Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Hidden Talent

Here's a quick exercise. List in rank order your top three people in each of these areas of aptitude:
  • Sophisticated selling techniques
  • Solving customer problems
  • Operational troubleshooting
  • People management
  • Data analysis
(You might have some other categories that matter to you - add them!)

Now here's the important question: how do you know that you are right?

If you have read Rob Parsons' The Heart of Success (Hodders 2002), you will remember the story of Andrea, the young secretary who turned out to be the law firm's absolute number 1 star at taking phone enquiries and turning them into face-to-face appointments with a solicitor. The frightening thing is that Andrea's gift only came to light by accident - everyone else was already on the phone one day so she took the call.

So what is it to be: are you happy waiting for serendipity to call and point out your hidden stars? Or might a little proactive research and mapping of aptitude be in order?

What might your business look like if all your stars were shining?