Personal Branding: Skills Versus Talents
by Angela Loëb
I’ve addressed this topic of skills versus talents before in the Career Blog, but yesterday one of my clients emailed me asking for additional clarification. It’s a critical to know who you are and what you bring to the table, so I want to give you this important piece of information.
Yes, it’s a fact. Prospective employers do care about your skills when you apply for their positions. However, you will encounter a lot of competition in the job market for those same skills. You have x skills and so does the other candidate who’s vying for the same job. What could set you apart though is your talent.
I’m guessing you could probably run through a list of your skills pretty easily, but what about your talent? Could you name those if I put you on the spot right now?
In today’s job market, you need to know how to pitch your skills AND your talents to prospective employers because your personal brand is defined by your uniqueness, and, therefore, your talent.
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Client’s Question:
I know that you explained the difference between talents and skills, but I still think that I am putting the skills for talents. Can you give me one example of what you are referring to?
My Response:
Sure – and I’ll give you more than one!
1st here are the dictionary definitions:
- Talent is defined as “a marked innate ability, natural endowment or ability of a superior quality.”
- Skill is defined as “proficiency, facility, or dexterity that is acquired or developed through training or experience.”
Example: Miles Davis obviously had natural musical talent but didn’t began taking trumpet lessons until he was 13, and by age 33 his well-developed musical skills led to the release of the best-selling jazz album of all time. He had to learn how to read & write music, make arrangements, play the trumpet, etc. These were the skills he used to develop his natural talent.
Example: You might be able to learn to type and use email, but you don’t come out of the womb knowing how to do these things. You could even learn to program computers. These are classified as skills. However, you might possess an innate talent that allows you to have a more-than-normal affinity to understand, design and work with computers. In the case of programming… even if you have a natural talent to pick up computer languages easily, you still need to learn the language itself, and learning the language is the skill part.
One more example: you can learn the mechanics of writing (skills) - spelling, grammar and even sentence diagramming – but writing talent is more than simply being able to use the skills that most learn in primary school.
Here’s a great observation about talent from author and screenwriter, Julie Gray: “…while I do believe talent is inborn from day one, it does need to be identified and groomed. If Michael Phelps had grown up in a Bedouin family with no access to a swimmable body of water, perhaps his talent would never have blossomed into more than a great eye for a distant oasis.”
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Dear Reader,
Please feel free to join in the discussion. If you have any additional insights or feedback about this subject of skills versus talents, please click on the comments link below. We’d love to know your thoughts!
Thanks,
Angela
