Talents, pelicans and footprints

The competitiveness and productivity of an organisation depend on the talents of its employees. It depends on how well we fit the right talents in the right place and how well we merge individuals' goals and organization's goal.

If we create the right talents, develop them and manage them, we will be able to handle many of the turnovers, dissatisfactions, low productivity and absenteeism.

Talents mean everything that we possess. Literally it means a `gifted ability'. Our abilities in sports, music, arts, dramas, our intelligence, good health, creative mind, adaptability, ability to take risks and challenges, our relationships, everything that we have are talents.

Have you heard of the story of the Californian pelicans?

These were a group of lucky birds that got their food without any work because the fishermen after cleaning their fishes used to throw away the entrails of the fishes. The pelicans nourished themselves on these entrails. In the meantime they became fat, lazy and content. Later on the fishermen discovered ways to commercially use the entrails for better purpose. They stopped throwing away the entrails. But the pelicans waited and waited for their free food. But no food came. They became weak and thin. They couldn't get food because they had forgotten how to fish since they never used their talents before. All of them finally starved to death.

Similar tragedy can happen in our lives as well. We become inefficient, unproductive and incompetent when we fail to continuously nurture and improve our talents and gifts.

The saddest thing is to see a talent going waste. When a talent goes to waste, a person goes to waste. The real tragedy in life is not being limited to few talents but the failure to develop and use the talents given to us. We disappear leaving no footprints on the sands of time and history forgets us.

Different people have different talents. If you merely look at people and their talents we will conclude nature is unfair to us as some of us have more talents than others. It's ridiculous to think so. Imagine of a world with people having the same talents. Suppose this world had only Sachin Tendulkars and no Aamir Khans, what a boring world this would have been! Variety is beauty. We all don't need the same talents. We need different talents to fulfill the different demands.

We have an abundance of talents. It doesn't matter how many talents we possess, what actually matters is how well we nurture and use the talents that are in our possession.

The challenge for us is to develop our talents and use them well for our own benefit and for the good of others. To become efficient and effective we need to build on the talents we have. Many of us are unhappy and unproductive because we fail to build on our talents and fail to choose a career on the basis of our talents.

We have numerous talents and infinite number of possibilities. We need to discover them. Take time to look within ourselves and recognize those talents that are buried deep within. Become aware of the talents we have wasted or thrown away or those we consider as useless. Write down the many things that we can do well. If we make a list of our talents we will discover things that we never thought we really possessed.

Having discovered our talents we now have the responsibility to develop them. We must nurture our gifts and make it 100 fold. We have the responsibility to increase our talents by constant practice and use. You alone are responsible for the development of your talents. You alone are responsible for your success.

Everybody is born with a whole set of talents. Talents are gifts because we receive them freely. We can nurture and develop them into skills. The world is full of competitions. Yet the one who has developed his talents and made them into skills and core competencies will always find ample opportunities to excel. He will always be in great demand.

Be a good steward of your gifts. Stewardship is responsibility for taking good care of our resources. We must be faithful, confident and humble in the use of our talents. We are stewards not the owners of our talents. We have no right to destroy them but to protect, nurture, improve and use them.

The next thing to do is to take up the right job. Choose a job that will require your talents, skills, personality and knowledge. Choose the right job where you will be comfortable and competent. Build your career on your strengths and talents. Your talents should help you to become a brand. You should become a master in your career.

Become passionate about your talents and passionately develop them to achieve your goals. Passion for goals will ignite your life and you will begin to use your maximum strength to achieve your goals.

Finally, use your talents to make the world better. Some of our talents we use, others we don't. Some we use to promote ourselves, some to put down others and some we hide from others. We are given these talents to build up this world not to destroy the world and humanity, individuals and relationships. Use your intelligence, free will and capabilities to make this world better.

One way to know whether we are using our talents is to examine ourselves and see if we are really happy in our job. Are we using our talents and strengths? Are we transforming our talents into our core competencies? Have we identified a niche where we can excel and where our competitors respect our talents? Are we the best person to do this job?

Or simply ask yourself: how often does my boss praise and recognize my work? Am I really essential in this organisation? Am I respected for my contributions and am I promoted in the organisation?

Well, these questions will tell us if we are really developing and using our talents or not, whether our fate will be like those Californian pelicans who depart leaving no footprints on the sands of time.

Attached PPT on what i Learnt from NOAH'S ARK

Regards

Kiran

From India, Hyderabad
Attached Files (Download Requires Membership)
File Type: pps noah_s_ark_629.pps (93.0 KB, 335 views)
File Type: pps noah_s_ark_629.pps (93.0 KB, 244 views)

Hi Kiran,
Good one. Talent Management is going to take front seat in HR profession very soon. Identifying the talent, developing the talent and recognising the talent is going to be one of the core HR topics.
Regards,
PRADEEP

From India, Hyderabad
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