In a world filled with information as we live today, it is easy to find lots of books and courses about leadership to guide leaders in the task of motivating people so that by working together, they deliver very aggressive results in large or small corporations.

However, the task of leadership requires way more than technical skills, since human diversity brings with it an enormous variety of talents and feelings that requires a leader besides knowledge, sensitivity and humanity to administer the imponderable human behavior.

In multifunctional teams made up of young adults and senior employees, how often even generation differences increase the size of a leader’s challenge to align goals and ensure that everyone is, so to speak, rowing in the same direction. In the increasingly complex scenario in which we live and interact, with generations of millennia, X, Y working together, leadership by talents is consolidated as a timeless resource of enormous value.

But the ability to identify talents in people needs to be developed and even for a talented leader, the task of identifying talents takes time, a genuine interest in knowing the other, and a lot of attention to small actions, personal passions, and interests often unrelated to activities that employees carry out in organizations.

In the fast-paced world that charges double digit results in 12-month fiscal periods, the leader’s challenge gets even more tough because he needs time, a luxury that he cannot count on. In this scenario, the tests and algorithms that help the leader identify the unique talent that characterizes each of his collaborators arise. In the vast range of tools, some algorithms are not very assertive, others do offer glimpses of the talents of each individual, but still assertive identified talents are still almost suggestions of areas for potential development.

After to collect the glimpses of talent listed by the tools, the leader needs to jump in a process of intellection, to carry out exercises of connection of ideas to align talents and activities pertinent to the function of each collaborator with the intention of generating a routine of work that allows the collaborator to explore their individual talents performing the tasks that will make the team together deliver the expected double-digit returns by the organizations.

You reader, should now be thinking, beautiful theory but will it be feasible in corporate practice, a leader to align activities with individual talents?

Yes, it is possible, although the results of such practice are not always satisfactory. The success of such an endeavor depends on both the leader and collaborators. As usual, succesfull teamwork depends on the alignment of energy and dedication of both players to achieve common goals.

To ensure the success of the practice with engagement of both the leaders and collaborators, the basis of any project involving teams seems to be in the building of trust relationships. A survey by McKinsey and Co with around 25 humanitarian aid organizations has identified in over 15 different and complex scenarios that trust is the most important element in the success of teams working together in highly complex humanitarian relief situations.

If trust building allows a group of helpers to be successful in dealing with humanitarian emergencies in resource-poor settings of all kinds, imagine how revolutionary it can be in our corporate environments.