Last month I read a great post over at the brand new TLNT.com blog, called The Case for Coaching. The post was authored by Paul J. Gorrell and John Hoover and was excerpted from the book The Coaching Connection – A Manager’s Guide to Developing Individual Potential in the Context of the Organization.

If your organization has ISO9001 certification, or if you’re preparing for certification, you know that the standard impacts the way you assess competencies, ensure awareness of your quality management system, and track training requirements and activities. Simply tracking employee learning is no longer enough to pass an audit.

The other day I saw an online ad where Arby’s called their sandwich “talent”. Now, do you think I can find the ad anywhere? Of course not! Maybe I was just really hungry and imagining things at the time. That said, it got me to thinking about the idea of “talent” and how it is really an overused catch phrase.

In our culture, talent has come to mean everything from a valued employee, to a celebrity [...]