Laura’s keynote on talent, potential, and the people decisions that matter most
The Talent Paradox
How the Legendary Talent Spotters See What the Rest of Us Miss
Your gut says, “I’ll know it when I see it.” But if you’ll know it when you see it, you’ve already seen it before, and you’ll keep hiring and promoting your way back to where you’ve been. Laura shows leaders what their gut is actually reading, what it misses, and how to build an organization that sees potential, not just polish.
Built on Laura’s Talent Paradox research. Read the findings →
They were looking right at her. They just couldn’t see her.
In 1942, the most glamorous woman in Hollywood brought the Navy a way to keep the enemy from jamming Allied torpedoes. The room saw a movie star and told her she’d be more useful selling war bonds. Her name was Hedy Lamarr, and the frequency hopping they waved off became part of the foundation for Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth.
Every organization has its Hedy Lamarrs. They’re sitting in your meetings right now, waiting for someone to see where they could go instead of only where they’ve been.
Every miss has two costs: the person you backed who couldn’t grow, and the one you overlooked who could have.
We’re trained to grade the past. We should be spotting the future.
Nine behaviors predict potential. Five more only look like it.
We chase rock stars: the high achiever, the agile learner, the team energizer. They light up the room with their brilliance, but they burn it down with their blind spots. Underneath the people who actually keep growing are nine behaviors in three families. Where the families overlap lie your best performers, but we miss them because we are fooled by cues our guts love.
High Achievers
Hunger. How much they want it.
Volition. They’re driven from the inside, not by the reward.
Tenacity. They take failure in stride and keep going.
Agile Learners
Plasticity. They take what they learned in one area and apply it in another.
Agility. How fast they get from failure to fix.
Curiosity. An insatiable need to understand what is, and what could be.
Team Energizers
Wonder. They see possibility in the face of challenges.
Weight. A presence and seriousness that earn the trust of colleagues and clients.
Empathy. They can put themselves in other people’s shoes.
The best talent spotters don’t choose between gut and evidence.
In Laura’s interviews with the people who read talent for a living, the best of them blend a fast intuitive read with disciplined judgment. Most first say intuition can’t be taught. Then they describe exactly how they built theirs: reflection, exposure to patterns, and honest review of their misses.
And the most common way good evaluators get fooled is the same everywhere: mistaking polish and presence for potential.
Six ideas leaders take back to work.
Leaders leave able to spot, stoke, and scale the potential already on their teams, with a shared language for the people decisions that shape everything else.
The Intuition ParadoxWhy the leaders who trust their gut most are often the least willing to say so.
The Cycle of Intuitive ExpertiseThe five stages every read about a person moves through, and where it goes wrong.
What Your Gut Is Actually SeeingThe nine behaviors that predict potential, and the five that fool us every time.
Who Deserves the BetHow to choose who to hire, promote, and develop by where they could go, not only where they’ve been.
Can an Organization Have Intuition?How a team’s reads become shared judgment instead of private hunches.
The Power of VoiceWhy saying a read out loud is what turns a bias into expertise, and how you might unknowingly be silencing it.
Customized keynotes, where Laura’s message meets your moment.
Every talk is customized to the decisions your audience actually makes. Bring it in as a keynote, or build on it so the change lasts. It works especially well for executive teams, boards, partner meetings, talent leaders, and even parents.
Keynote
The stories, the research, and the nine behaviors, built around the people decisions your audience actually makes.
Half-Day Working Session
Leaders bring a real talent decision, a hire, a promotion, or a stretch assignment, and pressure-test it together.
Your Own Data
Your people take one of Laura’s assessments before the event, and she brings your organization’s results to the stage.
“Attendees walked away with wisdom to help them become stronger, more successful leaders.”
More keynotes from Laura
The next great leader in your organization may already be in the room. Make sure your leaders can see them.
Tell us your date, your audience, and what you need them to do differently. You’ll hear back the same business day. Bureaus welcome.