“My best skill was that I was coachable. I was a sponge and aggressive to learn.” ~ Michael Jordan
People often use the words talents and skills interchangeably, almost as if they had the exact same meaning.
I believe that talents and skills are different.
Talents encompass your strengths, your brilliance, and your genius. By genius, I don’t mean I.Q., I mean in its original form found in the word – genie which means magic, more specifically, your magic!
Talents include your natural God-given gifts and when you’re aligned and utilizing your talents in your work…it doesn’t feel like work.
For example, if you have the talent or gift-ed-ness for crunching numbers, when your crunching numbers, you don’t have to work extremely hard, it just comes natural to you and you love it. You could spend hours doing it. Also people will recognize you for your ability to crunch numbers and you will think that everyone can do it just like you.
Whereas some of us really struggle to work with numbers, not that we can’t do it, it is that it probably takes a lot more energy and we don’t necessarily love it.
Skills vs. Talents
Skills are a bit different, skills are the things that you work on, you learn, you must develop, and continue to develop so that you can become extraordinary in your field or profession.
It is in the blending of your talents and skills that 2 of the 4 ingredients for greatness are found. We will discuss the other 2 in next weeks’ blog.
Michael Jordan was probably one of the most naturally gifted basketball players who ever played the game. One of the components that made him so extraordinary was his commitment to constantly sharpen his skills. And as he said in the above quote, being coachable is by far one of most important skills needed to be extraordinary!
Even after winning 6 NBA Championships, if he missed foul shots during a game he would go out on the court after the arena was empty and practice free throws. Seriously, can imagine the greatest basketball player of all time, practicing free throws AFTER a game?
So that got me thinking …
Are You Working to Be Extraordinary?
In order to be extraordinary you need to be aware of your talents, be intentional about bringing them into the forefront of your work, and constantly honing your skills to a razors’ edge.
I see so many younger folks in the workplace today who fail miserably at working on and developing their skills. Many believe success, raises, and promotions should just happen because they show up or have been in a position for an extended period of time, it is as if they are en-titled to be a leader and that they don’t have to work on themselves.
For the record, I am not saying all younger folks, I am saying a large percentage of them. How do I know this? This is based on studying trends for nearly 27 years of experience while Coaching & Developing Leaders. Secondly, that is the answer I receive when asking my clients the biggest challenge facing them today (more to come on this topic)
Which leads me to ask you 3 questions about YOUR talent, genius, brilliance and skills regardless of whether you are in a leadership position or not.
3 Questions To Ask Yourself:
- Are you conscious and aware of your natural strengths, gifts, and talents? (If not, this is a great resource to discover your strengths – click here)
- Are you utilizing them in your work?
- What are you working on (reading, learning, growing) today that is enriching your skills as a leader, as a sales person, as a teacher. etc?
An Extraordinary Bonus Question
Every single person on this earth has a unique set of talents and gifts. Identifying them and incorporating them into your work/life will bring you happiness and set you on a course towards discovering your purpose.
Additionally, if you continue to develop your skills by learning, growing, and constantly increasing your skill base…you will find yourself on the path to being extraordinary!
So one last question… are you on your path to being extraordinary?
There are only two answers – either “yes, I am or no I am not.”
And survey says….
Need a Little Help (Click here)
This is the end of Part I – Come back next week for Part II and learn the rest of the story!
