The answer according to Clifton is 'make more entrepreneurs!' Only entrepreneurs employ people and small businesses are where they make more of them than anywhere else.
So I looked a little deeper into Clifton's solution and found out about Gallup's Builder Initiative and their Builder Profile, an assessment which can identify those youth or adults that have what it takes to be a builder - an entrepreneur. I suggested to economic development leaders that we should give this assessment to every high school senior! What a difference it would make if we could find/develop and support more entrepreneurs in Indiana who can create businesses and hire Hoosiers!
Here is a series of videos describing the 10 Builder Traits. And here are the talents.
- Confidence: People with Confidence accurately know themselves and understand others.
- Delegator: Delegators recognize that they cannot do everything and are willing to contemplate a shift in style and control.
- Determination: People with Determination persevere through difficult and seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
- Disruptor: Disruptors exhibit creativity in taking an existing idea or product and turning it into something better.
- Independence: People with Independence do whatever needs to be done to build a successful venture.
- Knowledge: People with Knowledge constantly search for information that is relevant to growing their business.
- Profitability: People with Profitability make decisions based on observed or anticipated effect on profit.
- Relationship: People with Relationship possess high social awareness and an ability to build relationships that are beneficial to their organization's survival and growth.
- Risk: People with Risk instinctively know how to manage high-risk situations and make decisions easily in complex scenarios.
- Selling: People with Selling are the best spokesperson for their business.
We need to do more to harvest the talent we have to win the coming jobs war for America!
