Become aware of our key resources so we can develop them to their fullest potential, becoming the best version of ourselves without trying to be someone else.
This is the foundation of the methodology created by an American psychologist, Donald Clifton[1].
It's a matter of perspective
Clifton had the insight to shift people's focus toward the things they did well by identifying the tools they used and had at their disposal, rather than working on areas of failure.
He achieved extraordinary results by developing potential.
In fact, he changed the perspective by focusing on their potential.
Positive psychology is the foundation of everything
He was the precursor of positive psychology, which later developed in America with Martin Seligman, who in 1975 coined the term “learned helplessness” to describe that persistent and all-encompassing sense of distrust that leads one to give up on tackling a problem or situation because similar challenges in the past were met with negative outcomes, focusing instead on what didn’t work, what we did wrong, or what we failed to achieve.
We think that we are not capable of handling most of the things that happen, ultimately undermining our potential.
It is human nature
We are wired to avoid what is dangerous or painful in order to survive, and therefore our cognitive system leads us to identify experienced mistakes and dangers, making them more salient in our memory compared to successes, merits, or positive events, so that we can recall them more easily for defensive purposes.
But this can often become a major obstacle to the expression of our potential.
List your qualities
We are so accustomed to this approach that if we are asked to list our faults, we have no difficulty recalling the areas in which we struggle to perform.
Not everyone, however, knows how to identify their areas of strength, the resources available, the ways in which we succeed, or our habitual successful behaviors. We take them for granted. We think these are traits that everyone possesses, while when it comes to our "faults," we label ourselves poorly as if only we struggle.
Therefore, to identify potential, we might need help, an external perspective.
The Clifton and Gallup Test
Clifton and Gallup created a test that has now been taken by more than 25 million people, reaching a truly high level of validity and statistical reliability.
The two authors identified the talent areas and gave each one a clear name and description, grouping them into 4 macro-areas:
- making things happen;
- building relationships;
- cognitive and mental aspects, known as strategic thinking;
- influencing.
Behind these large clusters, there are many different talents and possible behaviors.
What are talents really?
They are our recurring and natural ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving that we often use unconsciously, but which, once recognized, we can harness in a conscious and effective manner.
Talent is who we are
They are aspects of our personality. We can become the best version of who we are by greatly improving what already exists within us, without having to become someone else. Clifton and Gallup say that the greatest chance of success lies in investing in who we are, our talents and our resources.
70 years of research
Gallup conducted a longitudinal study, interviewing thousands of people for about 70 years, year after year on the same aspects. The interviewees were divided into two groups:
- to the first group, he administered the test to identify talents, explained the results, and encouraged them to focus on and leverage their strengths as much as possible;
- the second, the control group, however, had not administered any tests.
Harness your potential to improve your life
The study’s results showed that people who focused on using their own strengths reported an “excellent” quality of life in three times as many cases compared to the control group, and they declared themselves motivated and engaged in their work at a rate six times higher than the control group.
The first group had more positive interactions with colleagues, achieved greater results, reported more moments of creativity, even the duration of marriages appeared longer, and the interaction with their children was better. One of them, according to some sources, even became President of the United States, but privacy got in the way and we don't know who he is.
Everything we knew was false
Gallup overturned classical theory: for years, we were told to focus on our weaknesses to improve them. A great effort for generally mediocre results. Ask someone who is not inclusive to strive to become so, they wouldn't even know where to start. Or ask someone who isn’t empathetic to become so. They wouldn’t succeed; it simply wouldn’t become a part of their natural energy or spontaneous tendency.
Building on talents, however, allows you to achieve excellence and shine.
Our star: our potential
Think of our talents and our resources as the points of a star: imagine that they include communication, analytical skills, empathy, and so on.
If we know them and invest time and energy in them, we use them to achieve our goals, we train them. We will know how to do it well because we are intrinsically motivated, and it's what we already naturally do well, something that aligns with our values and who we are.
The points of our star will lengthen because they will grow and we will grow with them, we take up space, we expand. We'll feel good because we'll succeed in doing so, we will shine, and our weaknesses won't be the focus of our own or others' attention; the focus will be on our areas of excellence.
Invest in what works
If we invest in what is lacking, we'll certainly improve, but not as much as we could grow by investing in the talents we wouldn't otherwise have time to develop. Thus, the longest points will remain unchanged, there will be no excellence, and we'll be drained, less energetic, with less self-confidence.
If we try to be well-rounded, we will be mediocre. We all have our strong points and our areas of struggle. It's better to acknowledge them, leverage them, and develop them.
The benefits of being sharp in a team
If we are sharp, we leave room for others to develop their strengths (like fitting two hands together). A good team benefits from being well-rounded, whereas when individuals try to be well-rounded, they end up clashing with each other.
Our talents also represent the filters through which we see the world. Think of an analytical, fact-based person. This is a value for them, something they believe in. They won’t appreciate people who express unsubstantiated opinions. Perhaps these are highly intuitive individuals who struggle to immediately back up their point of view, yet they see further than others. Analytical people may find it difficult to listen to this type of person and, as a result, might miss out on openings to new perspectives.
Thus, it becomes a filter.
Or consider how sometimes a talent can become an obstacle. Someone with the activator talent can become extremely impatient and may not listen to the wise reflections of those with analytical talents or the deliberative talent that allows one to foresee obstacles before others. They might become annoyed, impatient, not listen, and could be unpleasant, pushing others, making them feel misunderstood, and effectively judging them as lacking courage.
Therefore, awareness is fundamental.
Learn, love, live
Talents are unconscious areas of potential that we use without even realizing it. If we learn what they are and how we use them, we can learn to harness them when needed. We can learn to use them consciously when they serve us, and to hold back the impulse to use them reactively when they are out of place.
Think about someone with the talent of communication. They are skilled at speaking, captivating an audience, and using metaphors. This talent lends itself well to leadership, enabling them to address large audiences and convey the group's message beyond its confines. However, if they aren't fully aware of their strength, their strong desire and habit of speaking and expressing themselves can dominate the conversation. They might not listen or realize the impact they have on the group, which may need varied pacing and pauses. Consequently, they can lose touch with the group and diminish their ability to influence.
For this reason, it is important to know our talents and fall in love with them, recognizing how many times they have helped us in life and how, thanks to them, we have reached many of our goals, and then training ourselves to use them consciously, and not reactively, when needed.
And our weak areas?
The positive approach guiding this methodology might make you think that you don't need to address your weak areas, those in which you perform less, but that's not the case. We need to understand which talents to use to achieve a particular goal.
If I want to influence, I can do it using different talents, but I must understand what my own approach is.
If I want to motivate my team, and as a leader, I can't do without it, I will do so while considering my talents and limitations. If I don't sense the team's feelings, I'll schedule meetings to ask and seek help from cognitive talents rather than relying solely on my emotions.
If I'm not good at communicating, I need to prepare. If I have a presentation in front of hundreds of people, I must choose my words carefully, perhaps even seek help, which will take a lot of time, but I must do it. This is a risky situation if I don't prepare. I prepare because I know I'm not good at it. Perhaps I'm good at interacting with the audience, or maybe I'm good at breaking the ice and coming off as likable. In that case, I should lean on these aspects that are my strengths to deliver an excellent presentation, and that's what will make it extraordinary. Alternatively, the content of the presentation, thanks to my refined thinking, may be so interesting that it will suffice on its own.
People are as unique as their potential
This methodology isn’t just another way to label people. Its goal is to help us understand ourselves and others, to foster love and appreciation for both ourselves and others by speaking the language of talents rather than that of flaws. It's about using our talents to grow in the direction that offers the richest opportunities for us.
Each of us represents a unique complexity, a combination of behaviors, beliefs, values, and abilities.
The Gallup test lists the 34 talent areas, divided into the 4 clusters we mentioned earlier. The results rank our talents from our strongest to our weakest. The order in which they appear, and therefore which talent comes before and after the others, characterizes us in a very different way. For example, if I have Includer first and then Woo, with its inherent desire to court and positivity, I will exhibit a very different kind of empathy than someone whose Empathy is preceded by Analytical and followed by Achiever.
Thus, the way our talents are listed and the order in which they appear uniquely characterizes us. The same order of the top 5 talents is found in one person out of every 33 million, and consequently, if we calculate the probabilities based on this data, the same order of the top 10 talents is found in one case out of 4.765 billion. Therefore, no two people share the same characteristics.
We are a wonderful collection of unique, imperfect, and extraordinarily gifted individuals.
[1] He was a very gifted individual, born in the '20s, who earned degrees in mathematics and psychology and taught at the University of Nebraska. In addition to his passion for understanding how people work, he combined great logical, analytical, and entrepreneurial abilities. He conducted extensive research, creating statistics on what did or did not work to help people feel well. In '69, he founded his research company, and in '88 he acquired Gallup.
