Tapping into Talent

In today’s economy, tapping into your employees’ strengths has never been so important. So how can you unleash the talent within each one of them in order to reach your goals?

“It’s about taking long enough to get to know your teams and get to know their capabilities – going in a more holistic fashion, in a difficult point in time,” says Janet Hoffman, director of global industry retail at Accenture. “Particularly with some of our more junior employees, they don’t know how good they really are or how much they can accomplish and they’re not clear on what their goals are.”

An all-staff retreat helps new and old team members mingle. Because employees will get to know each other on a more personal level, goals and ideas can be comfortably and openly discussed.

Sit down individually with your employees and ask them what they would like to achieve in their careers. List goals and use the SMART system to define and discuss what’s necessary to turn a goal into a reality.

Help team members tune into their hidden strengths by positively recognizing efforts and identifying any weaknesses as possibilities for growth. Learn other nurturing tips here.

PINK Profile: Hoffman shares how  courage helped her career– and how it can help yours too.

By Muriel Vega

“I believe that every person is born with talent.” Maya Angelou