Matthew E. May

When actors ask, “What is my motivation?” they’re asking about what’s most important to the character they are playing so that they can make and commit to an authentic artistic choice in their role. But they’re also talking about values.

The concept of values is not a difficult one to grasp: values are qualities held to be inherently worthwhile and important by the holder.

Values are the principles and beliefs that give meaning to our lives – they are a source of strength, giving us power to take action. (The Latin root of value is “valor” – which means strength.) Values guide us in our actions – they are not a complete road map, but operate more as an internal compass pointing to “True North.”

Our most deeply held values are hardwired into who we are – and define what we prize the most. They represent our basic instinct and we would rather fight or leave before abandoning or compromising them. Values provide significance to the choices we make and awareness of our values helps us understand why particular things are naturally more important and enjoyable for us. When we make important decisions, we rely on our most deeply held values for intuitive judgment. Some are inborn (“I have this great need for stability in my life”), some are acquired through experience or are influenced by others (“My dad always encouraged us to do our best”), and others still are chosen (“I believe valuing the diversity of others is the most important thing to do”).

Some of our values are dynamic and can change over time. However, our most deeply held values tend to be rather stable, and tend to remain clustered around the four human mindsets:

The “playmakers” of the world naturally value such qualities as advancement, competition, adventure, autonomy, action, variety, play, spontaneity, flexibility and impact.

The “taskmasters” of the world naturally value such qualities as duty, regulation, authority, diligence, stability, refuge, security, economy, order and precision.

The “peacekeepers” of the world naturally value such qualities as cooperation, understanding, harmony, intuition, advocacy, growth, compassion, integrity, unity and inspiration.

The “thoughtstarters” of the world naturally value such qualities as mastery, direction, challenge, logic, foresight, progress, concepts, intelligence, ingenuity and alignment.

When our talents and values are aligned in our work, we feel that we are making a worthwhile contribution – like we “belong.” Many are those whose creative voice is silenced because they feel that in some way they don’t belong in their organizations, like outsiders looking in. They invest only a part of themselves in their work, withholding their best. Working against our values only weakens us, professionally and artistically. The “perfect job” in the wrong place isn’t perfect at all, and no matter what we keep telling ourselves, before we know it, creative excellence is a distant dream.

Conversely, the combination of talents and values can guide us closer to the roles that best fit us. When we are absolutely clear on our personal values, we are able to make choices based on principles. Decision-making is simple (or at least simpler). Values are a guide to determining “what is” and “what should be” so that making instinctive, principle-centered decisions is not much more complicate than that.

In the end, strong judgment brings deeper meaning to our labor and elevates the artistry of work, giving us access to our best abilities.

If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful after all. -Michelangelo

Talent is merely potential, and everyone has it. Talent is everywhere – but by itself it is nothing special. It is the developed talent – the artistic skill – that sets us apart in a distinctive way. Think of talent as personal raw materials to be converted into human performance: assets to be fully capitalized upon and developed in a purposeful way to produce desired results in our work. When we fail to exploit them, we shamefully squander our most valuable resources; indeed, wasting talent dishonors our creative gift.

Transforming talent into performance is a matter of positioning and practicing. No one is a universal creative genius, and no one should try to be. But when a person knows where there is potential for creative excellence, they can unleash its power by working in an environment in which their talents will not only continually deepen but also yield the most meaningful outcomes. Poor positioning and practicing are commonplace, and only inhibit our ability to gain full command of our gifts.

Proper positioning is no more complicated than fitting talent to task, yet this simple fundamental is seldom leveraged well. We regularly find natural “thought starters” floundering in the role of a “playmaker,” and natural “taskmasters” failing in the role of “peacekeeper”.

Companies are notorious for aiding and abetting the creation of misfits. The talents and skills needed to artfully manage a team of salespeople are dramatically different from those required to actually sell, yet most companies will move a star salesperson into a management role, then scratch their heads when the once-high-flying individual not only fails to achieve desired results, but eventually disengages entirely, longing to return to the battlefield. Unfortunately, the pattern is generally self-perpetuating: “I started in the mail room, and so will you.”

It takes far more effort to improve from poor to fair than to improve from good to great. The child whose parents hire a tutor to bring up the single stubborn D among A’s and B’s will find not only little improvement in the D, but diminishing performance in the stronger subjects. The penalty of becoming well rounded is mediocrity. No one ever achieved creative excellence by focusing on what they couldn’t do, or by trying to be who they weren’t.

Business artistry does not require breadth; it requires depth – the polar opposite of the approach taken in most educational institutions and business organizations. Understanding the need to play from a base of strength is the critical difference between the accomplished artist and the also-ran.

Of course, we must often develop certain skills simply to get by, but leveraging the talents of others enables us to concentrate our energy on what we do best. In fact, the most accomplished creative business artists pull their power from only one or perhaps two key talents, parlay that talent into stellar performance, and surround themselves with those whose gifts complement their own.

Bottom line: standout creativity requires gaining command of our gift.

Every time I’m in the throes of writing a book, which I am at the moment, something strange happens. Random but clear thoughts pop in my head that have little to do with my current work. I generally scratch them in a notebook, certain that they have little value.

Over the past few months I’ve inserted them here and there on this blog. You can generally identify them by their philosophical nature, sometimes tied to the notion of artistry at work. I’ve decided to make my notes public.

Why not? Love em or hate em, I’m OK with either. I’ll categorize them as “Artistry at Work,” and shoot for a once a week on the weekend post, to give you something to ponder in what I hope is off-time.

Here’s the latest. Imagine you’re peeking into my notebook…spit and polish added in transposing.

“While one should always study the method of a great artist, one should never imitate his manner. The manner of an artist is essentially individual; the method of an artist is absolutely universal. The first is personality, which no one should copy; the second is perfection, which all should aim at.” Oscar Wilde

“Any technique which will increase self-knowledge in depth should in principle increase one’s creativity.” Abraham Maslow

The search for business artistry begins with locating our unique and enduring talents. Learning to recognize and understand those gifts is the first priority, for the true colors of the business artist are found on the palette of natural talents.

But what is talent? Simply put, it is pure potential, the mystical constellation of qualities each of us is born with. Raw at birth and developed throughout our lives, our talents are our greatest source of power and performance at work.

Modern science proves Leonardo da Vinci’s assertion that “without the heart, hands and head working together, there is no art.” In fact, each is controlled by one of the three major sectors of the brain. The limbic system controls emotions (heart), brain stem control motor functionality (hands), and the neocortex controls logic (head). Together, these three centers produce our unique talent set. But discovering our individual signature talents remains difficult.

Talent is easily observed in athletics and the performing arts, but talent has a hand in all kinds of work. Organizing is a talent, facilitating is a talent, strategizing is a talent, persuading is a talent. The problem is that these kinds of workplace talents are often invisible, at least to ourselves.

So how and where do we look for our talents?

Start with what comes most naturally. Examine our passions, proficiencies and proclivities. Seems like so much common sense, but the reality is we rarely practice it. Most of us don’t really know what our talents are, because they’re the air we breathe and we simply take them for granted.

Too, we often ignore our talents because we’ve been trained to go after what we don’t have, rather than strengthen what we already possess. Many people hesitate to even look for their talents, afraid that they might not find anything too spectacular. Focusing only on what we’re presently good at in the search for talent may lead us down a blind alley, because we may have developed competency and skill in non-talent areas – but we’ll never be great or achieve artistry that way.

Ask others you work with for three words that best describe what they think your trull talent is. My bet is it’ll come as a complete surprise to you.

Just a thought.