The Poor Nobleman

Even the smallest job requires talent. Thinking that anyone can be taught to do any work—and that it’s all just about incentive systems and ambition—means confusing talent, knowledge, and skills. Talent is innate; knowledge and skills are something you can acquire. The book by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman summarizes the grand twenty-five-year work of the Gallup Institute, the essence of which is that you can’t change people and you shouldn’t demand what they don’t have. You need to identify their existing talents and help them uncover their strengths. The match between a person’s abilities and the role they fill—that’s what every manager should strive for.