Arguably, Wimbledon is the biggest stage in tennis. Imagine reaching the finals … competition will be fierce, your strengths must be leveraged and your competitor’s weaknesses must be exploited … and your opponent that you are squaring off against is your sister.
Although sisters for life and doubles partners later in the afternoon for the Wimbledon final which they won as well, the sisters put most of that aside for nearly two hours as Venus Williams defeated Serena Williams to win her fifth Wimbledon singles title leaving Serena with two.
Setting aside the debate on the methods Richard Williams, father of Venus and Serena, utilized to manage the talent of his daughters, there is no debating the success the sisters have had in tennis and especially at Wimbledon. Leveraging the strengths of her game, confidence was oozing out of Venus throughout the tournament and finals.
Leveraging the strengths of your employees and allowing them to exhibit confidence in their jobs is every bit as important to elevating performance in business as it is in sports. The question for all of us:
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Are we taking accountability for the outcomes of our talent management efforts (how many “business-like” Wimbledon Finals have your employees won) or are we caught up and more concerned with the process to achieve those outcomes?
The term Talent management seems to be popping up everywhere these days. A Google search on the term provides over 2.6 million results. The tricky part seems to be the various definitions associated with talent management depending on whether you are involved in recruiting, development, etc. Donald Taylor’s blog (http://donaldhtaylor.wordpress.com/2007/04/02/what-is-talent-management/) provides a strong definition for talent management that is more outcome based rather than activity based … making capability match commitments.
As much as this makes sense, we often forget our employee’s capabilities and strengths that allow us to deliver on the organization’s commitments. Instead, we spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on what our employee’s can’t do or don’t do to the level of our satisfaction. This leads to development plans and identifying weaknesses (opportunities) to improve. No doubt, polishing the areas for improvement is valuable … as long as you don’t do so to the detriment and dilution of your employee’s strengths.
Just as Venus Williams’ game is suited to leverage her strengths for Wimbledon success … set your employees up for similar success by finding jobs and responsibilities that leverage their strengths to win the game of business.
Tags: coaching, performance, serena williams, Sports, talent management, tennis, venus williams, wimbledon
August 5, 2008 at 2:37 am
What you said about strengths is very true. Marcus Buckingham in his books has also stated that one should never try to correct a weakness instead of capitalising on one’s strength. I am a regular Tennis player and before readking Bukingham, I was trying to improve my backhand instead of making the forehand more consistent. Though my strokes imporved, in the actual doubles game, my level remained where it was till I reverted back to make my forehand stronger.
That apart where sports or for that matter any other field is concerned, the sonner you discover your talent and passion accurately, the more chances you have of being consistently successful in the long run- my published articles on the blog- Make your passion your profession - http://mypyp.wordpress.com/