Talent May Be Portable But Success Is Not

In a world of fleeting organizational loyalty and remote work, the realization of how portable talent is has become top of mind for many leaders. 

Highly skilled team members can bring their assets to organizations across the globe, often without relocating geographically. The acceptability of working remotely, or mostly so, has amplified the view that talent is highly portable and susceptible to competing offers. News of bidding wars for top performers has ushered in a new and difficult challenge for leaders in nearly every industry. 

The idea that highly skilled team members can make a fast transition and apply their experience and knowledge in a new organization, however, is drastically overstated. 

While it is true that outside relationships and innate abilities can be transferred seamlessly to a new setting, there are many factors that influence team member success that are not portable. 

Leaders and team members often underestimate that the success of top performers hinges on the knowledge, support, and relationships available where they work now. Team members of any tenure in an existing organization benefit from a host of advantages that take a long time to replicate in a new enterprise. 

Chief among these assets are the routines, processes, tools, and procedures valued in the current culture. Many of the structures that contribute to team member success are not found in other organizational cultures. 

It is also often overlooked how the existing internal networks and relationships a team member enjoys in the current enterprise also work to make them successful. The support, collaboration, and assistance provided by colleagues are not easily replicated, at least not quickly, in a new organization. 

Worse yet, new colleagues are often looked at suspiciously once they land in an unfamiliar workplace. Because peers in many organizations compete for resources, a new colleague is not always welcomed with open arms. This makes gaining traction quickly much more complicated. 

Another advantage of the existing workplace is the working knowledge about how to navigate the culture in order to get things done. Every organization has its secret doors and magic words that make life easier once you know them. 

Underestimating how to work the system is often apparent in a new workplace only after a team member arrives. It takes a lot of experience to learn the ropes of a new organization. Performance normally suffers in the meantime. 

While it is easier than ever to relocate one’s talents to a new organization, leaders on both sides of the equation should weigh what is portable and what is not. Only a small slice of what makes a team member successful is easily transferrable to a new workplace. Understanding that should make the decision to leave or to hire more thoughtful. 

The virtual world of remote work has made it easier for people to shop their skills, but it hasn’t made success in a new organization guaranteed. In fact, research suggests that most top performers fail to reach the same level of success they enjoyed in the organization they recently left. Many factors contribute to success, including some that are difficult to replicate without time and history.