1. Develop the Talent You Have, Not the One you Want
If I asked you who would be more successful, the person who relies on his talent alone or the person who realizes his talent and develops it, the answer would be the obvious. Then I’ll ask you this question: Why do most people spend the majority of their time focused on strengthening their weaknesses?
One thing I teach people at my conferences is to stop working on their weaknesses and start working on their strengths. (By this I mean abilities, not attitude or character issues, which must be addressed.) It has been my observation that people can increase their ability in an area by only 2 points on a scale of 1 to 10. For example, if your natural talent in an area is a 4, with hard work you may rise to a 6. In other words, you can go from a little below average to a little above average. But let’s say you find a place where you are a 7; you have the potential to become a 9, maybe even a 10, if it’s your greatest area of strength and you work exceptionally hard! That helps you advance from 1 in 10,000 talent to 1 in 100,000 talent - but only if you do the other things needed to maximize your talent.
Anyone Can Make Choices That Will Add Value to Talent
The question remains: What creates the effectiveness that is necessary for converting talent into results? It comes from the choices you make. The key choices you make - apart from the natural talent you already have - still set you apart from others who have talent alone. Orator, attorney, and political leader William Jennings Bryan said, “Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”
I’ve discovered thirteen key choices that can be made to maximize any person’s talent:
1. Belief lifts your talent
2. Passion energizes your talent
3. Initiative activates your talent
4. Focus directs your talent
5. Preparation positions your talent
6. Practice sharpens your talent
7. Perseverance sustains your talent
8. Courage tests your talent
9. Teachability expands your talent
10. Character protects your talent
11. Relationships influence your talent
12. Responsibility strengthens your talent
13. Teamwork multiplies your talent
Make these choices, and you can become a talent - plus person. If you have talent, you stand alone. If you have talent plus, you stand out!
(John C. Maxwell)
2. Your potential is a picture of what you can become.
The first and greatest obstacle to success for most people is their belief in themselves. Once people figure out where their sweet spot is (the area where they are most gifted), what often hinders them isn’t lack of talent. It’s lack of trust in themselves, which is a self-imposed limitation. Lack of belief can act as a ceiling on talent. However, when people believe in themselves, they unleash power in themselves and resources around them that almost immediately take them to a higher level. Your potential is a picture of what you can become. Belief helps you see the picture and reach for it.
Your potential is a picture of what you can become. Inventor Thomas Edison remarked, “If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astonish ourselves.”
People are trained to follow rules from the time they are kids: stand in line. Do your homework. Put your hand up to ask a question. Most rules are good because they keep us from living in chaos. And most processes are governed by rules. You drop a brick from a second-storey window, and you know it’s going to fall to the ground. You forget to place the order for office supplies, and you run out of staples. It’s simple cause and effect.
Managers often rely on rules to make sure the process they oversee stay on track. In fact, self-management is basically having the discipline to follow through with the rules you set for yourself. But to move beyond management, you have to learn to think outside the box.
Leaders push boundaries. They desire to find a better way. They want to make improvements. They like to see progress. All these things mean making changes, retiring old rules, inventing new procedures. Leaders are constantly asking, “Why do we do it this way?” and saying, “Let’s try this.” Leaders want to take new territory, and that means crossing boundaries.
(The 360 Degree Leader - John Maxwell)
3. The importance of your Team
As much as we admire solo achievements, the truth is that no lone individual has done anything of value. The belief that one person alone can do something great is a myth. There are no real Rambos who can take on a hostile army by themselves. Event he Lone Ranger wasn’t really a loner. Everywhere he went he rode with Tonto!
Nothing if significance was ever achieved by an individual acting alone. Look below the surface and you will find that all seemingly solo acts are really team efforts. Sheriff Wyatt Earp had his two brothers and Doc Holliday looking out for him. Aviator Charles Lindbergh had the backing of nine businessmen from St. Loius and the services of the Ryan Aeronautical Company, which built his plane. Even Albert Einstein, the scientist who revolutionised the world with his theory of relativity, didn’t work in a vacuum. OF the debt he owed to others for his work, Einstein once remarked, ‘Many times a day I realise how much my outer and inner life is built upon the labours of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.’
A Chinese proverb states. ' Behind an able man there are always other able men.’ And the truth is that teamwork is at the heart of great achievement. The question isn’t whether teams have value. The question is whether we acknowledge that fact and become better team players. If you truly take this to heart, you will begin to see the value of developing and equipping your team players.
- Teams involve more people, this affording more resources, ideas and energy than would an individual.
- Teams maximise a leader’s potential and minimise her weaknesses. Strengths and weaknesses are more exposed in individuals.
- Teams provide multiple perspectives on how to meet a need or reach a goal, thus devising several alternatives for each situation.
- Teams share the credit for victories and blame for losses. This fosters genuine humility and authentic community.
- Teams keep leaders accountable for the goal.
- Teams can simply do more than an individual.
If you want to reach your potential or strive for the seemingly impossible - such as communicating your message years after you are gone - you need to become a team player. It may be cliche’, but it is nonetheless true: Individuals play the game, but teams win championships.
(The 4 pillars of Leadership - John Maxwell)
