Written by: Adriana Kosovska, Guest Writer Brainz Magazine
For employees, freelancers, and solopreneurs,
Are you an employee who has fallen into a role that you liked, gives you purpose, but it no longer feels like you? In fact, it starts to frustrate you?
Are you a freelancer who quit their 9-5 job to claim freedom and joy but now you are working more and longer hours than before?
Are you a solopreneur who finds it hard to delegate and outsource?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, most likely, you are not playing to your talents and strengths. Discovering your talent DNA can not only help you save time but also get paid for doing what you love.
Nine years ago, I was in a role that used to be my dream job. But just two and a half years later, I no longer felt the excitement and happiness. I wanted to find a role that would feel more like me, but I had also decided to start my own business. I knew that I would not be able to do it all by myself (and to be honest, I did not want to).
Thanks to discovering my talent DNA, I shaped my future roles and got paid for doing what I love. As a result, I switched from finance, data entries, and number-crunching to people-oriented leadership roles, coaching, or writing in record time.
What is talent DNA?
Unlike skills or knowledge, which implies learned behavior, talent cannot be learned or acquired. Talent DNA is a combination of your talents that is unique to you. By talents, I don’t mean having talent for arts or sports, but rather naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied. Talents can be developed into strengths.
What fascinated me with the strengths-based approach is that it dictates your natural reactions to strategies for success. You may be given the best strategy for success in marketing, sales, execution, or hiring, you name it, but if that proven formula is not aligned with your talents, you can find it hard to implement and benefit from. Similar applies at work. You may be given the best set of instructions on completing a task, but if those steps do not feel natural to you, you most likely find it hard to implement.
Why your talent DNA matter?
In a nutshell, these are the biggest reasons why I found it pays off to explore and discover what your talents are. It helped me to:
To stay focused on my genius, make decisions, and pick strategies tailored to my talents and needs. I found them quicker and easier to implement.
It allowed me to focus on what I do best and delegate (outsource) what I do not do well to others to save time and achieve results faster,
Find competitive advantage my unique selling point; I was able to define my approach in leadership, coaching, or business activities, no longer seeing my competitors as a threat.
Multiply joy and fulfillment from aligning my work with purpose and talents.
So how can you discover your Talent DNA?
Fast-learning, excellence, and repeated hunger to do what you love are just a few signs that can help you recognize your talents. There is a playful way to discover your talents and then a fast route.
If you love decoding your talent DNA playfully, here are 3 tips - sets of questions you can regularly journal on to discover your talents and how they are showing up for you:
1. Excellence - Observe when you achieve excellent results with ease. Achieving excellence does not have to feel hard. When your talent contributes towards your success, it does not feel difficult at all. Contrary, it feels easy, so easy that most of the time, you are not aware of it, often telling yourself, “That was nothing” when others pay you a compliment. Playing to your strengths naturally boosts your energy, motivation, and willingness to face challenging situations.
Here are some helpful questions you can ask yourself and journal on: Describe your best (and happiest) day at work. What did that day look like? What went really well? What made it great? Which duties and responsibilities were easy to accomplish?
2. Intuitive fast learning – when your talents show up, you learn very fast even if you hated going to school. It just happens that you can figure out something very quickly. Often it feels so natural that you are not aware of how fast that learning happens. When receiving a compliment for a well-accomplished task quickly, it feels to you like, “How have I actually done it?” Contrary to learning a skill, learning happens naturally and intuitively.
Helpful questions to discover your talents are: What were you able to learn very fast? What were you able to learn intuitively? What have you figured out to do without difficulty or frustration? What did you intuitively picked to learn? Which problem did you fix really fast?
3. Joy, satisfaction, and fulfillment – it feels great when your work has a purpose or meaning that gives you satisfaction. After all, in the 21st-century, employees and entrepreneurs are more than aware that regular paycheck and chasing profits do not bring lasting happiness in your working life. That feeling of joy and fulfillment can be magnified when you are engaging your talents daily. In other words, working towards the purpose alone does not guarantee joy and fulfillment unless your day at work is filled with activities or tasks that energize you and bring you joy.
Helpful questions to discover your talents: Which activities bring you immediate joy and fulfillment during their execution? What can you not wait to do again very soon, soon after you finish it? What at work or in your business do you enjoy doing, even if it is not a part of your role?
If you are also impatient, just like me, you can take the fast route – take a talent assessment but be aware. Receiving your talents report is your starting point to discovering how your talents show up. Report comes with actionable steps on how to implement them into your life, work, or business. With a package of coaching sessions, you will become even more aware of your talents and use them intentionally to re-design your role, career, or business to get paid for doing what you actually love.
Follow Adriana on LinkedIn and join her Facebook Group. You can also visit her website to learn more.
Adriana Kosovska, Guest Writer, Brainz Magazine
Adriana Kosovska is a multi-passionate international career coach, the founder of Zero to Dream Job, and a bestselling co-author. She guides ambitious employees, leaders, and freelancers in their 30s and 40s to re-design their careers to succeed and make positive transformations through talents, purpose, and personal fulfillment.
