I love a football analogy and saw a perfect one last week. The manager of my team – Marti Cifuentes – was asked about employing a left footed centre back in the right back position. The player involved – Jimmy- is tall and not what you consider a typical right back to be. When talking about him, this is what Cifuentes said:

“Many times we look at the positions rather than the skills but for me football is about the skills. We use the skills of Jimmy in that position. We are not asking Jimmy to be someone else because he is playing in the right full-back position.”

QPR boss Cifuentes explains reasons behind Jimmy Dunne’s new role at right-back

Let’s swap a few words out and look at it from a workplace perspective.

Many times we look at the role rather than the skills but for me, performance is all about the skills.

How often do we do this? How often do we look at the role ahead of the skills? We have in our mind a role shaped hole and when someone comes in with other skills, we can’t adjust to these skills.

We use the skills of Sam in that role

If we approach using the skills of the individual, we are more likely to get their best. They may not be able to do the job the way we think but they do it in a different way.

We are not asking Sam to be someone else because they are is working in a different role.

We should be expecting the person to perform to THEIR best in the way they do it – not as a replacement for people who were there before.

The art of management, learning, development and people leadership is being unafraid to work around the norms of expectations in roles, structures and positions, and be willing to reassure people who do things with different skills, in a different way.