KNOW HOW / CAREER DEVELOPMENT
W
e often observe people who have achieved more than others and comment on how ‘talented’ they are, but what does this really mean? I’ve read many books that analyse the difference between talent and success and the answer is always the same: it’s about application, grit, desire, and the determination not to quit. To use one word, it’s about resilience. Take me, for example. At school I wasn’t the most intelligent pupil, but I would say I was one of the most determined. That determination and tenacity has been instrumental to my success. Resilience comes from four key ingredients: ● Interest – loving what you do; ● Practice – focusing on improvement; ● Purpose – believing that your work matters, CLAIRE which often comes from CURR AN is cultivating your interest managing and honing your abilities director of from practice; and Linaker
● Hope – believing you can overcome your challenges. Hope works hand in hand with all three components to determine how you respond to failures – if you get up and keep going or stay down and be defeated.
Creating an impactful talent strategy For your talent strategy to succeed, you have to embed the same four key ingredients within your business to support your people on their road to success.
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Interest The first step (and most important in my opinion) in getting any talent strategy right, is about identifying the right individuals to invest in, both in terms of time and money. This may not always be the best “paper” candidate or the supertalented individual that is not a team player or the well-polished individual that’s never been challenged. What it will be is the person that has the right attitude. It will be the person who does what they do because they love it. I
PRO G RE SSIO N TE CHNIQUES
Nurture the future Genius may be 1 per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration – for most of us it’s flexibility and durability that count. But to these you must add strategy, says Claire Curran
believe that I have only started to really excel when driven by the love of what I do. This is what I want for all of our team members.
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Practice Once you have the right candidate with the right attitude, you need to support them in their dreams and desires to make them love the business as much as the existing team. Supporting talent comes in lots of different forms and is a continuous golden thread that weaves throughout their journey. At Linaker we always: ● Thoroughly induct into the business; ● Create a training path and demonstrate the business’ commitment to it; ● Review development and have open discussions regularly; and ● Provide the right tools for the role, from IT to ergonomics and uniform to vehicles.
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Purpose There’s nothing worse as a sports person and team player than training hard, being at your peak and then being left on the bench; it’s the same in business. Once a person has a path and they practice and hone their craft, you have to fulfil the promises you have made as an employer. You have to give them the respect to allow them to do what they have been trained to do and to be responsible for their output. This means that when you are creating paths for people to progress, you have to be really honest about how fast they can get there and what the expectation is.
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Hope If you get the above three steps right, you will have nurtured an individual who believes that they can make a difference as part of a business that makes a difference. They will work with tenacity and positivity to move the business forward and make things happen for the greater good. They will have the confidence to talk openly and engage with your business as part of it, not just working for it. In essence, we are all talented. We all have abilities, skills and expertise, but how much effort a person chooses – and is inspired – to invest in deploying those talents determines how successful they will be, both for themselves and the business.
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