Highly gifted people may face a couple of special challenges. Especially if their potential is not perceived and developed – by themselves or by their surrounding. As any other gift – like high musicality, outstanding physical coordination or the emotional capacity for deep empathy – it is important for both the individual and the society that their above-norm intellectual capacities are being discovered, nurtured and trained to be fully developed into a truly outstanding talent.
Giftedness and intelligence – how is that related?
Some people possess intellectual abilities which are well above average. These valuable skills are usually measured with an IQ-test. The intellectually gifted are extremely fast at recognizing recurring patterns and making connections between diverse topics. Therefore they are able to understand interdisciplinary and complex systems. As a result, many gifted people feel at home in scientific professions where they provide benefit due to their analytical skills.
Languages are highly complex systems as well. This is why you will find many gifted people with exceptional language skills, combining a broad vocabulary with linguistic expressiveness.
Highly gifted people are as diverse as any other group
However, in the highly gifted as a whole, it is not possible to demonstrate any general differences to other groups of people beyond the analytical high-performance capability that can be demonstrated by intelligence tests. Thus, despite many rumours, there is yet no scientific evidence that highly gifted people sleep less or more than others, are more often blonde, bigger or fat, that they more often than others want to enforce their own will or that they have a more pronounced sense of humour.
Highly talented employees – added value at work
Smart HR departments can decide the race for talent in their favour by searching and hiring gifted people. Their fast pattern recognition makes it easier for them to identify complex problems and solve them. They enjoy classifying facts and developing and building new structures.
A good IQ test is considered the best predictor of career success. That is why it is highly recommended for employers and HR departments to recognize these talents and use them for the benefit of the company.
Schools – the illusion of the homogeneous learning group
Since intelligence is partly genetically inherited it can already be detected in children. Smart children will be even more inquisitive than normal children, interested in many different topics and very often excelling with ease way above the levels expected of their age group. Driven by curiosity and fascination some are able to teach themselves reading, writing and arithmetic. Such children might be slightly bored when they are with their same-age-peers and often prefer the company by people who are older than themselves since they will provide more stimulations .
So normal learning systems and schools which are usually designed for the so-called “homogenous learning group” are very often a very frustrating experience for them. They thrive in personalized learning environments – which should actually be the goal of any school.
Workshops on giftedness
My lectures, trainings and workshops for the highly gifted and their environment are taking the general needs and concepts for lifelong learnin
They will help you to create real hedonistic sustainability at your workplace and maintain amazing relationships with your partners, families and friends. My application trainings may help you to find your dream job.
Because no matter how smart you are, in the end it’s all about happiness and satisfaction. Click here to find a few recommendations for gifted people.