We all remember enjoying those ‘Match the Following’ type of questions during the tests as kids. Perhaps I loved them way too much. So much, that I always find myself matching and mapping everything to its best role. This is also what led me to match people with designated tasks and roles. Being a leader who manages individuals, it is very essential to map roles to individuals. More so in such a way where, not only a person’s strengths are put to use, but also their areas of improvement get nourished.
Whenever a situation arises, either at an organization level or on a personal level the first question that comes up is- who is available at the moment.
We are all familiar with the story of the donkey that disguised itself as a dog and got beaten by its owner. What we can derive from that is, are we really looking at mapping roles to individuals or rather individuals to available roles.
Looking back in my professional career, I am very glad and fortunate to have worked with various organizations and leaders that saw me playing various roles, that I loved to work with. In turn, it helped me achieve a better outcome and more importantly- a sense of fulfillment.
Over time, I also learned that the key factors to assign the best roles to people are-
- Understanding individual interests and aspirations
- Mindshare as to where one can have a sense of fulfillment
- A close review of outcomes and the resulting satisfaction
- What gives the individual an adrenaline rush.
These factors help in bringing the best out of people.
Of late, we went with the scientific approach by using the Gallup Clifton strength finder. Based on this, our belief became firm that the report of strengths is directly proportional to our understanding of individuals. Applying this instantly at an organizational level we refined our role mapping systems to individuals as per their strengths, thereby calling ourselves as an “SBO - Strengths-Based Organization”.
Just shortly after, it was evident that every individual was happier playing their roles and delivering results.
“Each of us has natural talents. Effort must be put in to identify and nurture those talents, in turn, becomes the strength and one must ride on their strengths.”
