Gifted? Here's how to put your talents to use!

What is giftedness?

Giftedness means possessing more than a fair share of intellectual potential or thinking talent. From an IQ of more than 130 one speaks of giftedness.

Today, fortunately, there is a growing global understanding that while intellectual talent, like athletic or musical talent, is innate, you must also develop and encourage it. In other words, talent is no guarantee of success. Just think of Kevin De Bruyne or Eden Hazard, very talented soccer players, who had to learn a lot physically as well as mentally to be at the top level.

Professors Kathleen Venderickx and Tessa Kieboom show in their book 'More than intelligent' show that giftedness is an interplay of IQ, motivation and creativity.

Giftedness a luxury problem

Giftedness, contrary to popular belief, does not guarantee success during studies and career. It is often seen as a luxury problem. It is a beautiful gift, but can also be a pitfall.

5 striking characteristics of gifted people:

1. great sense of justice. Agreements are sacred, norms and values crucial to working together
2. critical attitude: quickly identify gaps, detect opportunities
3. great sensitivity: often worry
4. the bar is always high because you are capable of complex reasoning 
5. the feeling of being "different"

For all strong traits, there is always a downside or hindrance possible as well:

1. difficult cooperation
2. come across as pedantic or even arrogant
3. Underachieving or overachieving/overworking (with risk of bore-out or burn-out)
4. seeing themselves as the norm
5. very direct (sometimes too harsh) communication
6. avoidance of difficult situations (due to limited experience of failure)

Why do so many gifted people fail to graduate?

There are many faces of giftedness. The gifted person does not exist.

There are 3 quite distinct types:

1. The achiever is that highly gifted person who feels the urge to achieve performance all by himself. He feels good about himself when he can perform well and will perform almost permanently, very conscientious. In this I completely recognize my eldest daughter who has been telling me since the age of 4 that she wants to become a doctor and is currently specializing in emergency medicine.
2. The self-employed person (not to be confused with the self-employed profession): the gifted person will perform only if he sees the need for the performance, often what is in his field of interest. Thus, the self-employed person makes only focused effort, he analyzes whether the performance can contribute to the achievement of a certain goal. A task that covers only 10 points out of a total of 100 to be achieved may not be performed or may be underperformed. Teachers perceive this type as smart, but at the same time lazy and rebellious.
3. The dependent: the dependent absolutely does not want to be judged on future expectation. If he achieves an (exceptional) feat, the dependent is terrified that this will create expectations. The dependent does not want to experience pressure and also has difficulty leaving his comfort zone. In this I recognize my son, who is finding his own way, and at the same time is a driven scout leader.

How can career counseling help with giftedness?

Within Travvant's career counseling services, we often meet gifted clients. Some of them are aware of their giftedness, others are not. We do not like to compartmentalize people, but we find that it is helpful to know yourself well, to get the best out of yourself and also to better understand the reactions of others (your family, your colleagues, your manager).

If you want to be absolutely sure if you are gifted, I can recommend getting tested through Exentra. The line or interfaces with high sensitivity (HSP), ADD or ADHD, autism, etc. is not easy to make, only licensed psychologists can do that.

Just as teachers play a major role during children's studies, it is important for executives to recognize, guide and encourage the intellectual talent of their employees.

Highly gifted people have difficulty with repetitive and purely executive tasks. In the work context, this is sometimes solved by giving more work or an extra project. Often this is not enough and it is necessary to increase the "complexity" of the task content to increase motivation.

Therefore, a new job is often not enough. It gives a brief opportunity to learn new things (the challenge is "the new thing"), but often gifted people actually need an increase in "difficulty.

We also regularly meet gifted people who clash with communication styles. Full of good intentions and in order to stimulate growth within the company where they work, they initiate areas for improvement in a (too) critical manner, which goes down the wrong way with the CEO or manager.

Knowing how you come across or how to adjust your communication to avoid misunderstandings or resentment will help you be happier in life! This is another theme that fits within our career coaching.