Author: Lee Colan

Article:
Most types of sports equipmentlike a golf club, a tennis
racquet or a baseball bat have a certain spot that, if the ball
hits it, will give the player the optimal result. Hitting this
sweet spot yields a long drive down the fairway, a swift
crosscourt return or home run swing. Every sport has a sweet
spot of some type. If you have experienced it, you know when you
hit the sweet spot, you barely feel it. The ball goes where you
want it to go - even further and faster. Doesn't get any better
than that!

But what about the sport of leadership? Aren't we professional
athletes in our own right?

Those in professional sports practice 90+ percent of the time
and actually "play for keeps" less than 10 percent of the time.
As professional leaders, we are almost always "playing for
keeps." So it's particularly important that we take time to plan
and ensure that we are optimizing our sweet spot.

Did you know the average person possesses between 500 and 700
different skills and abilities? A common defining moment for
people is finding that skill or ability that's right in their
sweet spot. As leaders, we have a huge opportunity to help our
employees find their sweet spots, too.

The first step is ensuring a good fit between an employee's
natural abilities and interests and the requirements of the job.
This would ensure the "highest and best use" of their talents
toward the realization of our high-definition vision. Wouldn't
we just love having every single team member working in their
sweet spot? We would always be in "the zone" and work would feel
like play.

Our ability to match sweet spots to job requirements is the best
predictor of job success and, ultimately, of excellent
performance. It all starts with a moment to plan for the use of
talent on our team.

Let's not forget about ourselves in this matching process.
Gaining insights into our own sweet spot as leaders helps us
better determine how to design roles and deploy the talent on
our team. For example, if my sweet spot is conceptually
designing complex deals, I better ensure I have a strong analyst
on my team. If my sweet spot is analyzing lots of details and
numbers, I want some conceptual, big picture thinkers on my team.

Want to know an easy way to find your sweet spot? Look at the
intersection of these two questions: 1. What am I absolutely
passionate about? 2. Which tasks are very easy and natural for
me to perform?

Most of us vividly remember the moment we found our professional
sweet spot. Others told us we made it look easy, that we really
excelled and we looked like we were having a ball. Think of the
last time when others made these comments to you. What were you
doing? Like finding any sweet spot, it's worth hitting these
questions around for awhile and practicing our answers before we
can serve up a winner.

Ralph V. Gilles understands this process. He dropped out of
college and was spending most of his time, by his own admission,
slacking in his parents' basement, eating granola, watching
"Dukes of Hazard" reruns and lamenting the sorry state of
automobiles being made in America.

Growing up, Gilles was typical of most boys who played with Hot
Wheels and Formula 1 model cars. But, as a teenager, he also was
extremely talented in sketching vehicles. In fact, his aunt
wrote a letter to then Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca, saying he
should hire her 14-year-old nephew.

A Chrysler executive responded, recommending three design
schools. Soon afterward, however, the letter was lost and
forgotten. Meanwhile, the car-crazy Gilles completed high school
and enrolled in college to study engineering, but dropped out
quickly. His reason: "I was in a funk and was really not sure I
wanted to be an engineer."

As he continued his granola, "Dukes of Hazard" routine down in
the basement, Ralph's older brother, Max, recalled the letter
from Chrysler. He remembered that one of the recommended schools
was Detroit's College for Creative Studies. Upset to see Ralph
wasting his time and talent, Max pushed his brother to apply to
the local school although the application deadline was only a
week away and would require 10 sketches.

At that point, the whole family became involved, making Ralph
coffee so he could complete his sketches, cheering him on and
helping wherever they could. By the end of the week, Ralph was
covered in pencil lead, but the sketches were complete, so his
mother sent the packet to the school by overnight delivery.

Today, Ralph V. Gilles is recognized as the innovator of the
Chrysler 300 sedan and the Dodge Magnum Wagon I in addition to
being responsible for the 2002 Jeep Liberty, 2003 Dodge Viper
SRT-10 and several concept cars. Dubbed as the Chrysler Group's
newest darling, Gilles has earned numerous national and
international accolades. He has since been promoted to Design
Director for Chrysler.

If we consistently misidentify sweet spots, we will find our
team stuck in a funk, like Gilles.

If we correctly match employee's sweet spots to the job
requirements, we will all be living the sweet life!

Today's fast-paced, efficiency-minded organizations make it
especially challenging for leaders to always ensure a good fit.
It's common to find employees picking up the slack for positions
that have been eliminated. If personnel reductions aren't
executed carefully, the remaining employees can find themselves
underemployed and consumed by "leftover" tasks that drain their
time but don't tap their minds.

These situations start a cycle of "lowest and worst use" of
talent, resulting in a downward spiral of self-doubt, anxiety
and frustration. If you've ever experienced this, you know it
feels more like a sour patch than a sweet spot.

To prevent this cycle and the resulting decline in team
performance, we can plan the work for our teams to optimize
sweet spots by:

- Combining tasks that require similar skill levels, so we can
more easily match an employee's sweet spot with the position's
requirements. - Automating repetitive tasks. - Streamlining
inefficient processes and eliminate redundant tasks that rob us
from getting the highest and best use of our talent. -
Outsourcing tasks that require a high level of people power but
have little impact on our organizations. Stay within our own
sweet spots and let other vendors use their sweet spot to serve
us.

Take a moment to optimize the sweet spots on your team -
including your own. It's a defining moment for most people when
they can arrive at work on Monday morning and say, "How sweet it
is!"

About the author:
Author Lee J. Colan is a highly sought-after executive advisor
and leadership expert.

He has published seven books including the best sellers Sticking
to It: The Art of Adherence and Passionate Performance.

Learn more by visiting http://www.leecolan.com or calling
972-250-9989./

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