Let’s first understand what role talent plays in achievement.
As leaders, we all want talented people in our team because we know that talented people = business success.
Charles Darwin in his studies claimed that “zeal and hard work is ultimately more important than Talent” while Harvard Psychologist William James in focusing on how people differ in their pursuit of goals concluded that “the human individual lives far within his limits – he possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use” – if you fail to use that talent then success cannot be achieved – Angela Duckworth
It's not Talent on its own that = achievement but effort x 2 that = achievement
In her study, Angela Duckworth concluded that Talent improves your skills when you invest effort, and achievement is only achieved when you invest effort into the skill that you gain. The fundamental premise of achievement is effort x 2.
Dr Lara Boyd a brain researcher at the University of British Columbia advocates that the skill can only become great when you practice over a period and install the habit of practice to change behavior and achieve success.
From the various studies and research, achievement can only be demonstrated and come alive when that talent or potential is harnessed, and the environment is conducive to fostering the growth of the talent.
As a student of Leadership and Talent for more than 20 years, it always amazes me when leaders think that talent is automatic. We appoint people to their roles because of the relevant experience and then we just expect them to perform with greatness. No consistent and constant feedback, coaching, and clarity of goals and objectives. As leaders the expectation is that emails and meetings now and again with no intentional “installing” of behavior and discipline will get people to do what is expected of them.
Even if there are structured meetings we learned from Google’s “Aristotle project” that how you conduct those meetings, using the right words has a direct impact on creating talented people and teams.
So how do Leaders unleash talent?
These steps are not separate from being a leader and doing your job.
Leaders who live their authentic selves every day – creating a routine and employing the following habits and disciplines can unleash talent.
How Leaders Create Talent in 6 Easy Steps
The art of winning a battle is preparation and planning. Allocate resources and know the strength of the team. Understand the right time. Speed of attack and the ability to be flexible agile and to change your tactics when needed is crucial to winning. Know beforehand how your competitors, clients, and the context are changing, and be ready to adapt or die.
1.Recruit and appoint the right people
Don’t appoint only on experience on the CV or recommendations, just so you have a person to do the job. Use experts and or a rigorous process to source and help you appoint great talent.
Have tools to assess attitude, culture, and skills fit. Invest time and energy to get the right person. It costs you more money and time – through performance management, another recruitment process, and not having the person is more costly than the time spent on the process.
2.Onboarding
A structured onboarding process is critical for integration into the job and culture. I believe that onboarding is a process of indoctrination of employees to ensure that they live the company’s values and work according to company standards. Through onboarding the environment and leadership set the tone for performance.
3.Goals, standards, and expectations are clearly defined and communicated.
An employee can only perform according to what is expected of them. They need to know that upfront so that they can measure themselves against what they do and why they do it. If you don’t tell them clearly, how will they know?
4. Performance and feedback conversations
Conversations are instrumental to shifting performance. Tell them what they are doing well and what needs improvement. If they don’t know they can never improve.
5. Coaching and inspirational leadership
The Coaches and Captains lead the teams to Victory. Players do not do it by themselves. According to a study, coaching has a 221% ROI. (International Society for Performance Improvement)with 51% of companies with a strong coaching culture reporting higher revenue than their industry peer group. (Human Capital Institute)
6. Rewarding great performance and taking corrective action for poor performance
Be consistent and fair with this behavior. When you condone mediocre and poor performance you are telling your people that it is ok to perform poorly. It’s our culture and we tolerate sub-standard performance and not meeting deliverables.
“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” Richard Branson
Closing Remarks
There are no shortcuts to unlocking individual potential and talent Unlocking people’s potential takes time through habits, rituals, and behaviours, and as leaders that is where our energy should be constantly directed. Its is the life of the leader. Focus on the person, not the work.
The daily habits and rituals you wire into your daily lives build a culture of meritocracy instead of mediocracy. People start performing how they are conditioned to perform. Those who cannot fit into the culture of high-performance leave.
