A great manager is a talent scout!

What makes a manager a great manager is the ability to scout for talent and then groom them. Talk to people and ask them what they look for in their manager and most often you would hear them say “someone who brings the best in me”.

But is it really possible to bring the best out of each and every individual in the team?? Many would tell you that its your duty as a manager to bring the best out of your people and you should give equal importance to bringing up those who are lagging behind or need that extra push / coaching to be their best.

I am not so sure though! I don’t believe that everyone can be a star and therefore as a manager one needs to conscious that the best of each person wont make him or her the star of the team. More often than not, I have wondered who needs the maximum effort from my end as a manger, is it the top talent or the solid soldiers or those who are failing to meet the minimal expectations. I really have not worked this out yet, but I slowly realized that effort spent on top talent pays more than trying to be socialist in my approach to developing everyone. Of course, you need to understand the strengths of each individual and help them build on that, give them a fair chance to perform and give them the coaching and feedback they need but, trying to distribute projects, rewards and much coveted assignments in a socialist way will only harm the motivation of the top talent and bring down the overall performance of the team.

It pays to be like a talent scout who knows that every talent that walks up to give their audition is not a star and only a select few have what it takes……..