From support to product manager. How to identify talents and grow employees?
Why develop talent? “A person has come to a certain position, he has a job description and tasks, so let him take all this and prove that we pay him money for a reason.” However, the better the talents of employees are revealed, the more options for the further growth of the company. In this article, I, Tatyana Alekseeva, Head of Customer Success Department at Social Discovery Group, will share life hacks on how to develop a team and look at employees not only in terms of job descriptions. Finding and developing talent is my creativity as a leader. Therefore, my department is a “supplier” of talented personnel for other departments.
The first step is to create a comfortable environment and establish communication
To see the potential of an employee, you must first create an environment in which he will be comfortable working. Comfortable is when:
a) the purpose of any action is clear
b) there is support in the process of work
c) the opinion of the employee is important
d) his achievements are appreciated
The fundamental thing here is to make it clear that not only the task is important, but also the person himself, because he is the key to success. Therefore, before giving an employee a new task or line of work, you need to:
A) Explain what is the purpose a new task or position, as well as why this particular employee was chosen for it. Tell us why the task appeared at all: build a logical chain from which it will be clear how it works on the KPI of the department and the success of the business as a whole. Also, explain why you gave the task to this particular employee: focus on the strengths and potential and indicate what the task will give to him.
b) Indicate that he can count on your support (expertise, advice, participation) and ask for help if something stops the process. By doing this, you release the unnecessary tension that the upcoming experience from a new task causes.
V) Giving and asking for feedback. It is important for me that the employee is not afraid of me, otherwise there will be no proper productivity and, moreover, creativity in the team. Such an employee is simply a performer who, under fear of condemnation or punishment, disables his ability to think flexibly. The willingness to hear an honest opinion about yourself and give constructive feedback will allow you to establish open and trusting relationships, as well as create an environment for conscious and effective work.
G) express gratitude for work: personal, oral or written, in a report on the results of the work of the department or through a bonus. It is important to be able to see mistakes and areas of development. But if your attention is focused only on them, you will end up with a demotivated team. It is important for employees to understand that their success is in the field of vision of the manager.
What are the errors:
The manager does not give or request feedback
The manager gives one-way feedback on the task (only his own feedback)
The leader is not very informative (does not explain the context)
The leader focuses only on the employee’s mistakes
Find and unleash talent
Why look for talent? A person came to a position, there is a job description, there are tasks, so let him take all this and prove that we pay him money for a reason. This is true to some extent for beginners with minimal experience, but if you have a desire to get more from an employee, then a different approach is needed. I myself answer this question as follows: finding talents is one of my creative activities as a leader. I notice a strong side, find an area for its manifestation and enjoy success.
If we talk about practical benefits, then it is as follows:
efficiency for business, achieving the desired results
delegation zones for the manager: developing an employee, over time, you can entrust him with a certain area of responsibility
self-realization, professional growth and employee motivation
How to identify talent? In most cases, well-established communication, which was discussed above, works here. I can only notice in the process of work beacons that indicate one or another strong point.
Here are three key sources to uncover employee potential:
This is clear from hobbies, hobbies and human behavior.
We ourselves ask what interests you and what tasks you would like to do
We notice in the course of daily duties or through work with different types of tasks
To develop the potential strengths of employees, you need to give a certain type of task. Experience shows that the types of skills and tasks can be succinctly reduced to three areas:
Communicative (people orientation, communication) and creative (create visual/textual beauty). Here, tasks are suitable for solving which you need to interact with colleagues, communicate with a special group of clients, external contractors, and supervise newcomers. For the development of creative skills, the tasks of designing educational materials or texts are suitable.
Case 1
Our colleague Fred shared that he likes to find the key to people in the process of communication and get the desired result from them. We gave him a task that requires special communicator talent – calling “potentially lost clients.” As a result, Fred became the best in the Retention Manager group and brilliantly returns clients to the service.
Technical and analytical skills (love for IT, the ability to thoroughly analyze data and find cause and effect relationships). In such cases, I give tasks to create new algorithms in the software through which we process customer requests; or tasks for data analysis, identifying the reasons for the growth of complaints.
Case 2
Nick told us about his love for coding. As soon as the opportunity arose, we handed him the task of technical improvement of the software. He did a great job, launched a chat bot, and a few months later moved to the position of a front-end developer.
Team and leadership skills (the ability to see growth areas in processes or functionality, organize a team, take responsibility for the result). Most often, guys with such qualities come to me on their own. At some point, they get bored with the current tasks and want to apply themselves more globally. Tasks are suitable for such employees, where they are the organizers of the process from the beginning to the result, including reporting.
Case 3
My colleague Dasha successfully completed the main tasks and interacted in the group. She herself initiated the expansion of the area of responsibility, tried herself in various tasks and coped with all. Over time, we moved her to the position of supervisor, and now she is my deputy.
Important: For a team to succeed, there must be diversity. It’s like in any collaborative group: if everyone in it is analysts, all drivers, or all accomplices, it is doubtful that the team will be effective. So it is with your subordinates: someone develops in their own direction and does not dream of being a CEO. And you should not pull it, you just need to provide tasks for this type of development. And someone, on the contrary, will leave the team if vertical growth or application in a new direction outside the department is not given.
What are the errors:
The leader does not know how to identify strengths and gives tasks randomly
The manager consciously does not develop employees (does not delegate tasks), as he is afraid of losing quality or that he may be snared
The leader incorrectly determines the skill (overestimates)
Freedom to choose, act and make mistakes
Freedom to choose
I do not impose developmental tasks, but I give a person the opportunity to make his own decision: whether he wants to engage in the proposed one or not. Forced happiness is futile for both parties. Developing a person who is not ready / does not want is a waste of time.
Freedom to act
Often, when an employee takes on a new task, I refer to the principle of freedom of action. The current algorithms for dealing with this problem are not necessarily correct. Nothing limits the employee to see the logic of work, tools and the meaning of the task in a new way, even to question everything. There is only one limitation: the Criminal Code and the Non-Disclosure Agreement.
As soon as the employee has gained the necessary experience, it is time to switch to the next levels of interaction (from the controller to the coach, adviser and colleague). It is important to show trust in the employee and not go back to micromanagement.
Freedom to be wrong
First, I do not consider a mistake a professional verdict. Of course, if it is not systematic, but occurred due to lack of sufficient experience or as a result of trying new tools/approaches. To err is to gain experience and grow.
Secondly, sometimes it is useful to let people make mistakes, instead of directively forbidding one or another approach. Sometimes without living such an experience, the employee will not develop the necessary skill.
Case 4
I saw that a new employee undergoing training would not cope. The novice supervisor stood up for the newcomer’s right to prove himself and was ready to invest his time in him. I left him the right to make a decision and be responsible for the result. As a result, the beginner did not pull. But if I gave a directive to leave the employee, the supervisor would not have learned to see what I see. He would have remained with the understanding that one can only do as the leader says; and this is a limitation of growth and potential efficiency.
What are the errors:
The head sets the developing task directively;
The manager “sold” (pushed through) a developing task, to which the employee actually had no desire
The manager does not track the level of experience of the employee and confuses the roles (instructor, coach, adviser, colleague)
So, the key to the development of talents is the presence of a comfortable interaction environment, your observation and the ability to mutually benefit from the potential in work processes.
In conclusion, I will list a few more examples of the growth of employees who started their careers at SDG Customer Success and are now successfully realizing themselves in new roles: Anna started out as a call center manager, and now works directly with the CEO and manages a support at SDG Lab; Konstantin came to the starting position of an account manager, and now leads the QA Team; Tony supported VIP clients and later became the product owner of his own product within SDG Lab.
The experience of these talented guys confirms that the ability to create an environment for development and promote professional growth is the key to success not only for the selected direction, but for the entire holding.
