Talent Technologies offers the Highlands Ability Battery to individuals and companies in Thailand and South-East Asia. In this article we look at how the Highlands Ability Battery helps you discover your unique talents, and, following our process, how you can develop your skills and work to your strengths every day.

So much has been made of the importance of discovering your talents and working to your strengths that you would have thought the process for doing so would not be hard to find.

Unfortunately, there is no clear-cut, objective process for discovering your talents – except for this one.

Following over 90 years of research into talents (natural abilities) by the Johnson O’Connor Institute in America and associates, Talent Technologies offers the Highlands Ability Battery to individuals who would like to discover their talents and natural roles at work… and an invaluable process for building strengths.

What Talents are… and are not

First it may be useful to get clear on what talents are – and are not.

Your talents (or natural abilities – the two are interchangeable) are the synaptic connection your brain makes as you grow from childhood to youth.

They are not the knowledge or skills you may acquire on the way of that journey, instead your talents are how your brain naturally processes the stimuli from the outside world and your inner world (your own body and its components) and makes sense of that unconsciously.

This means that talents are the ‘how’ rather than the ‘what’.

When we say someone is ‘gifted’ or ‘talented’ in a certain area, what we usually mean is that performing for that person is almost natural or effortless – and that would be a fair description of a person working in the area of their talents.

And when we talk about ‘talents’, we are also not talking about personality preferences – these, also, are hardwired, but rarely throw much light on what we most like to do.

How discovering your talents differs from discovering your personality

In most personality assessments, individuals are asked a series of questions and answer these usually choosing from a series of options.

While this approach can give some insight into our personalities (MBTI is one such tool we use), it is largely hopeless at helping us answer questions like:

• What are my talents?

• Which jobs can I do best? Which will give me most satisfaction?

• What are my natural roles?

• Which career path should I embark on?

The Highlands Ability Battery, by contrast, helps you discover the answer to these questions using its objective, scientific process.

Participants are not asked a series of questions and expected to answer these, but instead accomplish a number of tasks that involve listening, manipulating images, ideating, organising and responding to an array of audio and visual stimuli.

This makes Highlands unique in helping you identify what you can do best, in the same way when you visit a doctor, he would not blindly rely on questions and answers but also perform a set of objective tests. This is why Highlands is often referred to as ‘The Gold Standard’ of assessments.

In Talent Factor, Talent Technologies goes beyond this and offers a four-stage process that enables participants to identify their talents, identify their natural roles, articulate goals that harmonise with their talents and roles, and then create personal action plans building strengths.

Here we give a brief snapshot of how this looks:

Stage One

Identify your Talents with Highlands

Participants discover their talents through the Highlands Ability Battery objective assessment. This involves a series (or ‘battery’) of activities across 19 worksamples which have been proven to be an indicative reflection of our talents.

Stage Two

Identify  your Natural Roles – and work to them

Following this, participants receive a 30 page report (click here for a sample). A feedback process follows where the participants (if in a group) understand the practical application of the findings and identify their ‘reds’ (areas of natural weakness) and ‘greens’ (areas of natural strength).

In a team situation, this helps them orient themselves so that they are working in areas where they are most likely to excel.

Stage Three

Build your goals around your Talents and Roles

Once we know the ‘who’, and ‘how’ of each individual, we can progress to the ‘What’ of goal-setting.

Following the steps in this order is essential as Jim Collins in Good to Great, rightly points out.

He devoted a whole chapter to the discovery from his landmark research into what makes high-performing companies and teams titled ‘First Who, then What’ – stressing the importance that putting the Who before What is essential for success and that

“Whether someone is the ‘right person’ has more to do with character traits and innate capabilities than with specific knowledge, background or skills”

Goals are much easier to set – and to attain – when we are clear about our own talents and abilities, our weaknesses and our strengths. In this stage we also explore possible career paths.

Stage Four

Build strengths by building practices, knowledge and skills in areas of Talent

This leads us to the last stage, where we create an Action Plan with milestones and a programme of developing skills in our areas of natural talent so that we then turn those talents into strengths.

This is the stage where, having dicovered our talents, roles and goals, we then create a plan on which we can execute.

Conclusion – Why Highlands is the One for You

If you really do want to discover your talents – and doing so is really worthwhile – then the process above offers you a failsafe approach to discovering a successful and rewarding career.

If you would like to find out more about Talent Factor and our other programmes helping you make the most of your abilities, simply follow the link below.

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Click here for more details > > >

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Talent Technologies is a certified Highlands Ability Battery affiliate

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