Talents of Great Agile Team Members

Recall the advice of Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman: hire people based on talent, not so much for experience, intelligence, and determination.

Talent is defined as “a recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied”.

So, what are the talents that great agile team members share? Here are some possibilities:

focus – sets goals and uses them every day to guide actions
discipline – imposes structure onto life and work
reflection – examines past choices and learns from experience
adaptability – quickly adjusts practices to achieve goals
strategic thinking – plays out future alternative scenarios
cooperation – interacts with others constructively

Note that, when a person possesses them, talents span every aspect of a person’s life and do not merely manifest themselves in a particular job or work environment.

How would you add to this brainstorm of possible talents that great agile team members share?

Comments

Unknown said…

Nice! Totally agree with your premise that you can hire for people who are more adaptable to Agile than others. Blogged about it too: http://robhirschfeld.com/2010/04/09/screening-recruits-for-agile-savvy/

I think that teamwork/humility is most important on your lost.

In the past, I've used inverted Lencioni's 5 dsyfunctions for team hiring (trust, ability to disagree, committed, accountable, results).

Mon Mar 21, 03:30:00 PM 2011

Shiwani Dixit said…

good one

Wed May 11, 02:41:00 AM 2011

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