Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

An area where I think the metaphor of an orchestra director fitting the manager, is when you identify and direct your employees' expertise. It is a worthwhile exercise to go over the history of your employees in their files once in a while, to remind yourself of some of their past experiences that they have partaken in or been successful at.

When I am referring to expertise here, I'm not necessarily talking about skills training alone. There is much more going on in a business than the mechanics of the job. The types of things I'm talking about could be anywhere from the ability to diffuse difficult situations or something totally unconnected to the situation at hand that someone has accomplished in the past that shows that they are able to stick through with something until it's accomplished.

I believe that this is extremely important because we must learn to identify those that will fit the demands of a specific situation that arises. These situations arise all the time and so the proper evaluation of a person's expertise must go beyond mere skill levels.

One of the reasons it is a managers job to do this is because the people you're working with may not even think of themselves as an expert in a certain area. They more identify with job descriptions and titles not necessarily projects and problems that may arise. It's up to us to measure them and be ready to conduct the workers as they are needed throughout the changing situations that happen all the time - even from hour to hour.

To be great managers, I believe that this is an area we all need to pay attention to. To really know and understand our workers in their strengths and weaknesses along with victories and defeats, is the path to being able to direct them toward that which is needed at any moment.