Product Description

Revised Second Edition- Study after study reaches the same conclusion - in America today, it's not who you are but what you are. More and more CEO's are graduating from public universities instead of the Ivy League. But how do you know what you are? How do you know the talents you have? How do you determine what job or profession is right for you? Now, there's a book that gives you all the answers. Newly revised by Lazar Emanuel, lawyer and CEO of the Highlands Co., and Tom Tavantzis,Ed.D., Director of Organizational Psychology Studies at St. Joseph's University, this seminal work by Bob McDonald,Ph.D., and Don Hutcheson, tells you how to discover your hard-wired talents and move towards your ultimate goal - contentment, fulfillment and increased productivity. Every one of us is born with the ability to be great at something. The secret lies in identifying that ability and using it. McDonald and Hutcheson asked hundreds of successful people: what made you successful? Everyone's story was different, but one answer was the same for all - all successful people create and are guided by a clear personal vision - an accurate and precise picture of the work that expresses their talents best. This remarkable book holds the key to success - identify your natural talents and work where you can use them. Long-term research shows that when people focus on their natural abilities and follow a strategic plan based on a strong personal vision, they experience the profound and lasting benefits of reduced stress, more overall balance, decreased burnout and greater satisfaction. Don't Waste Your Talent provides the link to your niche in life. It opens doors to a more productive career and to the satisfaction of knowing that you're using your talents to the fullest.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #269090 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-05
• Binding: Paperback
• 254 pages

About the Author
No strangers to helping individuals discover their talents, Don Hutcheson and Bob McDonald, Ph.D., are cofounders of The Highlands Program, a national performance improvement training company based in Atlanta. For over 10 years they have used The Whole Person Technology to assist managers and executives at such Fortune 1000 companies as Cisco Systems, Marriott, IBM, and Chase Bank obtain, train, and retain their people. Highlands also offers assessments and seminars to help students and adults make strategic education and career decisions. Hutcheson and McDonald are also the authors of the nationally syndicated column "Your Life's Work," as well as the widely acclaimed The Lemming Conspiracy, their earlier book about the relationship between life and work.

Customer Reviews

Helping you understand who you are to make a career decision
I've been a highlands affiliate since 2003 and my clients believe the Highlands Ability Battery is the most effective piece of information in helping them make a career decision.

The Highland Ability Battery helps people understand their natural abilities. Once you know what you are good at you can then choose a job which uses your abilities and plays to your strengths.

This book takes you through the 8 success factors - unlike other programmes it doesn't just take interests or personality into account but a holistic view which helps you to review a wide perspective to really understand who you are and what will be the best fit. It includes a number of exercises, Thought Experiments, to complete.

The first step is to understand your talents. You then need to find the right place to use your talents.

Chapter 1: Escaping the Lemming Conspiracy. Most of us lead stressful lives, working hard to buy possessions we don't actually need. We are willing to put up with long hours for career success, but most never achieve this, no matter how hard we try. Others achieve career success at the expense of relationships with their family. If we are lucky one day we realise we are following someone else's dream.

Chapter 2: The Stress Cycle and the Balance Cycle. The stress cycle is where we rush around from project to project without taking the time to think about what to do. We strive for the next promotion, the new car, the second house. Working too hard but leaving aside any thought of meaning to the work we do. It starts at a young age, achieving good exam results; getting into a good university, a great first job without thinking what we actually want to do. We need to get into balance, between the person we are and the work we do.

Chapter 3: Crisis and Change. This talks through the 8 turning points - the first being at age 17/18. Should we study at a prestigious university? Does it match with how best we learn, what we want to do? Other turning points come as we leave university, at age 30, the mid life transition, age 50, pre retirement, age 70 and 80+.

Chapter 4: Our Hard Wired Talents and Abilities. This is an introduction to the Highlands Ability Battery, it then discusses the 5 driving abilities of Classification (a very quick problem solving), Concept Organisation (logical problem solving), Idea Productivity - the quantity of ideas, and Spatial Relations - are you a structural or abstract thinker? The thought experiments allow you to estimate your results.

Chapter 5: Skills, Interests and Personality. Too often we discount our skills, they come easy to us and we think that they must also come easy to others. It then discusses two aspects of personality - extravert/ introvert (where you get your energy from) and generalist/ specialist. Generalists respond in a similar way to others, as they have a clear idea of what others think. The Specialist has a more idiosyncratic view and seeks to be an expert.

Chapter 6: Values and Goals. This chapter discusses the importance of values and to what extent you spend time aligned with them. It then discusses goals - are you following your goals or someone else's? This chapter includes a very good exercise to help you consider your top values - which are top for you, and to what extent do you focus your time on your top values.

Chapter 7 gets us to consider our "Family of Origin", family influences and histories. It gives us a framework to interview our parents. Chapter 8 helps us to bring together the work from the previous chapters to create a personal vision. Chapter 9 explains surveying, how to find out more about possible future jobs and ideas. Chapter 10 is about creating personal boundaries. Being clear on our boundaries helps us make the decisions that are right for us. We are then encouraged to consider our goals and priorities.

Chapter 11 is about Corporations and the Personal Vision. When we realise we aren't happy in our work we can't expect our boss to help us work out what we should be doing - they just want us to achieve our targets. If we are doing well they may encourage us to do even more without giving us time to consider if that is right for us.

A question to ask is "Who are you?" and can you be you at work? What sort of work would enable you to be more of the person you are? The alternative to the stress cycle is the balance cycle where you strive for long term focus and to have meaning in your life. It discusses the war for talent, if it's getting harder for companies to get new talent companies need to make the best use of their employees and the Highlands Ability Battery will help people to understand and thus use their natural abilities. There is more on how the Highlands Ability Battery is used in organisations.

Chapter 12: Personal Vision as a Guide for Life - a personal vision helps you to focus on what you really want. Without a personal vision it's too easy to choose the society expected option rather than what's right for you. It also refers back to turning points as the personal vision we create will change as we hit different turning points.

I've provided a detailed review as I think this is such a powerful book that whether you decide to take the full assessment, or not you will still get a deep understanding of who you are and help you make career choices that are right for you.