Whenever I talk about perception style or talent advantage, one of the most frequently asked questions is whether theory and inventories can be used to help young people figure out what they want to do in life. The answer is a resounding yes, but it opens up an underlying issue that often goes unaddressed.
It amazes me how many kids graduate high school and even college with little idea of what they want to do with their lives, and often less idea of the things in which they are naturally skilled, talented, or gifted.
Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. Many of the adults I work with really dislike what they do. But it is an indictment of our society and our educational system that so many, students and adults alike, are unaware of their talent advantage. How can this be?
One reason is the educational system’s refusal to acknowledge at any meaningful level that there are multiple types of intelligence. Despite solid research by Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner on different types of intelligence (nine at last count), the school system stubbornly recognizes and teaches only two. When learning differences are recognized, they are often labeled as learning disabilities, or seen as supporting extracurricular activity (musical or athletic ability, for example).
A young man I worked with is a good example of what happens when you don’t fit the standard academic mold. He began having “academic difficulties” in the ninth grade that were exacerbated by having recently moved to the US from Europe. There were many concerns about what the family would do if he couldn’t get into college. How would he earn a living? His “failure to keep up” with his cousins was seen as an embarrassment by his family and affected his self-esteem. Every incident of rebellion and performance was further proof that he simply couldn’t perform at the expected level. One thing led to another and he got angry with the law in typical teenage fashion.
The family insisted that he enter some kind of treatment program, which luckily turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to him. He took him out of the standard school environment and into a program that encouraged him to discover and explore what he enjoyed and excelled at. He has made a remarkable transformation, from a confused, angry and aimless teenager to a happy and driven college student who knows what he is good at and pursues it with enthusiasm and success.
This young man was lucky enough to end up in a program whose treatment philosophy mirrored that of our Strength-Based Coaching model: Discover your natural abilities and talents so you can do more of what you do best. Many are not so lucky. I’m convinced that much of the confusion about life and career direction I encounter occurs when people who don’t fit the standard mold don’t get recognition for their natural abilities. They either do their best to “fit in” and live lives of “quiet despair,” or they decide they are misfits and behave accordingly. Either way, both they and the wider community lose out when the unique contribution of their Talent Advantage is lost.
