GAINMORE™ Advantage Coaching Template

Copyright Dr. John Kenworthy © 2010 all rights reserved This template may be used by certified and regis tered GAINMORE™ Advantage Coaches only or by Coaches in training

under supervision.

Use by any other person is a violation of our Intellectual Property

Leveraging Talent

A leader who knows the talents and strengths of every team

member has a signif icant advantage over a leader who does not

know.

Leveraging that talent to the workplace is most often a simple

matter of making the connection between the way a person

does a talent, and the way they do something at work.

Most people enjoy using their talent. If their work becomes a

matter of using a talent they already have and enjoy, they will

enjoy their work. This raises the level of motivation, improves

performance and generates significant business impact .

Can any talent be leveraged to work?

In our experience, yes. The process to leverage talent is:

Identify the talent. This is for many people the most difficult

part. Unless they have an obvious talent such as painting,

music, acting, singing and so on. Indeed, most people believe

that they do not actually have any talent! So let me stress

here, that everyone has talent!

o Ask your client what they are especially good at doing, perhaps

something they rea lly enjoy. Take time to explore this… they

do have a talent.

Ask them how they DO the talent.

o The most common response is “I don’t know, I just do it…”

o This is exactly what we are after here. They are unconsciously competent at the talent.

Break down the DOING of the talent into discrete steps.

GAINMORE™ Advantage Coaching Template

Copyright Dr. John Kenworthy © 2010 all rights reserved This template may be used by certified and regis tered GAINMORE™ Advantage Coaches only or by Coaches in training

under supervision.

Use by any other person is a violation of our Intellectual Property

Leveraging Talent

Leveraging Talent Examples

Throat singing is a rather rare and peculiar talent. For this CEO it

was his party trick, something he found he was able to do when very young. Encouraged by his parents to demonstrate in front of

friends and neighbours, people enjoyed his performance and found it fascinating. As a young man, he was unafraid to stand in front of

an audience and give speeches. He joined the university debating society where his commanding voice quieted everyone present. "I

like to entertain people, and I like to make them think" he says.

"Running was all I ever wanted to do. I'd get up early every morning and race the postman on his bike. For me, it was freedom.

Now, I run with my team, we race the competition and we enjoy the freedom we gain from our bonuses and commission."

"As a kid, I was always drawing. I loved to draw. Cartoons

especially, and comics. When I was at primary school I drew my first comic which turned into a series and a long story - intricately

entwined with sub-plots and different characters. By the time I went to university, I'd all but stopped drawing, taking accountancy

because that's where the jobs were. Today, I guess I'm still drawing

comics in a way. I look for the sub-plots in the accounts, what's the other story behind the main one and that's how I teach my staff.

Look for the sub-plots - it makes auditing a whole lot more fun."

"Calculus was easy. Everyone else thought it was really difficult and

stupid, but I found it easy. I'd get a thrill from finding the right answer. It's obvious to me now, my recipes are just a form of

calculus, and you take ingredients A and B and turn them into X. I

don't 'think I'll tell my chefs that, they might think I'm a nerd and not the great artiste.""I first acted in a play at kindergarten. I was a

tree. But I was the best tree ever. My parents adored my acting, always encouraging me; in fact they wanted me to continue through

drama school and everything. I think they thought I would be a

movie star. I did try for a while when I went to university but I never had any money. After uni, I joined a local drama club, met

my wife and we soon had our first child. So I left the acting world and joined a local bank - great prospects, regular wages and, a

subsidised mortgage. I suppose that a COO is rather like a director in a play, making sure that the right people are in the right place at

the right time with the right script. Brilliant!"

"I was always the joker of the family. No matter what happened I had to make a joke out of it. My brother bore the brunt of most of

my wilder practical jokes - and some of them weren't really funny at all. Still, it was fun. It got me in a lot of trouble at school. In the

end I quit school and worked on a market stall. I worked for this

really sour faced bloke selling vegetables - blimey he was miserable. He hated my joking with the customers, but they loved it

and kept coming back, so he didn't 'stop me. I'm still a joker, I like a laugh and I like to keep the guys happy. I suppose being the

centre of attention does something for me. That's why I set this up (the company), being the centre of everyone’s' attention and we

make money. I always say, if you can't have a laugh while your

living life then life will laugh at you."

GAINMORE™ Advantage Coaching Template

Copyright Dr. John Kenworthy © 2010 all rights reserved This template may be used by certified and regis tered GAINMORE™ Advantage Coaches only or by Coaches in training

under supervision.

Use by any other person is a violation of our Intellectual Property

Leveraging Talent

Leveraging Talent Template

Client____________________________ Date__________________________

My Talent is:

→

Th job I need to do better

Steps DOING the talent

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1

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2

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3

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4

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5

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6

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7

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8

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9

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10

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