TALENTS AND LEVER SKILLS Talent and Management Development Artevelde University Ghent International Business Management
Table of Contents Top five talents + examples... 1 + 2 Lever skills + some personal examples... 2-4 1. Personal Top Five Talents In the following table, you can find the personal top five talents, that I currently possess. They are the perfect illustration of what I m capable of, and they depict the aspects in which I stand out. In a more business related context, I can use these skills to my advantage in order to exceed in a specific area. Top Five Talents a. Intuitive thinker: I m an intuitive thinker and I quickly see connections and patterns. Supposing that is a question I often ask myself. I can easily think up different scenarios to go from A to B and rely on my intuition to choose and select. I can quickly put my finger on the problem, but I cannot put my thoughts into words: I have a gut feeling, but I am struggling to explain it to others. b. Motivator: I know which direction I want to go and blindly rely on this. I can motivate others and convince them to take that same direction. I like it when I m successful in making other people choose for the direction I had in mind. I have a small group of people that I consult for feedback. They may be very outright; however, I don t allow others to be that close to me. In a way, I like a crisis: it makes me calm and decisive. In those moments, I usually experience some resistance and I am forced to take decisions that are not fair to everyone. That is why I sometimes have to clean up collateral damage afterwards. c. Perfectionist: I m very sensitive to problems and mistakes: I notice them quickly. I m not at ease till I have rectified the mistakes and solved the problems. I find it terrible if somebody points out a mistake of mine, even more so if it happens in public. First of all, I will verify if I actually made that mistake. If so, I will admit it but I will do anything to prevent it from happening again. Something is not finished for me until I have the feeling that it is perfect: I m a perfectionist. Justify by means of one or more concrete example for the use of that talent in your studies/daily life/professional experience Being an intuitive speaker has loads of advantages that present themselves. This year, during the group assignments for instance, I could easily and quickly see connections in how we could combine for example the market research and international strategy projects. I figured that we could use the external analysis in a more practical way, meaning that we could use examples from my part and intertwine them with other parts. Some partners I worked with understand my vision and follow my plan that usually results in good grades. However, others sometimes have a different view and or opinion which is totally fine by me. This awesome talent is at the core of who I actually represent. I like to motivate individuals and stimulate and appreciate their work. For the recent group assignments, I definitely took on the role of the motivator on several occasions. In the Spanish group presentations for example, I usually motivated everyone to make the entire presentation more interactive and creative. I managed to pull every team member in this story, and our hard work paid off, the teacher really loved it. In the recent marketing group assignment, I really encouraged everyone to do their best. I showed them my work first so that they got a general idea of how our project would look like. The perfectionist in me has really opened a bit more the last couple of years. When I m focusing on tasks, studying and even work, I try to complete these delicate matters with the utmost precision. I m a man of details, you might say. A very good example of this, is the layout of assignments in the first and second semester of the international business management program. I always wanted to give our task the best layout and design out there, in order to outshine the others, and did this with care.
d. Loyal friend: I like to have profound contacts with people and don t like superficial, shallow relationships. I have a small group of friends, but I know them inside out. I can tell them anything, that s why I don t feel the need to give away a lot about myself to others. I get energy from building good, productive and authentic relationships with the people I work with. However, this doesn t happen overnight and I can get annoyed by people who regard me as their best friend too soon. e. Optimist: If the roof comes down, we at least get to see the blue sky! However hopeless the situation may be, I always see the positive aspects and opportunities. For me, the glass is always half full and my infectious enthusiasm motivates people to continue. I use humor to defuse tensions. Throughout the years, I have always connected with and befriended many interesting individuals. However, my inner circle of friends, is very dear to me. In my professional life this is reflected by trusting my fellow colleagues. A good example of being a loyal friend is the fact that I only trust my best friends a 100%. For a lot of group assignments or other important tasks, I tend to rely on the people that I trust. Needless to say, I do allow others to become a part of our group, but they don t have to expect that I ll tell them all about myself. The friends that are a part of my inner circle are the ones that I ve known since I was in elementary school. Carpe Diem, or translated to common tongue seize the day. It s one of those quotes that defines me as a person. I always love to look on the bright side of life, even if things aren t going the way they should. For the recent project of market research, I managed to motivate everyone with my enthusiasm and my personally created questionnaire was the prime example of that. In the beginning our project didn t go as planned, but after I convinced everyone with my optimism, the project proceeded as planned. The end result is amazing! 2. Lever Skills In the following part of this assignment, I will discuss and present my personal lever skills. I will also talk a bit more about how I can develop these lever skills, and how to use them in my professional and everyday life. My talents a. Intuitive thinker: I m an intuitive thinker and I quickly see connections and patterns. Supposing that is a question I often ask myself. I can easily think up different scenarios to go from A to B and rely on my intuition to choose and select. I can quickly put my finger on the problem, but I cannot put my thoughts into words: I have a gut feeling, but I am struggling to explain it to others. Which lever skills can I learn? Summarize the most important points of these skills for you 1. Explain to everyone why you want to take a certain direction, they don t always understand the route taken 2. Continue to communicate so that the decision process is transparent for others 3. Continue to listen to other people who can potentially sharpen up your intuition How have you used these skills before? If you haven t: how will you ensure you develop them? 1. I definitely have to explain more into detail what I want to do in certain projects or tasks 2. The communication between me and other team members could be better as well, due to the fact that it isn t always clear what direction I m going for. 3. The listening process has been better as of late. I do manage to listen to other people s opinion when it comes to tasks. This is possible due to the fact that I m a motivator, who wants everyone to participate.
b. Motivator: I know which direction I want to go and blindly rely on this. I can motivate others and convince them to take that same direction. I like it when I m successful in making other people choose for the direction I had in mind. I have a small group of people that I consult for feedback. They may be very outright; however, I don t allow others to be that close to me. In a way, I like a crisis: it makes me calm and decisive. In those moments, I usually experience some resistance and I am forced to take decisions that are not fair to everyone. That is why I sometimes have to clean up collateral damage afterwards. c. Perfectionist: I m very sensitive to problems and mistakes: I notice them quickly. I m not at ease till I have rectified the mistakes and solved the problems. I find it terrible if somebody points out a mistake of mine, even more so if it happens in public. First of all, I will verify if I actually made that mistake. If so, I will admit it but I will do anything to prevent it from happening again. Something is not finished for me until I have the feeling that it is perfect: I m a perfectionist. d. Loyal friend: I like to have profound contacts with people and don t like superficial, shallow relationships. I have a small group of friends, but I know them inside out. I can tell them anything, that s why I don t feel the need to give away a lot about myself to others. I get energy from building good, productive and authentic relationships with the people I work with. However, this doesn t happen overnight and I can get 1. Don t put pressure on all of your fellow colleagues, it could make them restless: slow down and try to time your proposals 2. Keep listening to people with another vision and suggest another direction + keep investigating their arguments 3. Collateral damage, try to tide this away (relational) damage, you accelerate too quickly sometimes Hint : save an outgoing e-mail at night before you send it, so you can still soften your style in the morning if need be, before you send it. 1. Do not solve other people s problems, come to a solution together 2. Involve others in the thinking process to come to a mutual solution. This can avoid future problems 3. Do not lose energy, in proving you haven t made the mistake. Solving the problem and letting go takes less energy 1. Learn to deal with disappointment if someone hurts you, be aware of the risk that someone drops you 2. Learn to deal professionally with people who do not wish to be known and who take a distance, accept their choice 3. You try to get things done on the basis of good relations and sometimes do not take into account certain people 1. I should definitely slow down sometimes, I known from past experiences that people got stressed because of the deadlines I agreed upon. I should try to be a bit more relaxed whenever it is required 2. As previously mentioned in the intuitive thinker part, I have managed to listen more to my audience. I do encourage team work to the fullest extent, and I reckon that everyone has his part to say 3. Definitely a working point, I have to move slower sometimes and leave everyone alone once in a while 1. I have a tendency to solve other people s problems, I have to stand back and solve these issues together. This is a lever skill that I have to develop for sure. 2. Whenever something goes bad in shared projects, I tend to make their written part better, because of the fact that I want the best endresult. I should involve others more in what I m striving for. 3. Definitely needs to be sharpened up. I have to stop solving the problems myself, and involve others. 1. During the course of the years, I have managed to be aware of the possibility of someone dropping me. For instance, in the survey assignment of e-skills, the team members with whom I usually worked dropped me without ever clarifying why. I have managed to deal with the disappointment. 2. I have always been able to take a friendly and professional stance with people who take distance
annoyed by people who regard me as their best friend too soon. e. Optimist: If the roof comes down, we at least get to see the blue sky! However hopeless the situation may be, I always see the positive aspects and opportunities. For me, the glass is always half full and my infectious enthusiasm motivates people to continue. I use humor to defuse tensions. 4. Outside of work, you run the risk of not showing enough of yourself at work 1. Sometimes it is important to see the seriousness of a situation, humour is not always suitable. Keep hold of the situation to see whether it is appropriate 2. Sometimes you need to see the disadvantages too 3. When other people stress the negative aspects, keep listening patiently. Maybe you can provide them with perspectives and help them to see possibilities 3. In the past I definitely didn t take certain people into account, but recently I have improved on that as well. I did this with the various projects we had to make, by employing new students. 4. I should definitely show more of myself outside of work, so that people take my needs into account. 1. This part of the lever skill has already been developed. I m going to be honest, I m more of a serious person sometimes, so I know when I have to behave appropriately. 2. Another skill that has been adapted. In the recent marketing assignment, I saw some disadvantages but I managed to work things out. 3. This can be quite interesting, since I have been listening more to other people as of late and heeding their advice. However, there is still room for improvement.