Mel Poinas was interviewed by the team of Taleez, the blog of Human Ressources about having an innovative HR policy! Discover an extract to better understand gifted profiles in companies.
Looking for a job when you are gifted
“Do gifted profiles encounter particular difficulties in their job search?”
If you’re a profile that knows how to put your strengths forward, gifted or not, it usually works. It’s after that that things get tricky.
Mel Poinas
I’d like to say that good casting must take place before the job interviewfrom the job description you need to know whether you want a profile that “fits the bill” and will be in a recurring missionor if you’re looking for someone in a innovation objective and get things moving. Gifted profiles are bound to have an outlook that 98% of people don’t (although I think we’re more than 2%). And that’s the advantage for me!
On the other hand, it should come as no surprise that when we recruit an gifted profile, we come up with different ideas that will challenge your strategy. In fact, I’ve found myself in this situation before, i.e. they wanted the “5-legged sheep” 🐑 and when I proposed new things, everything was too complicated to implement. And for a zebra, there’s always a solution to any problem. If you can’t, you don’t want to.
I’d like to digress for a moment because there’s a lot of talk about atypical profiles that don’t fit in, but there are also many who do. ! My best friend, for example, is an accountant, she likes her habitswith her team, things are going very well, and she’s been with the same company for 5 years.
Applying for jobs when you’re gifted
Do you have to announce that you’re a zebra when you apply for a job?
That’s a tricky question, because it depends on the individual. At first sight , I wouldn’t say it because it might sound pretentious. I think that in a resume, an atypical profile shows 👀.
For me, when it’s HR or managers who notice it and open the door: “you’ve got quite an atypical profile“, that’s the right time to talk about it. But announcing it yourself is always a bit tricky.
Today, I’m the one who recruits and that’s a real difficulty. It’s easier to be on the other side because making the right recruitment choice is a real challenge, especially when you’re gifted. We don’t necessarily think like everyone else, and the job interviews I give aren’t like conventional interviews.
There’s a lot of talk about the gifted employee, but the gifted boss isn’t so obvious either.
Managing a gifted profile
“Precisely, do you have any advice for managers to ensure that zebra people flourish in their jobs?”
Listening, reassuring and comforting. Give them a lot of autonomy and trust them. Even though I think it’s the basis of any relationship, it’s all the more true because a gifted profile is very volatile: if it doesn’t feel right, it’ll leave.
The work environment is also very important for a gifted profile. Noise, light and the excitement around him can distract him.
Work habits can also be important. For example, flex-office can be a bit complicated, at least for me. I remember once, after a period of sick leave, I did’nt have my place back once I’d returned to the office, it was a horrible experience I love having a personalized office that feels a bit like home.
Is the search for meaning for a gifted profile sought rather in the missions or in the tasks, in the company’s values or in the general corporate project, in the salary…?
It’s a whole. For example, in my previous company, I loved what I was doing on a daily basis, but I couldn’t find my way around thecompany’s values. It was a company where most of the furniture on sale was made in Asia, and as someone who’s more into saving the planet, I wasn’t aligned with that kind of process.
There were also many disappointments. For example, we’ve had training courses and team-building sessions where there was a real emulsion of ideas to get things moving, but with no follow-up. I had hope, until you realized that no, it wouldn’t change. That’s why it’s so important to search for meaning in your job – if it doesn’t have meaning, it’s pointless.
In fact, I think that with the evolution of society and the rise of the self-employed, companies will find it increasingly difficult to recruit gifted profiles. Now, with technological advances, inequalities and inconsistencies are becoming apparent. And a gifted person feels the world very strongly with great sensitivity and it’s harder and harder for her to be aligned today.
Article written by Mel and Maëlle for Taleez.
You can read the full article on the Taleez website: Recruiting, managing and better understanding gifted profiles
To go further, you can read
- Giftedness and work, gift or burden?
- 7 good reasons to hire a gifted profile
- Can an gifted profile be a good manager?
- Finding your place in the company when you are Gifted
- Giftedness, explanation and testimonial by Mel Poinas
