Got Talent?

Spotting the talent and potential in others is a great skill to develop and work on.  Sometimes the person you notice with the potential hasn't yet spotted it themselves - so you identifying that talent can be a confidence booster for that person.

Here are a few strategies to employ/things to consider when thinking about someone with skills.

1. Promote slowly.  Let the talent take their time and develop their skills in their own time.  If the person is older chances they will have the maturity to handle such a move.  However younger or people will less experience may be overwhelmed by the dizzying heights.  Time will allow maturity and life lessons to sink in.  Managers, like fine wine, need time to mature.
2. Provide mentors.  Provide your talent with experienced managers who will provide training and a sounding board for your talent.  No one person has all the answers and it is important that your talent be given the time and opportunity to interact with others giving your talent the chance to formulate a well rounded philosophy and style of management that is unique to them self.
3. Praise publicly.  Managers are people too.  Giving praise in public and backing up your managers no matter what (in public) will raise their self esteem as well as give them confidence.  If they muck up - so what.  Reflect, change and move on.  I like what Bob Sutton wrote on this subject in his blog post about caring bosses.

Oh yeah - one more thing.  Let your talent pick a fight or two.  Like kids you need to allow them to learn to defend themselves when attacked and establish their own methodologies.  That isn't to say you let them take a beating, but you don't wrap them in cotton wool every time there's something going down.

(Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/funky64/4096134002/)

The Important Jobs

Who defines for you which jobs are important and which jobs aren't?  Honestly - is there a rating system that defines what is mor important to be done?  Maybe, but I doubt it.  Especially not for managers. 

One key task of a manager is to figure what is important in their role.  There are few set ratings or 'star-system' for measurement (unless you have these as KPI's).  However I think we can create categories that define broad aspects of our work.  Those catagories look a little something like this -

1. People - internal.  I value internal people higher than externals.  Many would disagree but as a manager I believe we should be coaching/working with/empowering our people first so then they can go and serve the external people.
2. People - external.  External persons are not just customers but any person who is not in your department, office or area of influence.  People are the most crucial aspect of a managers role.  get the people part of things right and you are well on your way to success.
3. Compliance - internal.  Sticking to the rules and ensuring that the requirements of the organisation are met.  Creating budgets that balance, updating project management reports, customer interaction reports.  They are all important.
4. Compliance - external.
5. Any tasks not already covered above.

No single area is not as important as another area but there is a hierarchy.  When the internal people know what to do and when that frees you up to deal with customers external and the compliance issues and requirements of your role.




There are very few unimportant jobs in an organisation.  What defines a task as being important or not is the emphasis you place on it.

Coaching

A picture tells a thousand words.

Coaching

"I think it is the duty of the coach to encourage resource and initiative in each one of us. We do not want to become identical human beings, the servants of totalitarianism. We seek individual freedom in a world that of necessity imposes more and more restrictions. The less we can find freedom in our work the more we shall need to find freedom in the games we play".

Sir Roger Bannister, from 'The First Four Minutes'.

Talent - what do you do with it?

Every employee you have and person you know has a particular talent and tons of potential. The key is to figure out - what is that talent and how do you make the most of it?

Talented people generally are on the move (either upwards or sideways) and think they know where they are going. What you need as a manager to do is to provide a balance between untried ambition and actual skill. Provide a balance between new challenges and the development of new skills as well as the refinement and strengthening of current skills. Getting the balance between the two is hard - but the results are also very rewarding both for your business and the person concerned.

The other idea is to make every employee a CEO of something. Make them completely responsible for an idea or project. Give them a budget, authority and the right amount of support to make it happen.

Talented employees also need feedback and reflection time. The reviewing of KPI's and goals is a powerful motivator. Keep the KPI's short and aggressive. By doing this you, the manager, keeps close to the talent and you can gauge their growth. Where growth is quick - you can set higher targets and more complex problems. Where growth is slower - this provides a good time for both you and the talent to catch a breather before proceeding.

Note - not all talent is under 30! Some of the most talented people you have are over 30, settled into their jobs and are quite possibly bored. the mission is to identify them, lure them out of their secure place and unleash their hidden skills on the world!

KPI's for improved performance

Setting Key Performance Indicators and Targets for those who report to you works. Through having a discussion with the person you can define goals and targets for them to reach over a certain period of time.

KPI's are generally used for two things - ironing out small areas of inefficiency or business growth.

I like to set no more than 4 targets for my reports. Any less that and they become too easy, any more than that and the chances of being able to achieve them reduce exponentially according to the increase in targets listed.

Another thing I like to do is set a mixture of soft and hard targets. That is some targets are based on physical actions and outcomes, whereas soft targets deal with relationships and things that can't be measured physically.

Ongoing feedback and communication is vital and important but doesn't provide the necessary formal layout that an appraisal and KPI does. By defining goals and targets (and reviewing them quarterly) you can empower your reports to achieve more.

Feedback and Criticism - the how and when to take it

Being told that you aren't as good as you think you are can be pretty hard to swallow - especially when it comes from someone you think highly of.

So what do you do in this situation?

You can either get upset, get angry and blame the other person for being wrong OR you can analyse what they said and change the way you do things.

It is important that when receiving feedback that you differentiate between the feelings and the facts of the situation and comments. Try not to confuse the two.

Here are some quick fire steps for receiving criticism -

1. Who. Who said it, do do you respect their opinion, does their opinion count in the current situation?


2. What. What was said? Was the criticism relevant to the situation?


3. How. How was it said? Was the person fired up and angry? Even if they were - was what they actually said worthwhile and valuable (after you take all the heat out)


4. Why. What situation arose whereby the criticism became necessary? Was there a genuine situation to apply the comments to?

After you have evaluated these things then you can choose how to respond or change your future approach or management style.

This is exactly one situation I was in during this week. I knew a particular work setup was working okay but was far from the best. I asked a person what their view was - and guess what - they confirmed my suspicions! I became upset and angry because I knew they were right and I was so wrong.

After a day or two of re-evaluation I have decided to write up a new plan for 2010 that hopefully will begin to correct some of the problem areas. Were the problems huge or personal? No way, they were actually quite minor. However it was what I heard (the way I listened) that was the real problem.

So now I move on and start again next week, with fresh feedback, fresh thinking and a fresh plan for 2010.

"We need very strong ears to hear ourselves judged frankly, and because there are few who can endure frank criticism without being stung by it, those who venture to criticise us perform a remarkable act of friendship for to undertake to wound or offe". Michel de Montaigne.

Mentors

It pays to have a mentor. Mentoring is defined as - "a developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps a less experienced or less knowledgeable person " (see Wikipedia)

Here are some tips about mentors -

• They find you. Someone will will see your performance and will offer to help you.


• Stay in touch. You may only speak 3 or 4 times a year - but that is enough. Sometimes you may meet more often, it depends on the needs of the relationship.


• Plan - what you want to talk about. You don't have long sop make sure you know what you want to talk about before you get there. There aren't many seers in the business world with the time to sit and talk.


• Ideas - take your ideas and allow your mentor to re-direct or reshape what you already have. Never go in cold - unless they ask to see you (even then ask what they want to discuss)


• Keep an open mind. Always be open to possibilities and a different point of view.

I have a couple of mentors whom I meet with irregularly, and it's great!