Talent Retention Quotes

Creator of all things, true source of light and wisdom, origin of all being, graciously let a ray of your light penetrate the darkness of my understanding. Take from me the double darkness in which I have been born, an obscurity of sin and ignorance. Give me a keen understanding, a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally. Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and charm. Point out the beginning, direct the progress, and help in the completion.

This brings us in another fashion to the subject of the last chapter, and to another reason for the great memories of genius. The more significant a man is, the more different personalities he unites in himself, the more interests that are contained in him, the more wide his memory must be. All men have practically the same opportunities of perception, but the vast majority of men apprehend only an infinitesimal part of what they have perceived. The ideal genius is one in whom perception and apprehension are identical in their field. Of course no such being actually exists. On the other hand, there is no man who has apprehended nothing that he has perceived. In this way we may take it that all degrees of genius (not talent) exist; no male is quite without a trace of genius. Complete genius is an ideal; no man is absolutely without the quality, and no man possesses it completely. Apprehension or absorption, and memory or retention, vary together in their extent and their permanence. There is an uninterrupted gradation from the man whose mentality is unconnected from moment to moment, and to whom no incidents can signify anything because there is within him nothing to compare them with (such an extreme, of course, does not exist) to the fully developed minds for which everything is unforgettable, because of the firm impressions made and the sureness with which they are absorbed. The extreme genius also does not exist, because even the greatest genius is not wholly a genius at every moment of his life.

A Student’s Prayer (By St. Thomas Aquinas)   CREATOR of all things, true source of light and wisdom, origin of all being, graciously let a ray of your light penetrate the darkness of my understanding.   Take from me the double darkness in which I have been born, an obscurity of sin and of ignorance.   Give me a keen understanding, a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally.   Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and charm.   Point out the beginning, direct the progress, and help the completion. I ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Skehan also reviews some case studies of exceptional language learners, and concludes: ‘To be exceptionally good at second or foreign language learning seems to require possession of unusual memory abilities, particularly the retention of verbal material. Exceptional L2 ability does not seem to rest upon unusual talent with rule-based aspects of the language, but rather on a capacity to absorb very large quantities of verbal material, in such a way that they become available for actual language use’ (1998: 221).

Here’s a little secret in leadership development: Your talent retention problem is always an issue of your leadership. As much as leaders like to fight it, it’s not your “entitled employees”; it’s you. Your job is to select and retain the best talent possible. If you aren’t doing that, there is something to explore in your leadership style.

Are you an employer of choice in the minds of your employees? How do they feel about your sustainability and ESG efforts? Have you ever asked? You may want to think about the upcoming battle for talent. And that battle is on a personal level.

Creator of all things, true source of light and wisdom, lofty origin of all being, graciously let a ray of your brilliance penetrate into the darkness of my understanding and take from me the double darkness in which I have been born, an obscurity of both sin and ignorance. Give me a sharp sense of understanding, a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally. Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations, and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and charm. Point out the beginning, direct the progress, and help in completion; through Christ our Lord, amen. —Thomas Aquinas, “A Prayer for Students

Retaining top talent isn't merely a strategy, it's an art. The canvas is Trust, the palette is Accountability, Love is the brush, Empowerment the colors, No micromanagement is the space, and Teamwork is the picture we create. The masterpiece of retention is, in fact, spelled T.A.L.E.N.T.

If you carefully manage leading indicators such as mission alignment, an employee’s ability to gather network intelligence, or general satisfaction during tours of duty check-ins, you’ll successfully manage lagging indicators such as employee retention or engagement.

Rich Lesser, the CEO of The Boston Consulting Group, calls this building an “opt-in” culture. “The reality of being an employer is not that you make people feel an obligation to stay,” Lesser told us. “You hire the best people you can possibly find. Then it’s up to you to create an environment where great people decide to stay and invest their time. Since we made this an emphasis, our employee satisfaction scores have been better than ever, and our retention of top talent is substantially higher than a decade ago.

While hiring, look for candidates who have been laid off, or who took extended paternity or maternity leave to be with their kids in their growing years. Not only will it give you an excellent hiring experience, in terms of lower joining attrition rate and shorter recruitment cycle, but it will also ensure higher retention rate. People who get laid-off are not bad people or non-performers, it is just that they didn't fit into the culture of one organization or that particular organization couldn't afford them (cost-cutting). Such people deserve to be looked differently and given another chance. People who take an extended break to take care of their infants are career oriented people with a temporary shift in their priorities, do not make it look permanent.

From his earliest days in school, Lincoln’s comrades remarked upon his phenomenal memory, “the best,” the most “marvelously retentive,” they had ever encountered. His mind seemed “a wonder,” a friend told him, “impressions were easily made upon it and never effaced.” Lincoln told his friend he was mistaken. What appeared a gift, he argued, was, in his case, a developed talent. “I am slow to learn,” he explained, “and slow to forget what I have learned. My mind is like a piece of steel—very hard to scratch anything on it, and almost impossible after you get it there to rub it out.