Prodigy Poet

What if every child is a prodigy?

What if your child is a prodigy?

What if you are a prodigy?

Prodigy Chef

What Are Your Child's Talents - Dr. Denis Waitley

Denis Waitley was one of my early mentors in a professional development, a life long passion of mine. He was the first to introduce me to the importance of natural talent. He was unique in a pool of motivators who were going around the country telling everyone they could be anything they wanted to be. This short video clip is terrific, especially for parents.

Quit Your Job - Find Your Work by John Scherer

Turn Your Walls Into Doors

"Knock Softly"

You can become world class and make a world class difference in the lives of others from any position, even a very humble one. This video short shares one such story.

Self Awareness - "Know Yourself To Grow Yourself"

John Maxwell is a huge advocate of the strengths movement and he has lived the principles as well as anyone I'm aware of. In this video short, John talks about a principle that has been validated by two major studies. These two studies looked at hundreds of possible success factors involved in human performance. The only two universal factors were that successful people were disproportionately aware of their strengths and disproportionately worked in ways that leveraged those strengths.

The "Gold" Program - Introducing Kids To Their Unique Strengths

As a strengths advocate I lean heavily toward helping people grow in their understanding of strengths by moving toward more granular strengths based assessments. Marcus Buckingham offers StandOut which has 9 different themes or talent groupings. Myers-Briggs offers 16 ways of understanding the uniqueness of individuals. Strengthsfinder, which Buckingham helped build during his time at Gallup offers 34 different themes and perhaps serval hundred threads.

But DISC is still a great strengths assessment. It begins with 4 very easy to understand groupings. The "Gold" Program, introduced below is specifically designed DISC for kids. If you are a parent or work with children, check it out!

Play, Passion and Purpose with Harvard's Tony Wagner

Tony Wagner recently accepted a position as the first Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard. Prior to this, he was the founder and co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for more than a decade. Tony consults widely to schools, districts, and foundations around the country and internationally. His previous work experience includes twelve years as a high school teacher, K-8 principal, university professor in teacher education, and founding executive director of Educators for Social Responsibility.

The Finland Phenomenon

Finland now consistently leads the world in education including international test score results. The students start at a later age (about age 7), have shorter school days than there U.S. counterparts and have almost no homework.

What's Up With That?

A Harvard University Professor takes a look.

What Makes You Come Alive? - Sean Aiken

Sean Aiken graduated from college and like a lot of kids had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. What he did have was a very creative way to figure it out. He lined up 52 very diverse organizations who were willing to employee him for one week and then give his paycheck to charity. He filmed the project and wrote a terrific little book called The One-Week Job Project. Sean shares his experience here on a Ted Talk.

I work with people all the time to help them identify their strengths and then deliver them in the workplace. I use a variety of inquiries or questions, assessments and other tools to help my clients uncover gifts and talents long overlooked and underused. But the best indicator available is to "try stuff". Sometimes you need to try a lot of stuff before you find your niche.

In my last post I used the analogy of trying on a suit of clothes. When Susy and I went shopping for her wedding dress, we covered dozens of stores and half of California in the process. Then there it was...on a rack at Nordstrom in South Coast Plaza.

Lining up your dream job, the one that fits will take some effort. Sean Aiken embarked on a very novel approach that allowed him to "try on" a lot of jobs in a relatively short amount of time. You can take a similar approach. Conduct informational interviews. Set up job shadows and internships. Volunteer.

Watch Sean's talk and be inspired!

Does Your Perfect Job Exist???

Do you have your perfect job?
Somewhat near?
No where near?

Does the perfect job for you even exist? I think it does, but not off the rack. If you've ever bought a business suit you know what I'm talking about. I'm a 42 tall... but not a perfect 42 tall. When I buy a suit I immediately head for the rack with the 42 talls. And I also know that if I want a perfect fit, I'll be spending some time with the tailor.

It's the same with jobs. In the world of work, this tailoring is called job crafting. If you're interested in crafting your off the rack job and turn it into one that fits more perfectly, I recommend Marcus Buckingham's book, "Go Put Your Strengths To Work". If you'd like support around that along with a few more ideas, I'd love to help.

There is another strategy that works well for many people. It's called a portfolio career. In this Ted Talk, Katie Ledger talks about "working toward work that will work for you". She says, "Your perfect job probably doesn't exist...yet." Then she goes on to give some terrific examples of people who have pieced together a mosaic of fulfilling work. Take a look!

Re-Discover Your Creative Genius

When you are working in a strength, you have almost limitless access to creativity in that area. When you are working in an area of weakness, creativity may plummet.

This is a cool video advertising the book, "Unthink".

Ken Robinson's "How To Escape Education's Death Valley"

Our friend, Sir Ken Robinson has a new Ted Talk!

Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

This is another video short based on Sir Ken Robinson's new book Finding Your Element

Authenticity & Acting Like An Owner

I worked for one manager, Mr. A.W. Lanford during an eight year span of my career. At his retirement dinner he went around the room and said something about each of his District Managers. When he came to me, he said, "Dale pushed back on me harder than any district manager that I ever had". It was true. We had that kind of relationship. And it was with complete respect and even love that I had for him. One of the things he repeatedly taught me was, "If you're trying to keep your job, you're probably not doing your job".

In this video, Professor Kaplan talks about speaking up, acting like an owner and being authentic...

Leveraging Failure As A Strength

Is failure a strength? It is if you leverage it correctly! In this video short, professor Kaplan talks about pulling out our failure stories and mining them for wisdom.

Assessing Your Strengths & Weaknesses

Being Successful vs. Reaching Your Unique Potential

In this clip, Harvard Management Practice Professor, Robert Steven Kaplan talks about a critical distinction. He shares the difference between being successful, as society might view it, versus reaching your unique potential. These thoughts are shared in more detail in his book, What You're Really Meant To Do: A Roadmap For Reaching Your Unique Potential.

Finding Your Passions - Robert Steven Kaplan

Robert Steven Kaplan has come out with a new book, What You're Really Meant To Do: A Roadmap For Reaching Your Unique Potential.

In this video clip, he shares some thoughts from the book!