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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 them intentionally.

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

Talents are our natural abilities and skill, rather than an acquired body of knowledge. No two individuals on your team have exactly the same talents. Encourage employees to recognize and leverage their unique talents.

Discover Employee Talents
To help employees discover their talents, invite them to talk about what they enjoy doing. Encourage them to reflect on what they choose to do when they have free time. Also ask employees if they have ever received a thank you note, appreciative email message, or a reference letter from clients. These words of praise, or even criticism, are grist for discovering 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 unique talent. For example, a project manager named Cheri loved to talk with people and find out what was going on. She had a reputation for knowing all the rumors in 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 and laughed it off as unimportant. She said, "It's just something I do." But as we talked she started to see the potential value of her 'scoop' abilities. She realized she could harness this talent to help manager lead change initiatives. Cheri turned her natural ability into a valuable contribution. Over time she helped her manager develop strategies to engage people.

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

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

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

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

Build Trust With Others
The level of trust your employees have with each other directly impacts their ability to contribute. The higher the trust level, the more others are willing to rely on their services and expertise. Trust also affects the degree to which others support an employee's projects and ideas. Without trust, the employee may not get a seat at the table. Others will find ways to meet their goals and avoid interactions of real importance.

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

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

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

Topics

• Developing Employees