We All Have a Talent

Each of us has talents that others might not.  And as the boss, we need to be able to find the talent in each of our employees, so we know which jobs they should and should not have.  What makes this so hard, is that sometimes employees don’t know what their talents are.  They might believe they are talented in one area, when it is clear to us they are not. So how do you show them their talents? 

Employee #1 might be great with people while Employee #2 is very nervous around people.  So you would think that Employee #2 wouldn’t volunteer to head up the customer appreciation activities…but what if Employee #2 doesn’t realize that she/he stumbles on his/her words or that something always gets broke or some other disaster happens when she is around a lot of people?  How could this be, you ask…

This reminds me of an episode of the comedy Scrubs.  Doug is trying very hard to be a doctor, but instead of helping people, he usually ends up hurting them worse or hurting himself.  So he asks Elliot to help him be a better doctor.  Well, she tries everything, but nothing works.  Then they end up in the hospital morgue for some reason and Doug finds his talent…working with dead people.

So how could Doug not know he wasn’t cut out to be a doctor?  Easy, he wanted to be a doctor so bad, that he couldn’t see how he was messing up.

So you need to step in and help these types of employees.  We want our employees to succeed, because if they succeed…then our company succeeds…

Let them know you have concerns about them doing one particular job because you see their talent as being something else.  Be tactful, remember they see their talent as being something else.  Pair them with someone who is very good at that particular job.  This way you have someone who will keep the project going and maybre even be able to teach the other employee how to handle this type of job.

Don’t always dismiss that an employee can’t do the job.  Let them try every once and awhile…you never know if they have been practicing and have become better equiped for a particular job.

You don’t want to hold them back, you just want them to bloom when they are ready to bloom.