A Talent – Unleashed!
As I said in the over view – I want to stress that full exposure to these concepts is the best way to go. You can do that by going to the Franklin Covey site and registering for one of the following programs: Leadership: Great Leaders, Great Teams, Great Results or Leadership Foundations.
Unleashing talent starts with the 3 previous imperatives. You can not unleash someone unless they understand the following:
- You have their best interest at heart (Inspire Trust)
- The company’s mission, department goals and how they impact both (Clarify Purpose)
- That they can make suggestions that will help align their systems and you are interested in helping those systems to become aligned. (Align Systems)
Once they feel that these things are in place they now have the power to do the job to the best of their abilities. And not just the basic abilities that they would give to any employer, these are their whole abilities. By practicing those 3 Imperatives correctly you have allowed them to trust you, understand you and where they fit in, and to use their creativity to maximize their potential. This should increase their drive to come to work. They will be happy to come to a place where they are respected, challenged and treated fairly.
I ask all my employees one question – what do you want to do with your life? At first I get this crazy look like I’ve turned green or grown a second nose. Then the usual reply is, well I don’t know. I then tell them to think about it, not just at this work place but in general what legacy do you want to leave behind? What do YOU want to be remembered for? Strangely – most will come back to me in two to four hours and say “oh, I thought about it and it’s XYZ” to which my reply is “Great! How can I help you to reach that?” For those that know what they want to do with their life I start with that last question.
Why do I do this? Is it because I care someone else wants to be an astronaut? On some level I do care, because they care and I enjoy seeing people happy in their job and their life. But why do I really do it? Because it will help me understand them better as a person, what motivates them, what drives them. And if I understand them as a person I can understand how better to work with them. I honestly do not care if an employee I work with stays in my company or not. While I would love that greatly if they did stay – that is not my goal for my employee. My goal is to help them reach THEIR goals or the goals we set together. That is how I unleash them!
By partnering with employees on both their goals and the company goals, by using those 3 imperatives and allowing them room to unleash their true talents. That is how an employee becomes unleashed. And an unleashed employee will bring amazing things to your team and your organization.
From Managers to Leaders (What would a Leader do?):
~ Attend one of the following programs: Leadership: Great Leaders, Great Teams, Great Results or Leadership Foundations.
~ Find out your employees goal. It can be career related, but it doesn’t have to be. Once you know what they want, you can work with them to really dig deep and develop in their current role to reach it. When you do that, stand back and watch them go. Believe me, they will go!
~ Use the previous 4 Imperatives, tap into each of these in one way or another with your employee. This will help them unleash their talent and then all you need to do is figure out what do to with all the creativity!
~ Visit my store directly here and see a selection of resources on this week’s imperative.
