Imagine you are leading a team. You have clarified the team’s strategy for achieving its picture of success. Let’s explore how you can orchestrate people’s talents to reach a goal.

1) You can clarify people’s A, B and C talents.

Start by writing the names of all the people in your team. Looking at each person in turn, describe the specific things that they deliver. Write a list of their ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ talents.

As. These are the specific activities in which they achieve 9+/10. They consistently achieve peak performance. Try to be as specific as possible when describing these things they deliver.

Bs. These are the activities in which they can produce 7+/10. Whilst they may do these things competently, they do not hit the heights. They may also get bored doing these tasks and make occasional mistakes.

Cs. These are the activities in which they seldom reach even 5/10. They have no feeling for the activity and make basic mistakes.

One person wrote: “My Marketing Director, Dave, is brilliant at delivering campaigns that connect with the business and produce bottom-line results. Sally, the HR Director, delivers strategies that enable our people to make their best contributions to the business. She has also produced a programme that finds and retains talented people in the company. Mary, our COO, has the ability to translate our vision into specific actions that resonate with our people on the ground. Roy, our FD, is good at providing strategic financial advice. That is his ‘A’ talent’. The problem is, however, that he gets bogged down in the day-to-day management of the financial team. Certainly he can do this task, but we need him to play to his ‘As’. He needs somebody who can run a more self-managing finance department.”

Try tackling the exercise on this theme. First, write the names of the people in your team. Second, write the specific activities in which they deliver ‘As’. (If you wish, at some future point, you may also want to describe where they deliver ‘Bs’ and ‘Cs’.) Try completing the following sentences. Continue until you have covered everybody in your team.

The Person’s Name: ______________

The specific activities in which they deliver ‘As’ are:

*

*

The Person’s Name: ______________

The specific activities in which they deliver ‘As’ are:

*

*

The Person’s Name: ______________

The specific activities in which they deliver ‘As’ are:

*

*

2) You can clarify how to co-ordinate people’s talents to achieve the goal.

Let’s assume that you have clarified the team’s strategies and people’s strengths. Bearing in mind the team’s overall goal, ask yourself the following questions.

* How can we make the best use of people’s strengths to achieve the team’s picture of success? How can we put people in the places where they will deliver ‘As’? How can we, if necessary, cover the areas where they deliver ‘Bs’? How can we make sure nobody is in a position where they deliver ‘Cs’?

* How can each person therefore make their best contribution toward achieving the picture success? How can we make clear contracts about their specific contribution? How can we give them the support they need to implement their part of the strategy and ensure the team achieve success?

* How can we make sure we fill any gaps? For example, are there any areas we have not got covered? If so, how can we get these tasks completed successfully?

Bearing these answers in mind, you can answer then the question: “How can we co-ordinate people’s strengths to achieve the goal?” At first it can sometimes be to answer this question. But keep asking it and you will find the answers. Certainly I have found that, with some creative thinking, people can find solutions and combine their talents to build a superb team.

(Older style organisations sometimes find it difficult to generate creative solutions. So they rush back to putting people in boxes based on historical job descriptions. The problem is that people then mainly use their ‘Bs’ and ‘Cs’, rather than play to their ‘As’.)

Try tackling the exercise on this theme. First, describe the specific things you can do to ensure people play to their strengths and make the best contribution towards achieving the team’s goals. Second, describe the specific things you can do to ensure any gaps are filled. Try completing the following sentences.

The specific things I can do to make sure people play to their strengths
and make their best contribution towards achieving the team’s goals are:

*

*

*

The specific things I can do to make sure any gaps are filled are:

*

*

*

3) You can co-ordinate people’s talents to reach the goal.

The next step is to swing into action. Let’s assume that you made contracts about people’s parts in reaching the goals. You will then focus on ‘managing by outcomes’, rather than ‘managing by tasks’.

Every month you will invite each person to present: a) The specific things I have delivered in the last month towards achieving the picture of success; b) The specific things I plan to deliver in the next month; c) The challenges I face, the strategies I have for tackling these challenges and the support needed to achieve success. This will ensure that people are fulfilling their contracts and work towards the team’s goals.

Great leaders continue to keep their eyes on the big picture. Bearing in mind the team’s strategy on the road to success, keep taking reality checks. So you may ask questions like:

* What are the specific things we are doing well? How can follow these principles even more in the future?

* What can we do even better and how? How can we make these things happen?

* What can we do to continue capitalising on people’s strengths? How can we translate these ideas into action?

* What can we do to compensate for any gaps and ensure all the other tasks are completed? How can we make this happen?

* What else can we do to co-ordinate people’s talents to achieve the picture of success? How can we translate all these ideas into action?

Try tackling the exercise on this theme. First, describe the specific things you can do to keep people’s eyes on the goal, ensure they fulfil their contracts and continue to co-ordinate people’s talents to achieve the goal. Try completing the following sentence.

The specific things I can do to continue to co-ordinate
people’s strengths to achieve the picture of success are:

*

*

*

There are many models for building a team. This article has outlined one approach to co-ordinating people’s strengths. Put into practice properly, it can enable your people to move from 8/10 to 10/10.