Nurturing Talents

Nurturing Talents is part of any managers or employers job scope. It is very important how you nurture your talents.

If you plant pomelo trees, you can enjoy its fruits that gives out a nice smell and is sweet when eaten. If you plant hedge thorns, you will be pricked by its thorns. Thus it is of importance that the ruler takes note of what he talent he is 'planting'. - Han Fei Zi, Chapter 33

From this we can see that we have to be careful how we nurture talents. If we do not nurture well, the results can come back to 'prick' us. Managing talents is always one of the most difficult part of a manager's or employer's job because there is no one size fits all management approach due to the differences in each employees.

But I feel the most basic any managers should do is to take out some time to understand their team members, in which environment they perform well, why they are doing this job and most important of all, as the saying of Sun Tzu is seen below,

When the general regards his troops as infants, they will be willing to follow him through the greatest threats and gravest danger. When the general treats his troops like beloved sons, they will be willing to support and die for him. An army may be so overly pampered by the general that it cannot be useful, so excessively loved that it cannot be commanded and so disorderly that it cannot be disciplined. Such and army is like a bunch of spoilt and arrogant brats , and cannot be deployed. - Sun Tzu Art of War, Chapter 10

treat your team members like family members, show them that you genuinely care about their welfare. Do try your best to join your team members in any dinner or game session so that you have more time to bond with them and also understand their character better. When you understand them better, you can better assign suitable tasks to them and also avoid 'destructive' conflicts.

So go and put the dinner or game appointment in your schedule now. Get yourself invited to lunch. Chat with them and be open.

Related Books