• What is Talent? You ask as you lock your gaze with mine.

• What is Talent?… And you ask me that? Talent is you…, but now, keep working because I have to present the report tomorrow, and we’re not here for these musings.

• But I have talent, right?

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  Of course, of course, you’re very talented, but now we need to close those sales.

Does this happen often, as leaders, where we have to deal with the short-term focus on results versus the long-term focus on development, motivation, and team growth?

Many speakers, books, podcasts, and others tell us what we should do as leaders. They talk about developing our team, guiding them toward growth, and feeling proud as we watch them progress and become better professionals than we are. They instruct us to offer constructive feedback to enhance their professional and, why not, personal development as well. However, all this didactic philosophy clashes with the reality of any organization in our Western culture, where short-term profit occupies a central place. Since Friedman instilled the idea that the priority is the value of stocks and short-term dividends, everything else takes a backseat. Although the intentions may be noble, they hold little value when goals aren’t met, and the numbers aren’t in the green.

How can we dedicate time to developing our team when the indicators are in the red, and we risk being fired?

How can we feel happy about a colleague’s significant development if that could jeopardize our own job? How can we play our role as a leader if no one teaches us, and we are expected to act as advanced technicians? How can we sit down with a colleague to discuss their personal issues when we have to deliver reports to our boss the next day?

In many leadership training sessions, participants ask these questions: Everything sounds wonderful, and it’s what we should do, but how and when can we implement it if we don’t have the time and our objectives are tied to numerical growth or cost reduction?

The simplest solution to mention is that we must do both things simultaneously: think about long-term development while achieving short-term goals. Sounds easy, right? Books like “The Infinite Game” by Simon Sinek are inspiring, and there are examples of companies that apply it. Thinking more about sustainable growth than sales results is ideal for the future of the organization. Sinek himself questions Friedman’s axiom and tries to instill other objectives and values in organizations that transcend short-term thinking.

However, in the current reality, we see large companies carrying out massive layoffs because they didn’t achieve immediate results. We see talented people leaving companies because short-term results do not allow for building a future within the organization. We see large investment funds acquiring companies, dismantling them, and selling them again. Moreover, we observe that when results don’t go as expected, the first thing to be cut is the benefits for employees: free fruits, coffee, corporate university, gym, etc. That is everything that influences motivation and talent retention. Cutting these policies is not ideal if we want to motivate and retain talent in difficult times. They say that the worse a company’s performance, the more we should invest to gain future benefits, but we don’t apply the same to talent. Instead, we disinvest and allow its escape because short-term results aren’t achieved.

To make the combination of short and long-term goals do not seem impossible, I like to propose everyday leadership: the ability to think about long-term development and sustainability while achieving daily objectives and key performance indicators.

I imagine a leader who, after the daily meeting, records improvements and learnings from their team members. I imagine a leader who, after visiting a client, sits for 10 minutes with their team member and provides motivating and empowering feedback. A leader who achieves goals by delegating responsibilities according to the professional and personal growth aspirations of their team members, as well as their maturity level. A leader who trusts their team and gives them space to try, fail, learn, and grow. A leader who values merit and promotes excellence. All of this can be done daily, while pursuing short-term goals, requiring little time investment and boosting both short and long-term efficiency in talent.

How can we convince superiors to perform this everyday leadership role when what is urgent and important are business objectives?

One example would be to suggest the possibility of setting leadership goals, i.e., having 20% of a possible variable compensation based on leadership effectiveness. Not only based on feedback from team members but on objective evidence of leadership performance. We could create digital tools that support and assist managers in their leadership role and provide us with such evidence. Awarding prizes to managers who have their team members among the candidates for promotion. Ultimately, it’s about influencing the people responsible to play the role of leader by offering them short-term benefits for doing so.

I’m sure artificial intelligence can help us become better leaders, but it cannot replace us. It can remind us that we need to record observations, offer feedback, and provide numerical information to make decisions, but the balance between short-term and long-term goals can only be achieved by humans.