Talent can’t be taught, but it can be awakened!
Wallace Stegner
Talent star. Talent manager. Talent agent. Talent show. Talent source. Today as valued contributors, we must be each. Or your show goes. Goes down the hall. Goes off the floor. To another unit. Or another agency? Or supplier? Or the show goes to someone other than you.
Whatever you think talent is or isn’t – it is measured. If you don’t know how your talent contribution is being measured, you could be in trouble. Big trouble. And performance measurements these days are 360. Definitely not just from above. Not any longer. Your peers and those that report to you count. More than you think. Way more.
If your work output is disproportionally out of balance with the input you need – from your upstream boss, your cross-stream peers and your downstream direct reports – to make sure you’re moving forward on the right track – you could be already careening off track, over a cliff and be clueless. It could be happening to you. It happens way more than you think. Way more!
The question is; how do you know it’s not happening to you? How do you really know what you know?
How do you know exactly where you stand with respect to your performance? The answer is simple if you’re not focused on specifically asking those around you – you just don’t know, though you may think you do. You may think you do, but you don’t know – not for sure.
Here then are some critical talent measurement focused questions. You could be asking these around you. The below questions apply up, across and downstream from you. If you want a true 360 radially accurate picture of your talent contribution you should ask the right questions to the right people to get the right focus on your talent picture. Again, right questions, to right people, to get right focus, on your talent picture. Not just how you view you, but how others view you.
Here are some starter questions;
- What does my project’s/initiative’s/job success look like to you?
- When does that vision need to be actualized by?
- What needs to be happening that isn’t happening now?
- What can I be doing better to contribute to your success?
- Who are the other critical peer partners you’d like to see me working with?
- What do I need to be doing more of, to insure my talent contribution increases in value?
- What should I be doing less of insure my talent contribution increases in value?
- What do I need to know that I don’t know to scale my value?
- How will I know from you before I’m off track that I’m off track?
- What review procedures can we agree to?
Talent without focus is disconnected. Irrelevant.
Talent needs smart application. Direction. Continual short cycled feedback to insure relevancy of contribution.
Feedback doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
You can’t know for certain where you stand if you don’t ask others.
Without a frame of reference your best guess about your talent contribution could be nothing more than a best guess at best and a costly career assumption at worst.
Are you a talent star? Don’t burnout your shine because of a lack of focus.
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Former CEO, COO, CMO, President, Monk,
Certified Behavioral, Values & EQ Analyst, Mediator
Certified Growth Curve Strategist | ASTD Cert Proj. Mgmt.
Former Worldwide Retreat Master | Meditation, EQ Trainer
Limoncello Producer
Seen Beatles, know Walrus was John
Thank you so much for sharing this post. It has been such an inspiration.