Impact = Talent + Character + Motivation
explore, don't conquer. not at first at least
What are you good at?
Think about it.
Some would list items like writing, illustrating, creative direction, visualization, storytelling and so on. Most would even struggle a little before identifying what they’re good at. According to Rick and the team at Gallup, most of our answers are wrong.
Below are the main takeaways from our 3 hours with Rick, who first did a workshop with those who had taken the Strengthsfinder test, and then spoke to us about his research into the entrepreneurial spirit.
1. In order to be successful:
- Know what you do welxl
- Know what you don’t do well and manage it
- Know what you do well and take it into new areas
2. When you’re doing what you do well:
- It is energizing
- It feel easy
- Time flies, as you’re highly engaged
3. Most times your answers to what you’re good at are not your strengths. They are outputs or results of your strengths.
4. The results of the Strengthsfinder tool are situational themes, not your talents:
- For example, connectedness, ideation, developer are situational themes that are transferable to any situation
- The environment draws strengths, i.e. putting yourself in different environments will draw out different themes
5. Talents are not Strengths, not yet:
- Talents = Potential, Strengths = Performance
- Talents are what you do without thinking; strengths are what you actively use. It’s like working out
6. Converting talents to strengths requires:
- Step 1: Awareness and Feedback
- Step 2: Application and deliberate practice
- Step 3: Achievement and identification
7. Small changes every day are what is required for any behavioural change
- Talent migration is being able to move your talents into new areas
8. Exceptional performers do the following:
- Store information differently, functionally and practically
- Have multiple models
- Act situationally
9. The Strengthsfinder tests work based on a cluster theory:
- As opposed to an exclusionary or compartmentalized personality theory like the Myer-Briggs
- The results of your top 5 themes can change, and do not represent the totality of who you are
10. Strengths do not determine your job or your role. How well you use them determine your performance.
In short, your strengths do not determine where you should be functionally in life; how well you use them and are aware of them do however determine how exceptional you perform in whatever area you choose. Strengths are the way you see the world. The amount of impact you make, is the result of using your talents to their maximum, applying your character to the situation, and having the right source of motivation.
Impact = Talent + Character + Motivation
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And on the entrepreneurial spirit, Rick took us through a comparison between entrepreneurs and military generals, an analogy that increases in aptness the more you think about it:
1. The common trajectory of an entrepreneur and a military strategist:
- Plan –> Resources –> Objective
2. Lessons from a successful military strategist, Napoleon:
- Flexibility is key to success
- Have primary and secondary objectives at least
- Plan around your resources
- Have multiple models to do something
- Know that no model works all the time
3. Explorer vs Conqueror models:
- Usually, explorers are entrepreneurs, corporations are conquerors
4. The Conqueror mode:
- Works well with a known market and known product/service
- Highly directive style of leadership
- Is where failure is fatal
- Looks to the past to evaluate what went wrong
5. The Explorer mode:
- Works well with an unknown market and unknown product/service
- Flexible style of leadership that is alert to other resources
- Thinks, how much can I lose instead of how much can I make
- Creates the market and the future
6. The difference between the Explorer and Conqueror mindset:
- Is between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset
- A fixed mindset avoids failure to preserve identity
- A growth mindset seeks to learn through failure
7. The Explorer/Entrepreneur have these in common:
- All you have are resources
- The same principles can be applied to different situations
- Do not have stereotypes or fixed models
- Recognise opportunity
- Have a unique decision making system
- Have the ability to extrapolate from the past into the future
- Is about making what you have work for you
8. The key differentiator is in the framework of thinking:
- The Conqueror thinks linear, the Explorer thinks systemic
- A linear mode of thinking = proportionate change
- A systemic mode of thinking = exponential change
Ask yourself, ‘If you were not afraid of failure, what would you do?’ And then, do it.
