exceptional talents

The Debate Over Talent: Born or Learned

Jim Dryburgh Blog, Professional Development No Comments , , , , , , , , , ,

How A High School Kid Got NASA’s Attention

I am often amazed at how extraordinary talent can suddenly appear. A short while ago I was listening to Science Friday on NPR and they were interviewing a New Mexico high school student Erika DeBenedictis who had just won the 2010 Intel science prize of $100K.

She had designed a way to have space ships travel to remote parts of our solar system at very low cost. This could be useful in unmanned space travel but also a way to send heavy equipment to a location and then connect with a manned flight. It wasn’t just her contribution that got my attention, it was the way she was able to express herself in the interview and her vision for her future. She was already imagining graduating from a top university and then having a career in a commercial space business like astro-mining. (A logical application of her science breakthrough.)

The Talent Code

This got me thinking about the roots of talent and how we can help people of any age reach a really big extraordinary goal.

I highly recommend the book, “The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How.  (Amazon link) by Daniel Coyle. Coyle has done a great job of researching why pockets of great talent suddenly emerge. Think Dominican Republic baseball players, Russian tennis superstars, chess prodigies.

Coyle has linked his talent research to Brain research and the discovery that the right kind of practice creates a super talent by forming myelin in the brain. The really great news is we can all grow myelin at any age. It’s not going to make a 40 year old a super star at gymnastics but you can become much more talented at a chosen skill if you can stay focused and practice.

Are you an ambitious knowledge worker or executive? Wouldn’t you like to know which of the talents you have, that with practice, could make you a superstar? Why not explore where your talents are in the corporate world?

You can see a video of Erika here.

Three Things to Do Next

1.  Comment: Do you think some people are born with talent or that it is a learned skill?

2.  Share: If you liked this post share it on your Facebook, Twitter, Blog or Site

3.  Brainstorm: Have you had a talent you want to work on but keep putting off.  Set up some time this week to get working on it again.  Keep yourself accountable to someone else.

image courtesy of darci1b

4 Questions Adults Need to Ask Themselves to Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up

Lori Dryburgh Personal Growth 1 Comment , , ,

Bennis stated that he had wanted to be a university president. And for seven very unpleasant years he was one. He said that the problem was that he wanted to be a university president but he didn’t want to do a university president. In retrospect, he realized there was an unbridgeable gap between his aspirations and what actually gave him satisfaction and happiness.

Based on his experience, he developed a four-question test aimed at anyone seeking “success.” You have to answer with complete honesty, which means you have to have a fair amount of self-knowledge.

1. Do you know the difference between what you want and what you’re good at?

2. Do you know what drives you and what gives you satisfaction? (Clearly, in his own case, he didn’t)

3. Do you know what your values and priorities are, what your organization’s values and priorities are, and can you identify the differences between the two?

4. Having measured the differences between what you want and what you’re able to do, between what drives you and what satisfies you, and between your values and those of your organization — are you able to overcome those differences?

If you are, then success will be yours. In a nutshell, the key to success is identifying those unique modules of talent within you and then finding the right arena to use them.

So, do you want to be a CEO/CFO/COO/Manager/husband/wife/parent or do you want to do it?

According to a number of studies, more than 50% of people are in the wrong job. Are you?

Can you answer the four questions?

image courtesy of diana

Intelligence Doesn't Guarantee High Accomplishment, So What Does?

Jim Dryburgh Blog, Personal Growth, Professional Development No Comments , , , ,

Life is like a bus.

“First you need to decide where the bus is going. Then you need to get the right people on the bus, get the wrong people off the bus and finally be sure that everyone is in a seat that suits them.”

Are you on the right bus?

People are more successful when they are matched with activities they love to do, according to a Stanford University study of 250,000.

The study concluded that high intelligence didn’t guarantee high accomplishment. Hard work and enthusiasm in the field of choice was the leading indicator of success.

The implications for you: Instead of spending time trying to correct weaknesses, focus on developing a special talent. Here’s how to do it:

  • Pick one strength to pursue. Excellence is a product of hard work and liking what you do. Adjust your goals to target your strengths.
  • Ignore weaknesses that won’t hinder you. Work on a problem only if it lessens your productivity. Let your strengths overpower your weaknesses.
  • Delegate everything that isn’t a strength. You get the best leverage for your efforts and produce the most value for your organization when you direct your energies to your Exceptional Talents.


Exceptional Talent Online

OnBoarding for Life Products & Tools 2 Comments ,

Exceptional Talent Online

Exceptional Talent Online

Exceptional Talent Online

“The best career advice given to the young is, ‘Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it.”
- Katherine Whitehorn

Everyone has talent. Your exceptional talents are displayed in the activities you undertake every day. While you are performing some of these activities you are energized, productive, and passionate. You demonstrate great skill and you get better and better at them.

Wouldn’t you like to know what your exceptional talents are?

The Exceptional Talent OnlineTM tool allows you to identify your exceptional talents and build strategies to leverage them.

Exceptional Talent Online – Sales Edition

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Exceptional Talent Online – Sales Edition

Exceptional Talent Online - Sales Edition

Exceptional Talent Online - Sales Edition

“The best career advice given to the young is, ‘Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it.”
- Katherine Whitehorn

We believe that all people are talented. We define talent as: “A recurring pattern of thought, feeling or behavior that can be productively applied.” The key is the phrase “productively applied”. Talent is simply potential … you have to use it to produce results. Successful people demonstrate their talents are working for them by virtue of achieving their current position.

In business, on the road to success, most people are required to undertake a lot of activities to succeed-only some of which support or reflect their exceptional talents. This is made evident in the fact that there is almost nothing they “can’t” do, but there are a few things at which they are exceptional.

If you are in sales, there are some activities you do when engaged with your prospects or customers at which you show exceptional talent. And, there are other activities that when you’re involved in them you know it’s not your best work.

Wouldn’t you like to know what your exceptional talents are? Find out by taking the Exceptional Talent Online assessment, Sales EditionTM.

The Exceptional Talent Online – Sales EditionTM tool allows you, as a sales person,  to identify your exceptional talents and build strategies to leverage them.

Selling is a process; a sequence of events. There are basically 6 stages in a typical selling model.  They consist of:

  1. Prospecting
  2. Greeting or Building Rapport
  3. Qualifying
  4. Demonstration/Presentation of Solution
  5. Influencing
  6. Closing

Each of us excel in some stages of the process and we struggle with, or avoid if we can, the other stages. The key to success in sales is knowing and acknowledging where we do our best work and where we need to engage others to support us. Then we can determine where to invest to grow our talent.

The Exceptional Talent Online – Sales Edition describes many of the activities involved in each stage of the model. You are then given the opportunity to decide if you do that activity exceptionally well, very well, competently or you are incapable of doing it. Next you are asked how much you like doing the activity, regardless of  whether you are good at it. At the end of this self-assessment you receive a report that indicates where your sales talents lie, where you may need to get some help and how you might invest further in your exceptional talents.