Your people are invaluable to you. They are the lifeblood of your business or organisation. And yet, in many situations, managers take little time to truly find out what makes each of their people special. Makes them unique.

But why would this be important to know?

When people bring their special blend of skills to your workplace, it's important to know about it. And not just because you might be able to get more out of them. When you know what turns your people on, they work happier and contribute more; sometimes, much more than you might expect from them. When they are working in their 'flow', they are on top form, in overdrive. And then remarkable results flow.

So, how do you find out what your people are best at, and also where they struggle?

Many organisations now use a variety of techniques to get to the bottom of who their employees truly are. These take the form of assessments - often simple questionnaires - that their employees complete. Then both employee and line-manager work together with the data, to understand the focused results that such information provides.

More commonly now, external coaches are brought in to work with special types of assessments, to provide an outsider's support, well away from line management or performance assessments. This enables openness and honesty - not always possible if your boss is your coach.

In the assessment systems that are available, some tend to place people in boxes, which can almost lead to the employee 'acting out' what they expect to be like from the results. This can be very discouraging, especially when told that it's 'just the way you are' (and this with little hope of changing ever!).

There are now more modern approaches, which are enabling employees to understand better their behaviours. These can be adapted and developed, with the encouragement and challenge of a coach, to deliver far greater performance than previously possible.

Often these 'behavioural' approaches accelerate development, to such an extent that prolonged coaching contracts are unnecessary, although after a time, such is the success, that (especially senior employees) come back for a further burst of activity, to raise the bar on their own performance even further.

Ultimately, it the employee's prerogative to decide in which areas of developing their performance they might wish to focus. With a modern, self-assessment style questionnaire identifying where they are in the moment, it is be well worth the time and investment to give themselves a head start. Celebrating the unique skills and talents they already have is a good place to start.

Those at the head of a business or organisation can set an example. This enables them to model change as a 'good thing' and encourage others to take full part, in the knowledge that this is not going to be a painful experience, yes, maybe challenging, but ultimately good, for the employee as well as everyone else, both inside and outside the workplace.

© Martin Haworth 2005. At Coaching Businesses to Success, we work with clients from all sorts of business backgrounds worldwide, often entirely by phone, using Intercept® ID, a proven, soft-skills gap analysis tool.

For more information, checkout the Coaching Businesses to Success website for more details.