Talent: For What Purpose and in What Context?

When I ask in class to associate a word with "talent," the responses are repetitive: gift, potential, high performance, "the best." Then I show three photos: Lionel Messi, Franco Colapinto, and Marcos Galperin. No one disputes that all three have talent. But if we change their context, Messi leading a tech company, Galperin in a Formula car, that talent becomes less evident. This raises the question that organizes everything else: talent, for what and in what context?

Talent is not an absolute trait. It's the combination of what a person knows how to do, what they want to do, and where they do it. Pilar Jericó summarized it in a formula that remains relevant: capabilities, commitment, and action. If any of the three are missing, there is no talent: there is wasted potential.

An Era That Won't Slow Down

The world has never changed so quickly and will not return to its previous speed. At the Chinese television New Year's gala in 2025, humanoid robots danced with rigid movements; by 2026, they were executing martial arts sequences. And the data supports this: according to the Future of Jobs Report 2025 by the World Economic Forum, employers expect that 39% of workers' core skills will change by 2030. The most valued skills today are not technical, but strategic thinking, which is essential for seven out of ten companies, followed by resilience, flexibility, agility, and social influence.

For individuals, the consequence is concrete: less linear careers, less stable jobs, and the need to reinvent themselves multiple times throughout life. For organizations, too: yesterday's talent does not guarantee tomorrow's.

Who Has Talent in This Context

If the context changes exponentially, talent shifts to those who understand the change, anticipate it, and lead it rather than suffer from it. It is recognized in observable behaviors: early adoption of new things, exploring tools, continuous learning, and knowing how to manage projects, as work is increasingly organized around challenges with a beginning and an end, rather than stable positions.

Without Strategy and Culture, Talent Cannot Be Managed

A common mistake when starting to design talent mapping and development models is: creating nine-box grids, high-potential lists, and succession plans without first answering what the business needs and what behaviors the organization rewards. Talent cannot be identified or managed without clarity on strategy and culture. They are the three vertices of the same triangle.

Culture, as defined by Edgar Schein, is the set of shared assumptions that guide how we think and act: the unwritten rules. Justo Villafañe adds a useful distinction between programmed culture (what we declare), projected culture (what we communicate), and perceived culture (what people experience). The greater the distance between them, the harder it is to retain talent. People don't stay because of what's written on the values page, but because of what they experience every Monday.

What Should We Consider from the People Areas?

1. Define talent in plural and in context. Each organization must specify what capabilities its strategy needs for the next three to five years, not those of the current organizational chart.

2. Shift from positions to skills. A skills model allows us to see what each person knows how to do beyond their role, mobilize internal talent, and detect gaps before they become urgent.

3. Measure the ability to learn, not just performance. Performing well in the current context does not predict success in the next one.

4. Design non-linear careers. Lateral moves, projects, rotations, and reinventions at any stage, even after 50, must be part of the map, not exceptions.

5. Close the gap between declared and lived culture. It is the most underestimated lever of retention and the one most dependent on leaders.

6. Think about talent with technology, not against it. The question is not what tasks AI will do, but what a person can do better when working with it.

Talent remains a matter of people, but it is no longer a label that is applied once and lasts forever. It is a living relationship between what someone can contribute, what the organization needs, and the culture that unites them. Our job is no longer just to find "the best," but to build the context where many can give their best.