Focus on Your Talents!
A few weeks ago I attended the Pennsylvania Health Information Management Association 71
st Annual Meeting in State College, PA. One of the speakers, Paula Lawlor, RHIT, spoke about discovering our strengths and learning how and why to develop those strengths rather than fixing our shortcomings. This topic revolved around a book,
Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath. I couldn't wait to get home and order this book!
When our children are young, we encourage them to try new things and then we often help them continue those activities they have fun with and appear to have some talent for. We would not encourage them to try year after year in a sport or activity that they continually struggle with. That's not to say we don't encourage them when the practice or skill level gets difficult, but we don't try to put a "square" talent into a "round" activity. In other words, we help them discover and nurture their natural talents.
So when do we change that line of thinking? Somewhere between childhood and the working world sometimes the thinking turns to focus on our deficiencies. We try to overcome, sometimes with the well-intentioned guidance of our teachers, bosses, or peers, the skills we are lacking. We set our goals, or allow others to set them for us, based on what we "should" be working towards, often that very thing we have no talent for! This is not referring to required training and change necessary to function at a high level in our position or environment. This is referring, perhaps, to a career track that is just "not you" - a great salesperson being groomed for promotion to sales manager, the conventional job progression in many organization hierarchies. Or the medical transcriptionist at top level and pay, now expected to make the leap to management. This may follow the organization hierarchy, but perhaps this job ladder is not for you. Perhaps you are content and thriving in your current position - this choice (yes, choice!) should be embraced - that salesperson or transcriptionist may be happy, productive and thriving, and staying in their preferred niche may prove to be of benefit to the company and the employee.
While sometimes it is important to nudge someone towards hidden talents, we should not be trying to put a "square" talent into a "round" job function. How much more productive would it be to allow our staff, or allow ourselves, to put our talents into job functions that we can thrive in - to apply our strengths to a position we can embrace? How much greater would job satisfaction be if we were in roles that we enjoyed and were good at- our potential for success as an individual and as part of a team could be so much greater if our talents were in sync with our job description! Add to that the tools and training directly applicable to our role and our personal success and organizational success may multiply!
If you are interested in this topic, I urge you to read Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath. Perhaps with the present economy you are looking - or forced to look - at a new direction for your career. Why not pursue those things which you have a talent for?