Genius without Education is Like Silver in the Mine*

This good-looking Great Egret chick :) has lots of potential, but it is up to the parent to nourish, encourage, teach, and support development (pretty much like the job of a manager, don’t you think?)


Just as precious ore has little value unless mined and processed, human potential alone has little value unless seasoned through education and refined through purposeful experience. This was true back in Ben Franklin’s time and resonates even more today with the rise of the knowledge worker. Human potential is a requirement as is employee self-motivation, but it is the managers job, no duty, to transform the ore into the silver of success.

Management has three roles in this wealth-creating process:

1. Enabler. Request/demand that all your people have individual development plans that make sense based upon their abilities and goals. Provide funds for quality training and ongoing learning events.

2. Coach. People rarely do what they say they do. If you want to know, spend time with each employee on the job--out visiting customers observing your sellers and services professionals, sitting and listening to your technical support people on the phone, participating with your marketers as they build portfolios or create branding campaigns.

3. Mentor. Proactively select one or two high-potential employees (no more) and explain your openness to mentoring. Schedule time to help them learn the “how to get things done around here” that isn’t in an employee handbook or knowledge management system.

Doing the above not only improves the performance of your team, but is highly self-satisfying. To make it even more enticing, persuade your management group to embrace this best practice:

Goal and reward managers on the progress and performance of their high-potential employees. I’d recommend these two metrics for everyone who manages people:

• Retention of key employees.
• Number or percentage of high-potential employees that get promoted.

Remember that people really are our most important asset, and delivering on that promise is the prime task of management. How are you doing?

I’d be interested in learning your secrets in developing your people.


*Ben Franklin

Tags: training, managing technical talent, leadership