13 December 2024
We often hear today’s world being universally described as continuously changing, so as life return to normal this could be a great opportunity to look back and explore how your clients adapted to the global pandemic to see if they can spot the key strengths and natural talents they used to make it through.
In 2008, Frederic Hudson published a paper ‘The context of coaching’ where he discussed the difficulty society now has to connect the different chapters of life, from childhood, through to adulthood and onto our elder years. He felt our perception of the world had slowly but surely shifted from a stable, orderly, steady state model, to an unstable, disorderly change driven one.
And we know that many successful people build their lives around one or more key strengths and natural talents so they can focus on them or spend their time developing them. This really helps them adapt to change and can sometimes be because they don’t want to waste any time improving themselves in areas they know they will never excel in or fully succeed at.
“Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.”
Quote: Henry Van Dyke
These are our skills or natural talents that manifest themselves at an early age. However, they are then nurtured through knowledge and developed through practice. This helps us acquire the ‘know-how’ needed to turn something naturally inherent in us, into key strengths. This can then be successfully applied as a task or action.
Remember: It may not always be possible to completely copy a key strength we see in others. This is because knowledge and practice alone are no substitute for a true skill or natural talent.
This is normally seen as a gift or an area of life where we naturally excel. This enables us to take pleasure in possessing this special skill and enjoy knowing we are good at something. We do however tend to take our talents for granted. This is because it’s more or less inherent in us from a young age. So we do not always recognize their true value unless it’s being pointed out by somebody else.
Remember: Any positive character trait that can be put into practice is a talent. So by identifying and using our skills or natural talents helps us become who we are.
Being aware of our skills and natural talents helps us adapt and navigate the changes taking place all around us. As a professional coach, you can help your clients develop key strengths and deliver the ‘know-how’ they need to succeed, no matter what life throws at them.
If you would like to learn how to support your clients to identify their natural talents and develop the key strengths needed to navigate life, check out our ebook in the online shop:
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