Companies have to accept that talent can come and go

Talent acquisition and retention is both a strategy and a future challenge. Companies, institutions, and cities compete globally to retain and attract talent in increasingly uncertain environments. Marc Francés and Xavier Marcet represent two complementary perspectives on how organization, leadership, and innovation converge in a single project.

On one hand, Francés is the director of the consulting firm Sarah Marlex, specialized in talent evaluation and development. On the other hand, Marcet, founder of Lead To Change —a consulting firm acquired this year by Sarah Marlex—, has emerged as one of the most recognized voices in the field of strategy and business transformation. A conversation full of content about the new complexity organizations face: not only to attract talent, but also to know how to activate it, multiply it, and, when necessary, let it go.

--- How would you define talent today?

--- Marc Francés: Talent is a mix of skills, capabilities, and attitudes that, put at the service of a purpose or project, emerge. Sometimes it manifests in visible results, and other times it is latent —a potential not yet activated—, which makes it more difficult to identify.

--- But this concept of talent has evolved over time...

--- Xavier Marcet: That's right. Before, talent was often seen only in top management, but now we know that talent is needed throughout the organization. These are people who, with this combination of skills, have trajectories with above-average results, not just titles. It has also been transformed by the entry of technology: now talent coexists with the person-technology binomial, and this fact requires constant adaptation.

--- How do you detect if a person has talent?

--- M. F.: Talent is contextual. What works in one environment may not work in another. Before, it was said that the best predictor of the future was past performance, but as the context changes a lot, this is no longer useful. Now we seek to predict potential and adaptability.

--- And how do you manage to predict this potential?

--- M. F.: We use psychometric tools to understand values, motivations, and capabilities. The three key aspects we observe are: cognitive ability, analytical mind, and curiosity; motor agility, persistence, and flexibility; and social-emotional skills, self-awareness, and empathy.

--- X. M.: There is an intuitive part ---asking the right questions, understanding what the organization wants to do--- and a scientific part, with tools that analyze the company's culture and current situation. It's an exercise of connection between the person and the place. Understanding both the profile and the context is fundamental.

--- How would you define a good leader?

--- M. F.: Someone with vision, capable of communicating it and getting others to commit. And who does it in a sustained way, in a changing environment.

--- X. M.: It's not enough to command. You must influence, positively infect, get even those who are not obliged to follow you to do so. That is leadership.

"It's not enough to attract talent. This talent needs to multiply local prosperity. We need networks that connect the talent we attract with the talent we already have and that we need to know how to retain"

--- M. F.: The paradigm of permanence must be broken. Careers are no longer vertical. They are horizontal, diagonal... Companies have to accept that talent can come and go, but they have to ensure that during the time it is there, it contributes 100% and leaves its mark.

--- X. M.: Retention depends on three things: who you work with, if you can learn, and if you connect with the purpose of the organization. When these three factors are present, the bond is much stronger.

"We must offer a quality environment, respectful of minorities and tolerant. This can make people choose Barcelona for the lifestyle and not just for work"

--- X. M.: Europe has advantages: stability, public services, quality of life. But it needs deep reforms: its own innovation model and a better public-private relationship. If it doesn't, it will be relegated to a secondary role.

--- M. F.: It's paradoxical. Europe is attractive to people, but regulation hinders business projects. We have to be able to attract talent and projects at the same time, and we will only do this with a transformative vision.

--- And in the case of Barcelona, what attractions can the city offer to compete globally for attracting talent?

--- X. M.: Barcelona has three great assets: its industrial base, not just tourism; innovative sectors, such as biotechnology; and that it is a livable city. But it's not enough to attract talent. This talent needs to multiply local prosperity. We need meshes, networks, ecosystems that connect the talent we capture with the talent we already have and that we need to know how to retain.

--- M. F.: There is also a vital element of values. Offering a quality environment, respectful of minorities and tolerant. This can make people choose Barcelona for the lifestyle and not just for work.

--- X. M.: True. We have balances (social, environmental, quality of life) that are key European values. But we must generate enough prosperity to be able to pay for them. And we will only do this if we rethink the leadership style, innovation structures, and the way of managing talent from a European perspective, and not by copying Silicon Valley's.