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Mixed Blessing

Read this article on how people use their talents or not. All three questions the author asks are valuable to consider:

What exasperates you? This can be a sign of a skill that comes easily to you, so much so that you get frustrated when it doesn’t to others.

What compliments do you dismiss? When we’re inherently good at something, we tend to downplay it.

What do you think about when you have nothing to think about? Mulling over something is a sign that it matters to you.

I particularly relate to the second one. Not only is it a compliment that I dismiss, it is also a sign of how I am perceived and why that limits the range of what I could be. There is a certain danger in being "inherently good at something" when that something does not come easy to others but is also something that does not get a lot of attention from the powers that be. That is absolutely the worst kind of thing to be good at.

It turns out I have several such "talents" for which I get compliments I don't much care for and they certainly don't help me specially that managers are usually quick to recognize them as well. So this notion furthering such "talents" within your team could be a mixed blessing. The person in question would feel unfulfilled while others benefit at their cost. The harder thing to do is to find areas where a person is lacking innate ability and nudge them in directions where they could still shine.

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