We All Have Talents and Strengths. How Do You Know What They Are?
In the early 1950s Donald O Clifton began the study to determine the most natural thoughts, feelings and behaviours of “the best of the best.” He quickly discovered that our talents do more than make us unique individuals. Our greatest talents also serve as our best opportunities for excellence when they are followed.
Sure, skills are important and knowledge is vital, but a Strength requires something more important and powerful than skill and knowledge combined – talent. Once we discover our talents, we begin to recognise where we are best placed to invest time and energy, skills and knowledge, to develop that talent into a Strength. A Strength delivers a consistent, near-perfect outcome, and when you get to do what you do best you are not only more efficient, you are more engaged in what you do, and the quality increases.
By discovering our talents and creating opportunities to understand our most natural thoughts, feelings and behaviours, we also discover ways to understand our unique contribution. When you focus on your strengths:
You don’t have to become a different person to become successful.
You don’t have to be all things to all people.
You can’t be anything you want to be, but you can be more of who you are.
You can learn how to be a better version of who you already are.
So how do you identify your talents? One option is to complete the Strengthsfinder profile tool, developed by Donald O Clifton with Gallup University, to identify an individual’s Signature Themes of Talent. Also, to start you thinking about this the following questions could be useful.
What kinds of activities are you naturally drawn to?
What kinds of activities do you naturally pick up quickly?
In what activities did the steps come to you automatically?
During what activities did you have a moment of subconscious excellence, when you thought, “How did I do that?”
What activities give you a kick, either while doing them or immediately after finishing them and you think, when can I do that again?
So with all this food for thought, I think Benjamin Franklin said it best that “The real tragedy of life is not that each person doesn’t have enough strengths, it’s that we fail to use the ones we have.”