I learnt a lot with regards to hiring for www.jellybooks.com when reading this book.

I'd warmly recommend this book, if you are wondering how to find and hire that rockstar developer or coding ninja or just about anybody for your company.

[Nic Brisbourne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is jammed full of tips and insights about how to hire great people, most clustered around the central theme of assessing character rather than experience. The key character traits to look for are resilience, curiousity, efficiency and self-reliance. I wrote a blog with more detail about the tips: http://www.theequitykicker.com/2012/0...

The tips are great, but I gave the book four stars rather than five because as a collection of ideas it lacks a little coherence.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating examples from many different fields such as high tech, medicine, military, finance, management, education, and academic administration.

Useful insights into how to spot talent. Sometimes it requires casting a wide net; other times overlooking blatant shortcomings to see hidden strengths; other times better defining the characteristics you're looking for in a candidate and (re-)designing the interview/audition process to allow a proper assessment of whether a candidate has the right stuff.

[Kent Winward · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of anecdotal stories on finding talent don't really explain much on finding exceptional talent. The main point for finding talented authors -- make lots of really small bets on lots of different authors and maybe you'll get lucky -- isn't exactly instructive. The rest is pretty much common sense -- crunch numbers like in Money Ball or try and make sure the talent you are seeking fits the job description.

The science of talent spotting has a ways to go.

[Nicholas Moryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, but can be reduced to just reading chapter 12. All the rest is anecdotes illustrating the points the author is trying to make. My main criticism of the book is that it's entirely anecdotal, so there's narrative fallacy aplenty (and/or survivorship bias). It's unclear whether or not any of the advice is statistically supported, but it sound good/reasonable, and that's probably as good as anything out there right now.

[Devin Partlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its really a 3.5 but since I can't give half stars, I flipped a coin to decide which way to round.

There are some pretty good practical things to be learned from reading this book. I'm anxious to apply it to who I choose to work with in my future endeavors.

An interesting idea for me inspired by this book is entrepreneurial auditions.

[David Tendo · Rating 2 out of 5]

He's got good stories here but nothing much else. Just like Imagine: How Creativity works, there's a lot of interesting stories about how people becoming successful, but it doesn't actually go into HOW they did it, which is frustrating because knowing how to talent-spot is something that would be good to know.

[Knotty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this after my company's National Sales Meeting and our then CEO was gushing about some of the lessons in the book. I'm not in the job market, but it's always interesting to read about how people can make themselves stand out when looking for new employment opportunities. It's an interesting leadership book, which is very readable and informative. I enjoyed it!

[Kurt Francom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would be a great book for someone in Human Resources to read or someone that does a lot of interviewing for their company. I found the studies interesting on how to hire the best people without using the useless old fashion methods (resumes and such).

[Marissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some great stories and examples in this book that keep it moving along. Some great insights on how to assess people in general and not pass over them because they don't fit some pre-conceived mold. Applicable to how we judge people in everyday life, not just in a corporation.

[Ntutfitness · Rating 2 out of 5]

In general, the idea of book is to illustrate how talent can often time be ignored in stream of standardized test when hiring people, place school and incorporation, where in hunger of talent, at present still a enigmatically define.

[Mark Monsma · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was not what I expected it to be. If anyone has read the book "Talent Is Overrated", they will surely agree that this book is... I hate to say it... boring. It lacks emotion and continuity. I advise you to skip this book. If you do want to read it, let me know and I will send you my copy.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting. There many examples of people who have found rare talent and a few basic categories this rare talent falls into so that, hopefully, you'll be able to recognize it when it comes across your desk.

[Lisa Christensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book. It's told through robust stories and examples, that do a fine job of illustrating the author's key points in a really memorable way.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I put my review at my blog, purplecar.net
The Rare Find Review at PurpleCar

[Zachary · Rating 2 out of 5]

topics were all over the place. It reads easily and is entertaining -- but not very cohesive.