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What does it mean to be a manager? In todays world, managers need to wear many hats. They have to be a mentor, mediator, communicator, coach, and numerous other roles simultaneously. But at its core, management is about matchmaking. You need to map the talents of your team to the needs of your business. That means making the most of your teams combined talents and unlocking the diversity in your team. Unfortunately, as managers struggle with limited time and resources, they overlook this critical component. All too often, managers end up assigning tasks on autopilot, matching business challenges to job titles rather than thinking creatively about how to leverage peoples hidden talents or offer growth opportunities. The shift to hybrid and remote work has also reduced opportunities for the spontaneous discovery of peoples hidden talents. This can end up shrouding peoples true strengths. Collaboration and engagement can also suffer. Fortunately, unlocking your teams strengths doesnt need to be time-consuming. Over the past three years, Ive helped dozens of teams unlock talents they didnt even know they hadand match those talents to the most pressing challenges they facedthrough this simple, three-step exercise: Step 1: Self-reflection Gather your team togetherideally in personand ask everyone to write down their talents and strengths on a flip chart. Emphasize that this isnt a competition to see who can list the most strengths, but rather about identifying the talents that people might take for granted or struggle to recognize in themselves. Sometimes, were so used to our strengths that we dont even notice them. Encourage them to think about what they find easy to do, or what people come to them for. This short 15-minute period of self-reflection lays the foundation for using the hidden talents for the benefit of the team. Step 2: Team input Next, go around the room and ask each person to read their strengths aloud. Resist the urge to discuss or critique the strengths each team member identifies. Simply ask the rest of the team, What talent or strength do you see in this person that they didnt mention themselves?, and have the person write each additional talent on their list. And before moving over to your next team member, ask the team, whats the number-one strength of this colleague that at this moment we should use much more as a team? As you go around the room, each person will be surprised by the strengths their team sees in them. As their manager, youre likely to be surprised as well at the number of hidden, untapped talents that may surface. This step is often particularly powerful for more introverted or less confident employees, who might generally be more hesitant to talk about their strengths. Ive found that while teams always have something to add for everyone, its often the quieter members who receive the most additions from their colleagues. The step uncovers underutilized talents and lays the groundwork for deeper appreciation and trust within the team. Step 3: Match strengths to challenges The final step is to connect the strengths theyve revealed to the challenges your team currently faces. For example, I worked with a biotech company that struggled to collaborate with another department. The team had identified that Georgina was highly collaborative, and so she became the natural choice to lead cross-functional projects. Pauls talent, on the other hand, was structuring information that could be used to address the challenge of distilling insights from complex data. And Tims talent for visual storytelling could help address challenges in communicating with investors and other stakeholders. In this way, teams can collaboratively move beyond asking, Whose job is this? Instead, they can ask, What talent could help us address this challenge? It dynamically redefines roles, making full use of often overlooked talents such as: Spotting talent: The ability to recognize potential in oneself and others. Offloading: Knowing which initiatives or activities they need to stop (or simplify). Finishing: The drive to see projects through to completion. These are not always the talents you see on a résumé. But when you face a challenge, knowing the specific strengths that each team member possesses can be extremely helpful. Make your matches stick By design, this 90120 minute exercise is short and simple. However, to drive lasting impact, its important to ensure that your team members continue to have opportunities to flex their talents. For example, Michael often clashed with senior leader Frank over project approaches, stalling progress. The team recognized that Anna, who excelled in stakeholder management, could bridge the gap. Anna began mentoring Michael, helping him engage Franks input early in the process instead of letting conflicts fester. Michaels projects then moved faster. Both Michael and Frank came to appreciate Annas mentorship, and she continued to assist the team with similar stakeholder challenges. Embedding this practice into your management style can be as simple as revisiting the exercise during weekly stand-ups, monthly team meetings, or even as part of onboarding new employees. The key is to commit to ongoing self-reflection and feedback. Regularly measure progress, share successful matches, and be willing to adjust the approach as your team evolves. Being an effective manager today means stepping back from the daily firefight to invest in your people. When you act as a talent matchmaker, connecting individual strengths and organizational challenges, you unlock a powerful resource that drives both team performance and engagement.
Category:
E-Commerce
In September 2024, Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings took a brief interlude from taping one of Americas most iconic game shows to film another series: a YouTube show about the history of public transit, set in his local county of Snohomish, Washington. The show, called The Transit Effect, is a seven-part series that examines why public transit matters, diving into everything from infrastructure and economic growth to access to work, school, and healthcare. Its the brainchild of Community Transit, a public transportation agency in Washingtons Snohomish County, just north of Seattle. The shows first episode is now available on YouTube and on Community Transits website, with the remaining installments slated to drop over the coming months and into 2026. Starting with the electric streetcars of the 1920s, The Transit Effect maps how American communities have been shaped by public transitand, amid todays notoriously car-centric American infrastructure, it presents a thesis for investing in more sustainable transportation options. The show is especially timely, given the Trump administration’s current crackdown on renewable energy and support for various fossil fuel industry projects. We hope viewers come away with a deeper appreciation for how much public transit shapes daily lifeeven if they never set foot on a bus, says Community Transit public information officer Monica Spain. If this series sparks someone to think, I had no idea transit did all that, or nudges them to take a ride instead of drive, thats a win. How Snohomish Countys ‘Community Transit’ snagged Ken Jennings Rory Graves is a senior marketing copywriter at Community Transit who helped develop and write The Transit Effect. She says that, when the idea for the show first came about, the team knew the series would need to be anchored by a host who was both familiar and trustworthy to a wide range of audiences. It wasn’t a new challenge for the agency: In 2024, Community Transit partnered with American travel writer Rick Steveswho has lived in Edmonds, Washington (a city inside Snohomish County) since 1967on another educational transit series. For The Transit Effect, Graves thought Jennings, another longtime Edmonds resident, could be the perfect fit. We wanted to find someone who was a trusted source of information to do that storytelling. Who better than Ken Jennings? Graves says. In 2004, Jennings won 74 consecutive games of Jeopardy!, the longest winning streak in the show’s history, before becoming its host in 2021. Beyond his impressive credentials, Jennings also has a personal connection to Community Transit: As a college student, Jennings frequently rode the agencys buses between his familys home in Edmonds and the University of Washington. Today, he lives in Seattle. After Community Transit reached out to him over email, Jennings readily agreed to host The Transit Effect. But there was a small catch. Given Jennings tight schedule, the entire seven-part series had to be filmed in just four hoursa feat that required extensive preparation and multiple dry runs to test every piece of equipment, walk through the setup, and build in redundancies, Graves says. We dont have a huge budget like Amazon or Coca-Cola for our campaigns, but Ken was happy to collaborate with us, and were thankful for that. [Image: courtesy Community Transit] Exploring how public transit shaped America as we know it To give viewers a peek behind the curtain at the history of public transit, The Transit Effect is organized into sub-10-minute episodes by themes. Episode 1, for example, details how ’20s era streetcars, electric trolleys, and subway systems determined how major American cities expanded; episode 3 dives into the environmental impact of public transit compared to travel by car; and episode 6 explains how public transit can serve as a vital lever of accessibility for kids, the elderly, those with disabilities, and those without access to a vehicle. Throughout the series, Jennings refers to local examples to help illustrate this historylike in episode 1, which notes how the expansion of the Link light rail, a train system in the Seattle area that opened in 2009, has roots that extend back by more than 100 years. Everyones talking about Link light rail expansion, but did you know our region had electric mass transit more than a century ago? Graves says. The old Interurban Trolley once ran along the same route we now know as the Interurban Trail. We often treat electric transit like its brand new, but its actually part of our history. Whats fascinating is how long cleaner, electric options have existedand how car-centric planning pushed them aside. Another surprising tidbit explored in the show is how public transit shaped the musical world. The series highlights how New York Citys subway system helped make Harlem a cultural epicenter for Black Americans in the ’20s and ’30s, attracting the musicians that would ultimately bring the Harlem Renaissance to life. Its wild to think that something as everyday as a transit system could set off a domino effect that helped launch the careers of artists whose legacies have helped define modern music, Graves says. Through these stories, Spain says, Community Transit hopes to help viewers understand how public transportation shapes communities and removes barriers to opportunity, and to encourage community members to invest in their local public transit systems. More than anything, we want people to see transit not just as a service, but as a powerful force for good in our region, Spain says.
Category:
E-Commerce
Branded is a weekly column devoted to the intersection of marketing, business, design, and culture. Donald Trump has added a fresh punching bag to his ever-widening rotation of opponents: Apple. The president has, as hes put it, a little problem with CEO Tim Cook. For Cook, this actually looks like a big problemwith no easy fix. Trump has been intermittently critical of Apple before, but this has always seemed to be adroitly smoothed over by Cook, who for years was one of Mr. Trumps most beloved chief executives, and techs leading Trump whisperer, per The New York Times. It presumably helped that he was among those who donated $1 million to Trumps second inauguration. But the presidents recent complaints about the tech giants overseas production have not only been harsher in tone than in the past, they have come with the ultimate marker of negative presidential scrutinya threatened tariff of 25% on iPhones. (Later Trump clarified that the tariff would also apply to smartphone from Samsung or any other brand made anywhere outside the U.S.) Apple doesnt disclose iPhone sales by country, but worldwide they accounted for about 55% of its total revenue in the first quarter of its current fiscal year; iPhones make up about 53% of U.S. smartphone sales, according to research firm Backlinko. Revenue for its most recent quarter was around $95 billion (up 5% over last year), with earnings of about $25 billion. Remarkably, it had only been a matter of weeks since Cook was credited with scoring Apple an exemption on a then-planned 145% tariff on iPhones assembled in China for the U.S. market. Among other things, Apple announced it would invest $500 billion in AI servers in the U.S. Meanwhile various analysts began crunching numbers on what pure-U.S. production would do to iPhone prices, and soon the hypothetical $3,000 smartphone seemed like a new third rail of American politics. But as he has done with any number of prior third rails, Trump has now evidently shrugged off alleged risk. The immediate spark may have been at least partly personal: Cook reportedly declined an invitation to join the presidents recent swing through the Middle East. (Nvidias Jensen Huang and Sam Altman of OpenAI were among the CEOs who did put in an appearance.) Trump not only publicly noted Cooks absence, but openly mused about that little problem. Specifically, he said did not like reports that Apple and its suppliers are building all over India, apparently including iPhone factories, essentially to escape China-focused tariffs while keeping production overseas. I dont want you building in India, Trump said he told Cook. Days later Trump reiterated on social media: I expect [Apple iPhones] that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else. Thus the squarely Apple-targeted tariffand Cooks dilemma. Up to now, he and Apple generally have tended not to return fire when the Trump administration pokes at the brand or its business practices, and has avoided tangling with the administration on hot-button issues where their priorities diverge (such as diversity). That anti-confrontational strategy might actually make Apple more attractive as a target for Trump: Pinning the make-it-in-America attack to the iPhone generates maximum exposure for the administrations priorities, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo argued recently. In short, Trump may figure the specter of a $3,000 iPhone is a bigger problem for Apple than for his policy priorities. (Apple did not respond to a request for comment.) This also comes in whats been a tough year or so for Apple generally: It lost an appeal related to its App Store pricing, saw its virtual reality headset draw a tepid response, and has been perceived to lag on AI integration. While the future of tariffs is still up in the air after a federal court ruled against them, Trump has lately become aware of the Wall Street slang TACOTrump Always Chickens Outindicating his threats tend to be empty, making it that much more likely that this time hell be stubborn. Simply capitulating does not appear to be an option for Apple: Actually moving iPhone production to the U.S. would take years and involve prohibitive costs, not to mention a sizable work force that America doesnt currently have. And who can say whether some new device or alternative technology will supplant the iPhone while this huge undertaking plays out? One plausible strategy thats been floated is for Apple to cook up a short-term assembled in America option that would involve some percentage of iPhones to be manufactured in a hybrid scenario involving some overseas production and final assembly at a U.S. facility. Similarly, analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush called an American-made iPhone “fairy tale,” but speculated Apple could propose some token percentage of production moved to the U.S. over a period of years as a bargaining tactic. These tactics might still push the phones cost upward, but it wouldnt triple it as a full-on shift to U.S. production mightand Trump could declare another victory in his campaign to de facto manage U.S. business. That said, speculating about Apple stumbling one way or another has been a popular pastime for yearsyears during which Apples market cap has climbed to above $3 trillion. While shares are down 17.5% this year, it remains the worlds third most valuable company. Its wildly popular, as a brand, and as a stock. (We dont want to harm Apple, Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, assured CNBC.) Of course Apple doesnt want to be one of Trumps many targets, let alone his favorite. But it can certainly take a punch.
Category:
E-Commerce
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