The debate on talent vs discipline isn’t new. Different people have different points of view on the matter.
Two Sides of the Coin
Those who side with talent believe that talent makes it easier for things to get done. Discipline, while a fantastic quality, may not always be helpful. In challenging situations, discipline without talent may especially be useless.
However, those who believe discipline is more important than talent think long-term. While talent is excellent in emergencies, discipline might eliminate or at least reduce the emergencies themselves. Hence discipline is more important than talent in the long run.
If you’re an employer, you can look for either of the qualities in your employees, depending on your business’s needs. For example, you can hire talented temps. On the other hand, you can also prefer disciplined employees for extended term contracts. This way, you don’t need to waste your time on the talent vs discipline debate, and you can get the best of both worlds for your business.
However, here are a few reasons why you should always prefer disciplined employees over talented ones, even for temp positions in your business:
You Can Hire Them Full-Time
Consider this; you thought you only needed to hire a temp for a unique one-off gig. But the position became permanent, and your temp isn’t the sort of person you can hire full-time. You will have to find another urgent resource in the scenario, which will mean more pressure on you.
Even if you try to convince your talented employee to take up the full-time position, they might not change their ways and still treat it as a temp. In this case, your business will suffer.
Now let’s suppose you find someone to replace them. In that scenario, the temp might not hand over the running projects to their replacement correctly. Remember, they’re talented, not disciplined. While they can get the work done, they might be incapable of showing responsibility. Your new employee will struggle to get the hang of things, and your business will suffer again.
Talent Can Be Replaced with Training
It is challenging to teach discipline to anyone, especially to grown-up working professionals. Discipline is a personal trait more than a professional trait and requires internal motivation to be learned. On the other hand, any capable individual can be trained professionally.
A disciplined employee can be specially trained even quicker. Their lack of professional know-how will be covered when they find the right environment to learn and grow. Their disciplined employee will ensure that they do their job as best as they can.
They might not be as fast as a talented employee, especially in the first few days, but they will ensure that their work gets done as best as possible. In a few days, they will become even better than a talented employee.
If you are looking to hire, talent vs discipline shouldn’t even be a debate you consider. For both short-term and long-term positions, you should prefer discipline.
