Knowing and Using Your Natural Talents at Work Matters

Posted on March 08, 2018 by Christine Obee, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.

Do you know what your natural talents are?

If the answer is no. You’re not alone. Today’s post is all about natural talents – what they are and why it matters if you’re using them in your job or not.

A natural talent is something you are born with. It’s hard wired in you, something you can’t change. Unfortunately, as much as you may want a natural talent to exist in a certain area (I wish I could dance), you either have it or you don’t.

Take a duck for example. If the duck really, really wanted to be a sprinter it could give it a go. Say it went into the best training school, had the best coaches, practiced day in and day out. That duck would be a very good sprinter… compared to other ducks. However, it’s never going to be as good as a Cheeta. It’s just not built the same way. As far as sprinting goes, the Cheeta has it, the duck doesn’t.

This concept applies within humans too. It’s not quite as obvious what our natural talents are however because we are highly adaptable and quick to learn. Although more subtle, the differences are there. Just think about the differences you noticed in people in high school. The jocks, versus the nerds, versus the theatre folks. High school is the epitome of behaving to fit in, so of course you would gravitate towards those that are good at the same thing as you. There’s a natural fit.

Some of you may be disappointed by this. You may think that if you don’t have a talent for something you can’t do it. That’s not true. You can do anything you want. Take a course, learn the best techniques, teach yourself, practice. If you had absolutely no talent in the area of public speaking, you could dedicate hours to learning how to and you will most likely become a good speaker. This is what we call a learned skill. Just know that you will not be as good as someone that practiced for the same amount of hours and has the natural talents of a public speaker. The point I’m making is this:

You have natural talents and once you know what they are, developing them will allow you to achieve a level of skill mastery that a person without that natural talent would find difficult to reach.

So why does this matter in your work?

People who are both highly successful and continue to love their work, year after year, spend most of their time at work engaged in activities that make use of their strongest abilities. – Nicholas Lore
You most likely agree you like to do thing you’re good at. There are a few reasons for this:

Our brains are wired to find the path of least resistance, to be the most efficient. Where a natural talent exists, so does a well-defined neural pathway.

It takes less work and provides more confidence to do something we’re good at. As a result it’s also easier to develop habits in these areas.

We are rewarded for what we do well at on a hormonal level, so biologically we are drawn to repeat this behaviour.

“It is an obvious, empirical truth that when people are doing something they enjoy and do it extremely well, they get more done and they do it better.” – Nicholas Lore

So what are your natural talents and are you using them in your current job?

To find out, start here:
What do you seem to have a ‘knack’ for?
What were you known for in school?
What do you excel at in work?
What do you excel at in home life?
What work activities do you not consider to be work but fun?
What do other people say you are especially good at?
What do you enjoy most?
Any major surprises come up for you?

The next step is to go a level deeper. When self-assessing, people will often group talents together that actually represent a combination of learned skills and innate skills. For example let’s break down the Public Speaking talent I referred to earlier:

Reading a room (intuition or interpersonal intelligence) in order to adjust a talk where needed
Language ability to be articulate in your speaking
Teaching ability to be clear and concise with the information presented, etc.

Breaking things down farther allows you to do two things:
Assess which of those sub talents are learned versus natural.
Combine talents in a way you haven’t before in order to understand what other kinds of job roles would be a good fit for you.

Knowing this, look back over the talents you wrote down and see if you can break them down at all. With your more comprehensive list of talents, assess which ones you use on a regular basis in your current job.

If you are not using these talents in your current job, you are most likely relying on talents that aren’t innate in you. Does it mean you can’t do the job? No.

Does it mean it’s harder and that you won’t like the job as much? Most likely.

If you are utilizing your natural talents in your work, you’re more likely to enjoy your work and to do it extremely well. Start to explore what your talents are, break them down, categorize them as learned or innate and assess what natural talents you’re using in your current job or not.

If very few of your natural talents are being used this is a good clue as to why you don’t like your current job. It also give you an opportunity to look at these talents and explore different combinations to understand what alternative types of jobs you may want to turn your attention towards.