‘How to discover and mentor a talent’

TALENT, broadly defined is typically a tendency, something a person is born with. Today people no longer see talent as simply intelligent quotient or logical intelligence. Talent now considers multiple intelligences.

The success and fulfillment of a person depend on how well the person discovers, builds and optimizes his or her talents. Most importantly, how parents and superiors create the right environment for that talent to flourish.

The term “talent management” is so closely allied to what parents do. They discover the talents of their children and then help them optimize their talents to face life with joy and courage.

Let me cite some live examples that demonstrate how discovering one’s talents make a difference in people’s lives.

This caring capability can easily be translated into mentoring employees in the work place. John Maxwell tells us that a higher level type of leadership is when people respect you because you have helped them develop themselves and their talents.

Manual dexterity

Raul was enrolled in a traditional Catholic elementary school using old-fashioned curriculum and methods. He barely studies his lessons but somehow manages to get passing marks.

He, however, outside school, is a live wire, with a network of friends. He loves to read about all sort of information from the Internet. He finds reading about a variety of topics more engaging than going to school. Best of all, he demonstrates manual dexterity and creativity with very good drawings and designs.

His parents recognizing that there is an appropriate setting for this talent moves him to a Montessori type school where his talent starts to blossom. At the university, he takes up industrial design and does well.

Meantime, he also discovers that his physical dexterity makes him very good with martial arts. He dedicates time to his art and later discovers that he can become a guru and in fact develops his own manual and sets up his own school. He also realizes that his social skills make him a natural entrepreneur.

He is, in fact, good in selling ideas. He now manages his multiple talents to serve a checkered career cum entrepreneur mix of work.

Visual arts

Lito is the traditionally intelligent person, very good in math, always bringing home good grades. He gets into creative clubs in high school.

His teacher encourages him to lead the Math Club. He refuses because while math is easy for him, he is not inclined to get lost in the abstract world of math.

As a young boy, he has always taken center stage in plays. Even at home he would demonstrate a penchant for dramatization to the delight of his family. He takes and graduates mass communications in college. However, he has set his artistic sights higher.

He musters the courage to enroll in the Big Foot International Film Institute in Cebu. His passion and enthusiasm brings him to graduate valedictorian.

He gets into a marketing job in a television channel. For a while he is content, but he continues to dream of becoming a commercial director.

To achieve his dream he was willing to go two-step backwards and move one-step forward. He searches for an outstanding commercial director to act as a mentor and asks to become his apprentice.

Here he dedicates himself, knowing deep within that his talent will blossom if given the right mentor and right breaks.

Business management

Linda’s parents were both outstanding accountants. They dreamt of her following in their footsteps. As a dutiful daughter she enrolls in accounting school.

She loved all her minor subjects and dreaded her accounting subjects. As a result, she failed said subjects. In tears, she talks to her parents, sharing with them that what she truly wanted to do was to go to business management.

She could not imagine herself as an accountant. The parents realizing that accounting was not Linda’s area of strength gave in to her desire to shift course. She does well, moving up the corporate ladder of multinational companies and capping her career at company headquarters as a respected and cherished key contributor.

Human resources

A high school classmate of mine who now resides in a European country telephoned me with a high level of urgency about her niece.

She needed career counseling badly. Her niece was an honor graduate of one of the best universities graduating with honors in information technology. She was totally discouraged at work.

Her job was to develop software applications for a company. Her work demanded high levels of concentration and focus. She worked 90 percent of the time in solitude.

Even during lunch and break times socialization among the employees was not encouraged. Her office had heavy blinds drawn all the time, so that she does not know whether it was day or night. While the job she was doing was in her line of study, she was feeling very ineffective. She was an extrovert, who drew energy and enthusiasm through interaction with people.

She talked over her problem with her boss, who simply shrugged his shoulders. This is the nature of the work. Love it or leave it.

After a number of counseling sessions, she realized that her talent of building rapport with people and strong social skills are the core strengths she wanted to leverage at work.

Starting as a training specialist, she took up a masters degree in human resource management. She applied and got hired by an information technology company and rose to be the organization development manager of this company in China.

Sign of strengths

Today, she enjoys her work, has contributed to the improvement of the human resource information system in the company and travels and meets people extensively.

What do these true-to-life stories tell us about talent management? Often, we see talent management from the point of view of the good it brings to the economy or the company.

Here we see talent management from the perspective of the person who possesses the talent. In fact, talent management is in reality driven by the person himself. The catalyst often is the parent or boss who chooses to support or mentor the talent.

Marcus Buckingham, in his book “Go, Put Your Strengths to Work” shares that a person’s strengths are made up of three ingredients: talents, skills and knowledge.

Talents are things that you are born with and they stay with you. Skills and knowledge can be learned. What we have discovered is talent forms the strong foundation. People aware of their talent often pursue the knowledge and skills to enhance these talents resulting in high levels of fulfillment.

Sign of talent

Buckingham talks of the SIGN of talent. S stands for success. I for instinct. G for growth. And N for needs. Building from strength makes a person feel successful. He acquires self-efficacy, enjoying what he does.

The feeling of success is the best indicator of the right use of talent. The presence of a strength can also be seen through instinct.

You find yourself drawn to certain activities repeatedly and instinctively look forward to doing them. You put yourself in situations where you have to perform them.

A strength enables growth. It is an activity quite simple for the talented person to pick up. with interest and inquisitiveness.

Activities seem effortless, give a feeling of challenge and desire to concentrate. A strength answers ones psychological needs.

One may feel physically tired but not psychologically drained. One feels satisfied, fulfilled, powerful and restored.

Putting strengths to work

After discovering one’s talents, what can a person do? Buckingham shares how to put strengths at work. First, identify how and where this specific strength helps you in your current role.

Two, release by finding the missed opportunities in your current role at work. Third, educate yourself learning new skills and competencies to build your strengths. Finally expand, build your job around your strengths.

Talent management means caring for your God-given gifts. It draws a parent to help their children discover and optimize their gifts. It also proposes mentoring your employees and giving them the tasks and environment that will make their talents blossom. –Tita Datu Puangco, Contributor, Philippine Daily Inquirer

(The author is chief executive officer and founder of Ancilla Enterprise Development Consulting, a leader in training and organization development specializing in strategy management, change implementation and human resource management systems. Send feedback to advice@ ancillaedc.com.ph)