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Guest post by: John Madigan Become an Author

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Despite being an HR guy, I’m frankly tired of hearing that “people are your competitive advantage”. It appears to be very fashionable now to refer to your human capital as your last or best source of competitive advantage. I’m all in favor of talent since it’s at the center of our name and services. And, don’t get me wrong, hiring the right people is vitally important to the success of your enterprise (said the long time Staffing guy). However, your real competitive advantage lies in the systems you build, sustain and continually improve to consistently deliver winning performance. One of these systems is how you find, select, on board, develop and manage the performance of your talent---in my view your talent management system.

Look at a high performing organization today, The New England Patriots (except the last few games but go with me here). Are they successful simply because they have better players? In absolute terms, they may or may not have better players than many other teams. I think they are better because they have developed the right systems to deliver winning performance, and that’s the key. The right systems to deliver winning performance. The scouting talent subsystem (they are finding the right talent), the selection subsystem (they are picking the right people from those they scout), the on-boarding subsystem (that’s how Randy Moss was integrated into the team and became productive so fast). And, let’s not forget the performance management and accountability subsystem (the front-line coaching staff and the job they do) and the leadership subsystem (coach Belichek and others).

So, it’s not simply the people who take the field that make the Patriots, or any other high performing organization, function so well. It’s the integrated system (meta-system perhaps) that delivers the right talent for winning performance.

All organizations need to look at these various systems to make sure they support delivering winning performance and that’s more than hiring great talent. Without the right systems in place, high performance is not sustainable.

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