Think about how the person will fit into our organizational culture. Different companies require different talent types so we need to think of our team.
Where is their talent alignment?
Where is the talent gap?
Questions to Ask Yourself as a Leader
Gallup research has shown that asking (and answering) some all-important questions can help leaders learn how to use a strengths-based approach to boost employee and company performance.
As a leader, you are probably already asking yourself questions like the following:
- Do my employees understand the priorities in their work?
- Do they have the resources they need to support their work?
- Do they feel comfortable asking for help and giving opinions, both formally and informally?
These questions are a good start, but to be a true leader of employee development, you need to drive transformational change in your business by looking at employee development from a strategic perspective rather than viewing it simply as "training".
To this end, you should also be asking yourself these questions:
- Does my company have systems in place to study our best performers?
- Once unique identifiers are found, can we integrate those attributes into our recruitment efforts as well as our career-progression and management-succession planning?
- How can we ensure that the right people with the right talents are placed in the right roles?
- Are we able to replicate excellent performance company-wide?
- Are we providing opportunities for star performers to progress through the ranks?
- Do we build, appreciate, and communicate excellence at every level?
Questions to Ask Those You Lead
Once those principles and processes are in place, shining a light on what your employees do best is the next step to implementing a strengths-based approach to development. You can certainly make your own assumptions based on observations and performance reviews. However, having a face-to-face conversation will open your eyes (and your employee’s eyes) to much more untapped potential that can be put to good use.
Ask the people you lead the following questions and make detailed notes you can refer to later:
- What do you enjoy most in your day-to-day work activities?
- What part of your role energizes you?
- What have your greatest accomplishments been in the last six months?
- Are you communicating with your managers about what you do best?
- Have you gathered feedback about how to best apply your talents at work?
- Is there a career path that you feel would build on what you do best?
If your employees are involved in work activities and tasks that they gravitate towards and naturally do well, you will notice that they have a positive attitude, are more willing to contribute, and are on the path to becoming star performers.1
1https://cmoe.com/blog/employee-development-strengths-based-approach/
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