The Talent to Achieve Excellence

If great managers seem scarce, it’s because the talent required to be one is rare. Talents are innate and are the building blocks of great performance. Knowledge, experience and skills develop our talents into strengths, but unless people possess the right innate talents for our job, no amount of training or experience will lead to exceptional performance.

Gallup, also went on to report that, most companies promote workers into managerial positions because of tenure or performance, rather than talent. This practice doesn’t work. Experience and skills are important, but people’s talents — the naturally recurring patterns in the ways they think, feel and behave — predict where they’ll perform at their best.

New research from the World Economic Forum predicts about 40% of workers are thinking about quitting their jobs. Of course, the turnover tsunami and its associated costs loom right as many companies and their HR and legal teams finalize back-to-office strategies. Several companies in the technology and financial services space have announced September as their official return date.

Gallup estimates front-line managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores. When you consider this in the context of the looming talent exodus, you can imagine the tremendous burden put on managers to keep morale and motivation high. So what can you do to help?

Communication is key. The more dispersed your employee footprint is across the globe, the more you need something other than video conference calls, Slack, Teams and other internal tools used for everyday work. You need to convey a deeper message – one of appreciation: “I see you in this moment.”