Core talents

I recently took a Core Talents assessment, which is very different from traditional profiling via personality tests in its methodology and result. I didn't turn out as a type, a profile, an acronym, or a color for once. Very refreshing.

This assessment is based on what I liked to do as a child between the ages of 4 and 12. The online questionnaire triggers some memories, but it is mainly in the in-depth interview with the Core Talents analyst that childhood memories emerge. My favorite things to do as a young girl were playing board games, building treehouses, playing soccer, hanging out with the boys, reading books for grownups, fencing competitively, constructing miniature boats and airplanes, acting in school plays, etc.

The activities and toys I enjoyed as a child reflect my true potential, inherent strengths, limitations, or, in short, my core talents. Now, it gets interesting.

Core talents form your strong and weak qualities and determine the possibilities available to you. A core talent is the combination of three building blocks:

1. Your character, or who you are, is your nature. It is a feature of your personality.
2. Your potential is what you will be able to accomplish well if you have the required physical and mental abilities, the appropriate training, and enough practice.
3. Your desire, need, and what you genuinely like and love doing are all examples of your intrinsic motivation.

The exercise reveals a unique combination of 23 core talents:

• three dimensions of creativity
• three around organizational talent
• three around taking initiative
• six around emotional talents on an individual level and a group level
• two around rationality
• three around commerciality
• three around putting yourself in the spotlight, etc.

They are clustered into strategy, competitiveness, empathy, structure & organization, etc., and are labeled strong, moderate, or weak.

Ninety-four billion different combinations of core talents are possible. Every person is thus unique and cannot be summed up in a type or a box, and the Core Talents analysis recognizes this.

In the second interview with Core Talents analyst Megan, we talked extensively about my life choices, studies, work history, hobbies, and current tasks and responsibilities.

Apparently, and much to my pleasure, flow has been my middle name these past years. I focus on what I like to do and can do very well. Troubleshooting, problem-solving, strategic planning, taking initiative, entrepreneurship, creating order, generating a vision, working with a team toward goals, and gaining broad and deep knowledge are some of my core talents. Using these, I get more energy, better results, and increased self-development. Energy drainers (=what I dislike and cannot do well), such as knowledge transfer, are easily identified and mitigated.

This is now ...; it used to be different.

Getting into this flow state was primarily a long and instinctual process. Gradually, I leaned more into what I loved doing and eliminated the energy drainers, but this took many, many years. I was bored out of my skull at work, sometimes frustrated, impatient, self-demanding, and eager, ... because I was doing stuff I didn't like or could not do well. I was not using my core talents and left potential untapped. I didn't understand what was wrong with me.

I wish I had known about my core talents a few decades ago.

In the 1990s, Belgian Daniëlle Krekels noticed in in-depth interviews with engineers and scientists that most of them liked to play with Lego or Meccano when they were little. Not hindered by knowledge of psychological models and theories, Daniëlle interviewed +12.000 engineers and researchers and established the correlation between a child's play and their talents.

In 2015, the questionnaire was scientifically validated with a very high-reliability index of .84, outperforming MBTI and comparable to the Big five personality test, the world's most widely used personality test.

• It is not a self-evaluation "what do you like to do?" or "what are you excellent at?" but starts with your natural interests
• The time frame during which the core talents are identified (between the ages of 4 and approximately 12 years) is much longer. The findings are not based on a random moment of observation
• The system is language-, culture-, and environment independent
• It's not about what you want to accomplish but about what you actually did in a period that is uncolored by ambitions, circumstances, and parental wishes
• All the strong core talents rise to the top, as do the long-standing but somewhat undeveloped core talents
• Each core talents profile is valuable and offers unique opportunities
• The questionnaire stimulates the prefrontal brain, providing wonder and understanding as well as the desire for constructive action
• Is it beneficial for a lifetime and daily (work, private, relationships, growth, and development)
• It provides insight into energy providers and drivers, what drives underperformance and demotivation, and how to avoid burnout and boredom.

What if you could use your insights into your strong core talents to discover your dream job? Consider how you may live a more content life by focusing on your strengths and spending more time working in the flow, which would leave you with more energy at the end of the day.

Understanding your core talents can positively guide your life's major decisions and developmental moments.

What are you waiting for to find out what makes you tick? Choose your Core Talents certified analyst here.