Talent Development Doesn't Work for The Talent

Why do I trust CliftonStrengths and become a coach? Easy. This week it is all about Strengths, so listen up. You might discover something useful about your professional and personal development.

It all started with the realisation that traditional Talent Development doesn't serve the employees and ignores talent. Something is missing, and that something is the talent that is brought by the employee! Why do I say that?

Talent is defined as; natural aptitude or skill, so if we are not developing that, what exactly are we developing?

Development programs are aligned with organisational competencies and completely ignore the individual's natural talent, skill or aptitude. I always struggled with training courses my managers sent me as I never found them relevant.

I was also not too fond of the idea that corporate development programs and processes focused on fixing my weaknesses, leaving me feeling like a complete failure. Very demotivating.

I knew I had to do something other than moan about Talent & Development and my managers. So I embarked on the journey of self-development, and I made it clear that I didn't want anything from my company.

I came across Gallup's CliftonStrengths Finder assessment, which has changed my career. I finally understood what I am good at (despite signs that were there all along). I understood why I got disengaged in my roles after a year or so despite achieving great success. I learned how to use my strengths to compensate for my weaknesses (not fixing them) and not feel inadequate.

Then I thought, why is nobody being taught or told about this? We are so programmed at organisations that we don't see other alternatives, so we don't know what we don't know.

But here I am, ready to change the world of Talent Development by making organisations see sense and put the talent (the person) back into Talent Development.