Managing your Talents [27] - Focus

According to Gallup, the essence of the talent theme of Focus is the following:

“Where am I headed?” you ask yourself. You ask this question every day. Guided by this theme of Focus, you need a

clear destination. Lacking one, your life and your work can quickly become frustrating. And so each year, each month, and even each week you set goals. These goals then serve as your compass, helping you determine priorities and make the necessary corrections to get back on course. Your Focus is powerful because it forces you to filter; you instinctively evaluate whether or not a particular action will help you move toward your goal. Those that don’t are ignored. In the end, then, your Focus forces you to be efficient. Naturally, the flip side of this is that it causes you to become impatient with delays, obstacles, and even tangents, no matter how intriguing they appear to be. This makes you an extremely valuable team member. When others start to wander down other avenues, you bring them back to the main road. Your Focus reminds everyone that if something is not helping you move toward your destination, then it is not important. And if it is not important, then it is not worth your time. You keep everyone on point.

But a talent like this on itself is quite meaningless unless you develop and manage it. That is why we believe that "a well managed talent becomes a strength, but a mismanaged talent becomes a detriment".

How do you manage the talent of Focus?

With the Focus talent you hit the mark: dead-on. Like an arrow flying out of a bow, once launched, you cannot be called back. You are locked on until you hit the mark.  This in itself should be managed, as it means that any disturbance can throw you of balance.
You "stick-to-it", naturally. You have this amazing ability to "zoom in" on the exact target - one at a time, aim, fire and hit.  But exactly this strength is what should be managed well and with intention. If not developed and managed well, this may become detrimental to your own productivity.  You probably know better than anyone that you do not like to be disturbed once you started with a task.  Also, you prefer to do one thing at a time, and complete it, before you move to another task.  You prefer not to multitask.

How?

As far as possible you need to communicate this to everyone who works with you, who you report to and those reporting to you.  If they can understand your "zoned" state when busy, they can accommodate it better.

Your surroundings is just as important.  The Focus talent will not prefer an open plan setting.  If possible, you will work best when as much as possible of your external environment can be set up not to disturb you:  closed door, phone on silent etc.

Obviously this will not always be possible.  But as far as you can be celebrated for your "arrow-like" accuracy and precision, you also need to be celebrated by the fact that you need to focus fully.  Create that environment yourself.

People with Focus are very often also seen as being perfectionists.  This is because of the absolute precision and attention to detail that comes with the talent.  Perfectionism can also be a detriment though...
Everything cannot be perfect.  This need to be accepted by someone with the Focus talent - especially if Focus dynamically aligns with talents like Discipline or Achiever, thus forming "Super Themes".  Focus is meticulous when it comes to detail and precision. This is what they bring as a strength.  But this also mean that Focus can be stuck within a "perfection loop" to make sure that the results are exactly as needed.  If this does not cause a detriment, you should not see this as mis-management.  Detail is what saves lives....literally at times.  But when it becomes something that keeps you and your team back, you need to "turn down the perfection volume".

How?

It may well be one of the hardest things for you to do, but it need to be managed.  Understand that although the "devil is in the details", that same "devil" can also be the one who cause you to lose effectiveness and productivity.  You need to let go then. Purposefully.  You need to decide that hitting the target is more important than the surrounding details that my hold you and the team back.  So, at the end, it is a decision of :sacrifice" from your end - but only when needed.

Meanwhile, keep hitting the mark!! That is what you do best.

- by Dries Lombaard, Director of Strategic Engagement at the Strengths Institute SA.
Important note when reading this: in this series, I simply focus on the specific talent in isolation. I do not take the crucial element of Talent Dynamics (two or more talent themes combining) into consideration. This is very important as any Coach should take that into consideration when coaching people in their talents. But you need to understand the challenges that the talent theme on its own might hold. Therefor the challenges in managing the talent as explained below might not be applicable to everyone, as the dynamics with some of their other talent themes might override the specific challenge and "make up for it". But, knowledge of the most common management challenges in every talent theme still is crucial in talent development and when turning the talent into a strength.  All information is my own, acquired by years of Strengths Coaching experience, and not verified or scientifically tested by Gallup. The definition at the beginning is the intellectual property of Gallup, and well researched.

Managing your Talents [26] - Belief

According to Gallup, the essence of the talent theme of Belief is the following:

"If you possess a strong Belief theme, you have certain core values that are enduring. These values vary from one person to another, but ordinarily your Belief theme causes you to be family-oriented, altruistic, even spiritual, and to value responsibility and high ethics — both in yourself and others. These core values affect your behavior in many ways. They give your life meaning and satisfaction; in your view, success is more than money and prestige. They provide you with direction, guiding you through the temptations and distractions of life toward a consistent set of priorities. This consistency is the foundation for all your relationships. Your friends call you dependable. “I know where you stand,” they say. Your Belief makes you easy to trust. It also demands that you find work that meshes with your values. Your work must be meaningful; it must matter to you. And guided by your Belief theme it will matter only if it gives you a chance to live out your values.  You are especially guided by ethics and morals.  Some things are simply non-negotiable to you."

But a talent like this on itself is quite meaningless unless you develop and manage it. That is why we believe that "a well managed talent becomes a strength, but a mismanaged talent becomes a detriment".

How do you manage the talent of Belief?

A much better way to describe the talent theme of Belief is with the word "Conviction".  Your patterns of thought, emotion and action are strongly determined by your strong and clear inner conviction. But it is that same brilliant quality that may well hijack you in a manner which causes a detriment  - your possible tendency to judge others. People with this Belief talent of will testify to this.  the strong conviction which guides them is simply so strong that they sometimes cannot accept someone else to be of different conviction or values.  This judgmental tendency needs consistent and intentional management not to become a serious detriment in relationships.  

How?

It sounds a lot simpler than it is, but this is really where it starts:  Accept that there may be other convictions than yours that does not mean or cause harm, and that tolerance of this difference of belief or values does not mean that you compromise on your own convictions.  It all starts in your way of thinking.  The talent of Belief is exceptionally strong (very often people which this talent also find this to be their "core theme" of strengths). It is also clustered within the domain of Executing Talents - which means it affects the way you do things in a very definite way.  Your convictions and values guide your actions.  But, it is exactly this intensity of conviction that may lead to the detriment of judgementalism. Again:  the key to managing this is that you should understand that acceptance of different views, opinions, beliefs or values does NOT mena the sacrifice of your own. Sometimes I like to challenge people with the Belief theme by asking them:  "Is your conviction so ungrounded that it cannot stand it's ground amongst other convictions?"  I believe this to be essential in managing this awesome talent.

Secondly:  a strong Belief theme may at times be resistant to change or new creative ideas.  This also is rooted in the need for Belief to stay grounded in the familiar and what you belief to be true.  But you may find that if this is unmanaged, it may well be of detriment to yourself.  Manage this well. 

How?

Change is difficult for you, as change follows your convictions and beliefs. Thus, you will only embrace change once you are convinced that it aligns with your values and beliefs. This is not an instant process, in most cases.  This process of acceptance and evaluation takes time.  Therefor you do not rush into change without some clear deliberation.
If you do not have the luxury of time to first deliberate over the change, you will need to manage this need for time well.  You will need to intentionally "turn down" your "volume knob" on the constant need to be completely at ease with where the change will lead and if it aligns with your beliefs.  This will mostly not be necessary, as you are very clear on your convictions, but we all know there are a lot of grey areas in life - and especially so when change is involved.
What will also work well for you is to make sure you have a "back door" open....something like an "exit clause", which you can use when you later down the line realize that your beliefs are compromised by the change, and you want out.

Go live with conviction....it is what drives you!


- by Dries Lombaard, Director of Strategic Engagement at the Strengths Institute SA.

Important note when reading this: in this series, I simply focus on the specific talent in isolation. I do not take the crucial element of Talent Dynamics (two or more talent themes combining) into consideration. This is very important as any Coach should take that into consideration when coaching people in their talents. But you need to understand the challenges that the talent theme on its own might hold. Therefor the challenges in managing the talent as explained below might not be applicable to everyone, as the dynamics with some of their other talent themes might override the specific challenge and "make up for it". But, knowledge of the most common management challenges in every talent theme still is crucial in talent development and when turning the talent into a strength.  All information is my own, acquired by years of Strengths Coaching experience, and not verified or scientifically tested by Gallup. The definition at the beginning is the intellectual property of Gallup, and well researched.

Managing your Talents [25] - Communication

According to Gallup, the essence of the talent theme of Communication is the following:

Mostly, you like to explain, to describe, to host, to speak in public, and to write. But, unlike what most people think, this talent is not only about speaking.  It is about processing your thoughts - be in in words, art, music, photography or writing.  This is your Communication theme at work. Thus - be very careful not to confuse this talent of Communication with the skill of teaching, preaching or public speaking...
To you, ideas are a dry beginning. Events are static. You feel a need to bring them to life, to energize them, to make them exciting and vivid. And so you turn events into stories and practice telling them. You take the dry idea and enliven it with images and examples and metaphors. You believe that most people have a very short attention span. They are bombarded by information, but very little of it survives. You want your information — whether an idea, an event, a product’s features and benefits, a discovery, or a lesson — to survive. You want to divert their attention toward you and then capture it, lock it in. This is what drives your hunt for the perfect phrase or image. This is what draws you toward dramatic words and powerful word combinations. This is why people like to listen to you, or take note of your method of communicating. Your communication pique their interest, sharpen their world, and inspire them to act.  And, most importantly, it is how you process your thoughts.

But a talent like this on itself is quite meaningless unless you develop and manage it. That is why we believe that "a well managed talent becomes a strength, but a mismanaged talent becomes a detriment".

How do you manage the talent of Communication?

Communication is probably one of the most misunderstood talent themes, simply because it is confused with mere speaking or talking. If you understand what it is exactly, you can manage it well.
Communication is not the mere skill of teaching, preaching or public speaking.  Communication is also not simply the tendency to talk a lot.  The talent of Communication can better be understood by "verbal, or image-like processing".  This means that your need to communicate through this talent is mostly as much for your own benefit as it is for those of others.  When you verbalize, write, paint or compose, you process your thoughts.  You can teach someone the skill to communicate well.  But your talent needs management and development, through a specific skill.  A better word to describe this talent, in my opinion, is the word "Expression".  You have the need to express yourself.  If managed and developed by adding knowledge, skill and experience, you become someone who express your ideas, feelings or knowledge in an exceptional manner.  But, if mismanaged, your expression can be reduced to mere "rambling".

How?

Your Communication talent and the need for expression absolutely need to be linked to a skill and a "platform" of sorts.  You need space to let your expression flow, to let it out.  This also require skill.  Speaking is and art.  So is forms of expression like painting, drawing, writing to photography and filming.  Make an intentional effort to acquire skills which fits your way of flowing in this talent.  Polish the medium through which you choose to communicate best.  Gain experience.  And, just as important, find a platform.  Somewhere to share your expression.  This need not be professional....but could just as well be, and make for a strength that boost a career.

Your need to express your thoughts - especially when it is verbal expression - is often linked to your need to process. Where a talent like Intellection process thoughts inwardly, Communication tend to do it outwardly. This, if not managed well, could become a detriment.
Communication is a talent that can cause a very specific characteristic.  You talk a lot. According to some - and maybe according to yourself also - you talk too much.  This is exactly because you say not only what you think, but you talk when you think. You not only love to debrief and to soundboard...you actually need to do it.  If it is not in the moment, it will be with friends or family afterwards.  Telling them about everything that happened after the fact - in details - in order for yourself to process it, is very normal for you.  But, especially in the workplace, you need to manage this well....for obvious reasons.

How?

First of all, be aware of the fact that what you regard as normal when it comes to talking and the need to talk, is for most others overwhelming.  They do not have the same need as you do.  Also, be aware that there are people who are drained when having to listen to your thoughts. Not everyone are good listeners.
In the workplace, your talking should be limited - most of all in an open plan environment.  Some people need silence in order to do their work.  Be aware of this and accommodate it.  I am not suggesting you "switch off your talent", as you should not, and cannot.  But, every talent does have a "volume knob", where you can turn it down.  In your case it means sometimes literally turning the volume down!
Also, be sure you have people and times where you can let your talent flow - especially when this talent plays out verbally.

Now, go and express yourself!!!

- by Dries Lombaard, Director of Strategic Engagement at the Strengths Institute SA.

Important note when reading this: in this series, I simply focus on the specific talent in isolation. I do not take the crucial element of Talent Dynamics (two or more talent themes combining) into consideration. This is very important as any Coach should take that into consideration when coaching people in their talents. But you need to understand the challenges that the talent theme on its own might hold. Therefor the challenges in managing the talent as explained below might not be applicable to everyone, as the dynamics with some of their other talent themes might override the specific challenge and "make up for it". But, knowledge of the most common management challenges in every talent theme still is crucial in talent development and when turning the talent into a strength.  All information is my own, acquired by years of Strengths Coaching experience, and not verified or scientifically tested by Gallup. The definition at the beginning is the intellectual property of Gallup, and well researched.