Talent: Where's The Best Place to Use Your Strengths?

There are a lot of places where you can work.

What you want to know is: Which ones will allow me to use my talents for peak performance and satisfaction?

Talents, Learned Skills, and The 60/40 Rule

I spend a lot of time in developmental discussions and career transitions. A good rule of thumb to follow is this: make sure your situation allows you to use your innate talents about 60% of the time and your related, learned skills about 40%.

Why?

It will keep you operating at peak performance because:

a. Your talents inherently seek to grow and improve

b. Your talents are flexible and adaptable to change. If you want to know how you'll do in a new job, see how closely it relates to talents and not the rote skills you've developed in support of those.

c. Talents are transferable from one job to another.

d. They ultimately make the best use of one's time and yield the highest quantity and best quality when it comes to results.

Organizations take note: Instead of looking for "excellence" in every aspect of job duties, start paying attention to where your people are talented. That's where they will excel. When it comes time to appraise individual performance or assess for future opportunities in your company, focus on where the person is talented. Talents transfer across job descriptions, departments, organizations, and even careers.

Where You Fit Is Where You Should Be

There are all kinds of organizations and settings in which you can exercise your talents in return for compensation. Not all of them are good fits for you.

I've been in the military but didn't consider it for a career.

I worked in education but came to a similar conclusion.

I've been a manager in a large corporation as well as a sales manager in a smaller one. Nope.

Now, my client list is represented by each of those organizations. The organizations weren't the issue.

I had to come to grips with the fact that none of those would allow me to do things fast enough and creatively enough to satisfy me. So I decided to ply my craft from the "outside" and the decision has been a good one. Clients allow me leeway to use my expertise in ways that they wouldn't allow internally. (That's because they can also make me vanish rather quickly if they so choose).

Note: In an ironic twist, I've had two clients for 16 and 20 years respectively. That may come close to qualifying as a career person at each:-)

Here's where we are:

1. In The Intersection That Is Uniquely You, we took a look at how your talents, interests, and values come together at the place that makes you unique.

2. Today, think about the kind of organization that's a fit for you and your talents:

If you aren't big on structure and procedures, the military or law enforcement may not be the right arenas for you regardless of your related talents.

Gifted at sales and influencing? Then you've got some options. If you value a high income, then business may be a good fit. But if it's important to you to use your talents on behalf of a cause or the community, then selling or promoting on behalf of a regional theater company (Performing Arts) would be a good fit.

You get the idea.

Just remember: Your talents will grow in an environment that values them and allows you to use them. Take some time to choose thoughtfully.

Comments

[Karin H.]

Hi Steve

"Your talents will grow in an environment that values them and allows you to use them. Take some time to choose thoughtfully."

Best career advice ever! (In a nut-shell ;-))
It might take someone various steps on the ladder/jobs at various companies to find out - never a waste of time though. Before I started working I thought my best 'talent' was writing. Now it turns out it is working out which combinations of programs/methods etc give the best practical, effective and simple sustainable results.
(Only took me 20 years to find out, but along the way I discovered this bit by bit and am still grateful for the 'journey')

Karin H. (Keep It simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

[Miki]

Hi Steve, Great info regarding talents. The problem I've found over the years is that people tend to put less/little/no value on the things that they do easily, i.e. innate talents, and place high value on the skills they've struggled to learn.

One other bit of advice regarding KNOW YOURSELF that really saves headaches and heartaches—make decisions based on who you really are, not who you would like to be or hope to become.

[Steve Roesler]

Karin,

Having had a chance to watch your online presence and business develop, your story is a very good real-life example of identifying and using your talents.

But you bring up a point that I've totally ignored: identifying real innate talents can take some time. And it's not a matter of taking a "test" but it is a matter of "testing" what you think you know about yourself. That requires action, failure, success, and time.

Your life demonstrates the benefit in doing just that.

[Steve Roesler]

Miki,

Isn't it amazing how the human condition wants to value that which causes stress and strain (real work vs. those ways in which one is already gifted?

Every career choice carries with it parts that aren't in our comfort zones. Yet if that's where you live the bulk of your life, it's easy to totally burn out and think, "Well, at least I was a hard worker!"

[Wally Bock]

Great post, Steve. I've thought about the intersection of interest and talent for years, but from now on, I'll do it your way, with values as part of the mix.

[Steve Roesler]

Wally,

Glad to know this added another dimension for you...it came not from a magical stroke of genius but from struggling alongside a client until the 'Aha!' surfaced.