Talents versus Skills – Do you know the difference?

Talents versus Skills

Do you know what talents you have? Do you know what skills you have? What are your talents versus skills?

For many baby boomers, the answer will be I do not know.

Most of us have forgotten what talents we have. They have been blurred into building our career, making money, paying the mortgage, putting our kids through college, saving for retirement,……

Talents

Lets look at the definition of Talent. According to Dictionary.com

tal·ent [tal-uhnt]

noun

1. a special natural ability or aptitude: a talent for drawing.
A talent is something we do naturally. It is something that we do not think about we just do it.
Think back to your childhood. What did you just love to do? What did you do that it required little thought? What did you do that left you energized?
Think back to when you entered adulthood. Ask yourself the same questions.
Is this hard?
Make a list of all of your talents. Hmmm… can’t think of any or only a few? Let’s move on.

Skills

Lets look at the definition of Skill. According to Dictionary.com

skill [skil]

noun

1. the ability, coming from one’s knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc., to do something well: Carpentry was one of his many skills.
A skill is something that we learn. Skills are developed. You might attend training to learn a skill. You will practice that skill. You can master a skill such that it appears to be a talent.

This might be a hard skill like programming, hardware design, technical writing, web design, content marketing,…..

This might be a soft skill like negotiating, project management, people management, …..

Make a list of all of the skills you have. This will take a while.

What talents enabled you to learn these skills?

Again, I ask what are your talents versus skills? Getting any easier?

I previous wrote a blog post titled – Larry Bird, Winners, Talents and Skills

I quoted the great basketball player Larry Bird – A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals

What are your God-given talents?

The Crux of the Problem

If you have been working for thirty plus years like me, you have developed a lot of skills. I have been paid a lot of money to produce products and services using those skills.

The crux of the problem is many of us are now saying we are sick and tired of using those skills.

Why did we develop some of those skills? Many times it was because our employer paid us to develop those skills? Did we like using those skills? Many times using those skills was okay! When we're required to use those skills over and over and over and over….. it got old real fast.

When we say, we have had enough you may hear:

  • You are so good at it, why would you want to quit?
  • They pay you a lot of money, why would you want to quit?

Sound familiar?

The problem is the over use of those skills that were developed because someone else wanted you to learn those skills.

Over the last twenty five years, I have inhaled many complex technologies and spit them back out in culturally neutral stories, analogies, pictures, animations and other adult learning formats. I am really good at it. I enjoy the design and creation of the materials but if I have to inhale one more complex technology that has no real social value well…….

I am really good at the inhalation process, but that is a skill that I have developed. I do not want to do it anymore!

What about you? What are your talents versus skills?


This post originally appeared on the Career Pivot Blog.

Marc Miller is the founder of Career Pivot, which helps Baby Boomers and others design careers they can grow into for the next 30 years. Marc authored the book “Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for Baby Boomers.” You can follow Marc on Twitter or Facebook.

Well said. I have a son with autism and the Larry Bird quote is my mantra with him. He is 12 years old and I look to identify his talent to help guide skill development that will enable him to achieve his goals and future independence.

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Arlene Nowak

Founder at ANOWAK Productions

9y

Very insightful question and comment. If the skill is linked to a talent, then I think it can keep reinventing itself as you do. If not, burnout for sure.

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Arlene Nowak

Founder at ANOWAK Productions

9y

Talent is natural, Skill is learned.

John Fisher

Producer at Staging Solutions, Inc.

9y

you have both!

Sometimes a person may have more than a talent; how do you know which will be best suited for a company's future plans.

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