What can business organizations learn from the military when it comes to talent management and leadership development? Those who have been in the trenches, leading people through some of the most difficult and risky missions in the world know that people are everything. Mike Sarraille and George Randle are two of the authors of The Talent War, an incredibly insightful work that examines the parallels between the talent management practices of special operations forces and the most successful organizations in the world. 

Aiming to empower small and medium businesses to achieve excellence every day, Mike and George founded the Talent War Group, a cadre of highly-experienced SOF leaders and business executives who understand the critical importance of human capital management. Listen in as they share some of the principles they talked about in their book as they join Fran Racioppi on this first episode of The Jedburgh Podcast.

Read the full episode transcription here and learn more on The Jedburgh Podcast Website.

Highlights:

-Why Special Operations uses nine characteristics of elite performance to recruit, assess, select and train its people and how the nine are required to build elite performers in any organization. 

-What it means and why organizations must “hire for character, train for skill.”

-Entrepreneurs exist at all levels of an organization; Mike & George explain how encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit drives productivity and innovation.

-Assessing people’s response after failure is an important indicator of their character and potential for future success; George describes the most common results of failure given by candidates in the interview process. 

-Mike provides the tools leaders need to determine and accept risk in order to see risk as opportunities to improve the organization. 

-The keys to introspective leadership and self evaluation on a continuous basis.

-Mike candidly describes the importance of a “tribe” and how the strongest people and organizations rely on a strong sense of community, camaraderie and team.

-How the "whole-man" concept requires leaders to evaluate talent on the totality of what they bring to the organization and how they enhance all aspects of the team in addition to their personal skill set or subject-matter expertise.

Quotes:

-”A transformational leader builds genuine relationships with their people. They are willing to pay the rent.”

-”What are we doing? What should we be doing.”

-”What makes Special Operations so special is that they have to be experts in potential-based hiring.”

-”I want everyone to be a disruptive thinker. I want everyone to have a sense of autonomy over their lives and their jobs. Ownership to make decisions at their respective level.”

-“99% of people see risk and it automatically triggers fear.”

-“Everyone has failed at something they tried.”

“Iron sharpens iron.”

Mike’s Three Daily Foundations of Success:

-Develop a growth mindset

-Demonstrate humility

-Maintain your tribe

George’s Three Daily Foundations of Success:

-Persistence in personal growth

-Have faith in self, tribe and your team

-Love and appreciate those around you