When I was a kid, I was playing in a soccer team. I literally plaid each different position, from the goal keeper over defense and wing man to the fast forward. I felt well everywhere, but I could not develop my true strength all the time. Thinking back to it, I wonder about the factors.

On the one hand there is beside the talent, the practice, of course, but is being well-practiced enough? Every now and then I read about a sportsman having a blockade. Failures in sports can touch them mentally, so they keep thinking about it and build a blockade inside of them, but what can help them? How can they find back to true strength?

An important part of the team is the coach. A coach is important for each training group. My coach for acting lessons for example is awesome. What does she do? She cannot give 120% to everyone at the same time, no question. As this is an open class, she has an advantage: Not everyone starts at the same time. How does she treat starters?

First she tries you. She challenges you, pushes you directly into the fight, unexpectedly. This is her method for analyzing your reaction. Imagine, you are there, within you first lesson. You are a nice guy, maybe a bit shy and what does she ask you to do? “Stand in front of us and freak out. Shout at us. Do anything, just to freak out. The only rule: Do not get physically aggressive.” So I stepped a bit insecure in front of the Group where I knew no one and I started. She asked for more “This is not enough, I know you can do better.” So I fought to freak out. It was still not enough, she expected more and more and more. Everyone was looking at me. I was there for 15 minutes. 15 minutes that were actually passing very fast. The Adrenaline in my blood made me enjoying it.

Can you imagine such a moment in other situations in life? Maybe think about, you are getting a new job in the office. You will have your own team. Right, you are being a team leader in your office-job. The office is not the stage, so you take them out, talk them, develop the potentials 1 on 1. The important thing is: It is your first day. The first impression is the most important and longest lasting impression.

So, back to the acting. The coach analyzed me. She read my reaction, my behavior, my doubts and my progress. Moving forward, she challenged me, again and again. In the first step, she saw in me my potentials. Now she works on getting the best out of me. Those lessons she focused on me, she took me hard. She wanted to see more and more. She wanted to wake up my potentials. I needed to cross my boarders. At least I thought, there were boarders. She increased the faith in me and made me reaching limits that I did not think to reach, before her.

Now let us go back to office. Do you agree that reaching new limits, increasing confidence in your colleagues supports them to be better? Imagine your job, what do you do? What does your boss do? Might this be enhanced? I leave it up to you, just take my moments and adopt it to you, to make you reaching the next level.

After reading the potential and strengthen the confidence, I see a third element of promoting talent. Keep him motivated. Of course, not everything works already the first try. That would be crazy. Not succeeding also has good points. Each failure is the Chance to learn. Make each lose a win. A great leader supports that.

In acting lessons my coach sees, when I got unmotivated from less succeeding. She goes 1 on 1 on me, talks to me, she gives advice and motivates me. The hope she is giving is the fuel of the Engine, fighting my doubts. This way she treats everyone. She adopts in how to handle each different actors’ profile. Everyone is different, but she knows, how to react on each different character.

A great leader is also a great coach. A great coach makes his team players shine. He motivates each player, when he is down and lets him being the stars when he can shine. The leader builds the foundation for the team. Supporting the teams’ development, he surrounds himself with different star profiles and makes his team, not him, his team being the number 1. Successes need to be celebrated and honored. This motivates everyone in the team to reach even higher targets and successes. It can support to build a strong team and to improve the Team Spirit. It strengthens the self-confidence of each Team Member, as well as the team spirit, if everyone gets the chance to shine. The biggest success of a coach should be: Your Team is number 1 (or: it receives great results).

How can you adopt this to the example of your new office job? Should a leader be a coach? Should the team shine and should the leader lead the team until it shines? Is it better, if the leader stands in front of the team in case of mistakes/failure and push the team in case of successes? Or do you prefer egoism and finger-pointing? Do you think: if my Team mate made a mistake, he should pay for it and everyone should no. What do you think, would be the best for your team? Are you, is your boss already successfully promoting Talents?

So start living it. Promote talents, promote your team. Do not burn it. Create long-term success.