No Talent Required (NTR) is not a new idea. I learnt about it from former Lions and England rugby international Ugo Monye.

Ugo often talks about NTR during his weekly BBC rugby podcasts. He believes that it doesn’t take talent to:

  • Be on time for training.
  • Train with 100% effort every session.
  • Be open to new ideas, new tactics, new defensive systems – to be coachable.
  • Get up from a tackle and get back in the defensive line.
  • Chase down a ball or opposition player one more time.

What I find interesting is that professional athletes appear to need a mantra like this. I have assumed that to get to the top of a sport, the right mental attitude is a given. The concept of NTR suggests otherwise. Just because a rugby player has the skills, tactical knowledge and match day experience, it doesn’t mean s/he also has the mindset to be an elite player.

For my team, it’s no different. I have posted many times about skills, knowledge and experience being ‘table stakes’ (i.e. the minimum requirement) for a competent consultant. But what we also bring to the table is our mindset.

For our team it doesn’t take talent to:

  • Do what we said we would do when we said we would do it. To deliver on the commitments we have made; to be a safe pair of hands for the customer.
  • Be responsive to the customer.
  • Communicate effectively. A willingness to have a conversation and not send an email.
  • Bring energy and positivity to the workplace.
  • Own the customer’s issue or problem until the work is complete. Be resilient, find a way.
  • Speak up and challenge the customer’s view (when appropriate), but also follow their direction.
  • Integrate work with life. Sometimes work will need priority over family life, and sometimes family life needs to be a priority over work.
  • Be ethical. A Nuffield Group timesheet reflects work done, not hours present in the building.

None of this takes talent, 40 years of work experience, or vast technical knowledge but it does require all team members to be purposeful about how they chose to work. When it exists, I believe, it provides for a winning culture where customers, individuals and the company succeed together.