Play to Your Strengths

As a leader in today's economy, you must be a talent scout. Why?Because employee talents are so natural that they don't realize their value.Your job is to make employee talents visible so they can use themintentionally.

Talents are what set us apart and make us unique. Talents aredifferent than your functional expertise. The employee might be a specialist inmarketing. But marketing is not their talent - it's their functional expertise.In a department filled with engineers, one might visionary, another likes toorganize, and yet another excels at developing people. These individuals allhave the same technical expertise-but vastly different talents.

Talents are our natural abilities and skill, rather than an acquiredbody of knowledge. No two individuals on your team have exactly the sametalents. Encourage employees to recognize and leverage their uniquetalents.

Discover Employee Talents
To help employees discover their talents, invite them to talk aboutwhat they enjoy doing. Encourage them to reflect on what they choose to do whenthey have free time. Also ask employeesif they have ever received a thank you note, appreciative email message, or a referenceletter from clients. These words of praise, or even criticism, are grist fordiscovering their talent strengths. Ask them to look for recurring patterns,key words, and phrases. These can provide clues to what they do best.

Recognize diverse talents

Sometimes it's difficult to see the value of an individual's uniquetalent. For example, a project manager named Cheri loved to talk with peopleand find out what was going on. She had a reputation for knowing all the rumorsin the company. Cheri was a virtual grapevine of informal news and information.Her colleagues nicknamed her 'Scoop' because she always knew the latest news.Obviously, this was her talent.

Initially, when we talked about her talent, Cheri was embarrassed andlaughed it off as unimportant. She said, "It's just something I do." But as wetalked she started to see the potential value of her 'scoop' abilities. Sherealized she could harness this talent to help manager lead change initiatives.Cheri turned her natural ability into a valuable contribution. Over time she helpedher manager develop strategies to engage people.

Recognize Personal Attributes
Once employees know their talents, help them recognize their personalattributes. Attributes describe an employee's style or way of relating toothers. Employee attributes are different from their talents. A softwareengineer in a mid-size technology firm might be a great designer, planner, orvisionary. These are his talents. Buthis attributes are how he comes across to others. The employee might be seenas, shy, vibrant, calm, energetic, determined or persistent.

How co-workers view an employee is critical to their success. Organizational work requires a great deal ofinteraction and teamwork. The employee who is ‘abrasive' will not be aseffective as the employee who is seen as easy to work with. Employees sometimesthink that their great ideas, education, or skills will outweigh eccentricitiesand social shortcomings. Unfortunately, what others think about us is important because it impactsperformance.

Manage Attributes
Attributes must be managed. Over used, under used, and missingattributes can cause problems for employees. In a research and development teamI worked with, the manager had hired a talented, well-known expert named Randy.Randy was justifiably confident in his knowledge and expertise. He hadcredentials as long as his arm. But soon team members started to see the flipside of his confidence - arrogance. His arrogance attitude embarrassed the teamand annoyed other departments. Even though Randy was a very talentedresearcher, his arrogance diminished his value and hurt the team.

On the positive side, someone who is a skilled technical expert andpossesses ‘encouraging and collaborative' attributes will draw people like amagnet. This employee helps others and does what it takes to find solutions. Inthe age of constant technical change, the demand for collaborative attributesis high. Most organizations want technical experts who work smoothly withcustomers and non-technical staff. Just remember attributes can be an asset ora liability given the particular situation.

Build Trust With Others
The level of trust your employees have with each other directlyimpacts their ability to contribute. The higher the trust level, the moreothers are willing to rely on their services and expertise. Trust also affectsthe degree to which others support an employee's projects and ideas. Withouttrust, the employee may not get a seat at the table. Others will find ways tomeet their goals and avoid interactions of real importance.

As the leader, you must sound the alarm when trust issues are in the wayof performance. If others are hesitate to work with a member of your teambecause there is low trust - it's time to get involved. Lack of trust is costlyand difficult to ignore. The best strategy is to build trust early before it'sneeded.

Seek Feedback from Customers
Fair or not, in today's marketplace, the customer decides whether yourefforts have made their life better or worse, easier or more difficult. Employeesmay think they are doing a wonderful job, but the customer has the final sayabout their contribution.

Remind employees that their peers, internal customers, and others havevaluable opinions they will not share unless they are directly asked for feedback. Employees want to be successful. And you canhelp them. Help them leverage their talents, manage personal attributes, buildtrust and seek ongoing feedback from their customers.

Topics

• Developing Employees