GE's secret weapon.

• Author: Colvin, Geoff
• Position: LEADERSHIP

From Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates WorldClass Performers from Everybody Else by Geoff Colvin. Copyright 2008 by the author. Published by Portfolio, a member of the Penguin Group (www.penguin.com).

Building people through job assignments seems obvious in theory, but in practice it's tough. Organizations tend to assign people based on what they're already good at, not what they need to work on. The merciless competitive pressure on every company makes it difficult to pull accomplished employees out of jobs they do extremely well and put them into positions where they may struggle. That's a tension every organization must deal with in order to become more successful.

No company assembles careers on the principles of great performance better than GE. Its breadth of businesses lets it offer a wider range of experiences than almost any other company. It uses the advantage for all it's worth to create some of the world's best-rounded and most sought after executives.

One of GE's secret developmental weapons, an example of the useful assignments it can hand out, is the job of...