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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?
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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
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