Playing to one’s strength….

It took me too many years to reach this particular ‘aha’….but glad I did, nonetheless….

In the last 10 years that I served through my own outfit, alacarteLEARNING, I had not done proper resourcing and recruitment because I am such a small outfit.

What I did for my former employer where I had the privilege to interview and recruit as many as 70 [possibly more] Learning Designers both in Singapore and India, I did not do for my own company.

Looking backwards, reflecting, I was thankful to find any resource who was willing to work hard. Because they were recommended by friends / acquaintance, were availability and had some relevant experience, I recruited them. I made my decision without further analysis, largely influenced by some vague intangible criteria. My rationale was that I could always train them.

All the resources did deliver on hard work and all of them gave beyond their best. I was still unsatisfied. I kept driving them and eventually I drove too hard.

My ‘aha’ is that I did not help them to play to their strengths and when I recruited them, I did not examine if their strengths matched the job requirements. There was a mismatch from day 1. The rest, so to speak, is history.

Having diagnosed the cause of the chronic symptoms, I have much to unlearn and relearn.

I am therefore very excited about a new venture happening in the pipeline. I am setting a training school in Bangalore, India, where I am going to do the proper recruitment, go through the proper strength finding process and match the talents to the job requirements. More of this new venture in future blogs.

To those who are reading this blog and had worked with me in the past, and who had been driven up the wall by me because I did not play to your strength, my sincerest apologies. I hope you will forgive me.