Even people with exceptional talents can feel insecure and struggle with developing healthy self-esteem.

Meryl Streep, for example, has said, “I have varying degrees of confidence and self-loathing…. You can have a perfectly horrible day where you doubt your talent… Or that you’re boring and they’re going to find out that you don’t know what you’re doing.” [From my article Being Creative and Self-critical.]

John Lennon once said, “Part of me suspects that I’m a loser, and the other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.”

[From post Elaine Aron on our emotional challenges.]

A British newspaper article says Helen Mirren “has talked of how insecure she has felt nearly all her life.”

And said “I still get insecure.” [Helen Mirren: off the wall, by Lucy Cavendish, The Telegraph telegraph.co.uk 20 Jan 2008]

Mirren also said in her memoir that she “went to a shrink once. When I was about twenty-three I was very unhappy and, yes, self-obsessed and insecure.” From post Helen Mirren on miserable self obsession.

“Most actors on most days don’t think they’re worthy. I have no idea where this insecurity comes from, but it’s a God-sized hole. If I knew, I’d fill it, and I’d be on my way.” From post Shia LaBeouf on fame and meaning and insecurity

LaBeouf, by the way, was accepted to Yale University but declined, saying that he is “getting the kind of education you don’t get at school.”

Hilary Swank spent her childhood in a trailer park and has said, “I was a troubled kid. I felt like an outsider. I didn’t feel like I belonged, especially in the classroom. I just wish that I would have been more secure.”

Will Smith admits, “I still doubt myself every single day.

“What people believe is my self-confidence is actually my reaction to fear.” [From post The Self-Esteem Supercharger.]

John Lennon and self esteem

Writer Larry Kane commented about his bio Lennon Revealed: “People would be surprised at how insecure John Lennon was, and his lack of self esteem.

“Throughout his life, even during the height of Beatle mania, he had poor self esteem, even though he exuded confidence.”

Self esteem is positive self-regard, a realistic acknowledgment of your talents and value as a person.

Maybe it is the primary antidote we can have to insecurity.

Authentic esteem is not the superficial efforts over recent years to make all children in school feel they are “special” – with high [often bloated] self-esteem falsely nurtured by school administrators who say things like “We don’t want anyone to feel left out, so everyone wins a spelling bee award” or “The valedictorian will be chosen by lottery.”

Many gifted and talented people feel insecure

Psychologist Roy F. Baumeister, PhD [in his article: The Lowdown on High Self-Esteem] notes that people with inflated high self-esteem “think they make better impressions, have stronger friendships and better romantic lives.. but the data don’t support their self-flattering views.”

But many gifted and talented people suffer at times from a lack of healthy self esteem.

Another example: Nobel Prize laureate poet and writer Czeslaw Milosz confessed: “From early on writing for me has been a way to overcome my real or imagined worthlessness.”

Stephanie S. Tolan – co-author of the book Guiding the Gifted Child – finds that “Many gifted adults seem to know very little about their minds and how they differ from more ‘ordinary’ minds. The result of this lack of self-knowledge is often low, sometimes cripplingly low self esteem.” [From her article Self-Knowledge, Self-Esteem and the Gifted Adult.]

Marilyn J. Sorensen, PhD, author of the book Breaking the Chain of Low Self-Esteem, says “People with low self-esteem generally find themselves at one of the extremes of achievement, either as an overachiever or as an underachiever.

“Some take the road of continually channeling their energies into attempts to receive recognition, approval, and affirmation, and become highly successful in their careers and educational endeavors; they are driven; they are ‘overachievers.’ Others slink back in fear, never realizing their skills or talents.”

Pursuing healthy esteem

So how to counteract and change unhealthy self esteem?

A start is to honestly recognize your abilities and accomplishments, without qualifying or deflating them, as in “Oh, anyone could do that.”

Another effective approach is the cognitive therapy strategy of getting aware of demeaning statements – especially automatic thoughts – you make about yourself (or accept from others), such as “I’m no good at doing that…” – then arguing the logic, validity, merits and faults of the statement, such as: “Well, maybe I am not as skilled as whoever.. but I have been told my work is good and I can get better if I choose to work at it.”

Overcoming impostor feelings

Also related to insecurity is the reaction that a number of talented actors and other people talk about: feeling oneself to be an “impostor.”

Research into this impostor phenomenon or syndrome began with the work of psychotherapists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, who found many women with notable achievements also had high levels of self-doubt which could not be equated with self-esteem, anxiety, or other traits, and seemed to involve a deep sense of inauthenticity and an inability to internalize their successes.

They often had the belief they were “fooling” other people, were “faking it” or getting by from having the right contacts or just being “lucky.” Many held a belief they would be exposed as frauds or fakes. [From my article Gifted Women: Identity and Expression.]

Not just lack of confidence

Dr. Valerie Young has written about the topic for years, and explains “The Impostor Syndrome goes beyond lack of confidence. Everyone experiences bouts of self-doubt from time to time and especially when attempting something new.

“But for impostors self-doubt is chronic. You can feel self-doubt without experiencing shame at performing poorly as impostor do.

“It’s also possible to doubt your abilities without believing that you ultimately succeeded because of some sleight of hand or that you are fooling others.

“A person could have normal jitters before, say getting up to give their first speech, do well, and then draw from this experience to feel more confident about the next time.

“The impostor doesn’t think this way. Because no matter how well you did or how loud the applause, you always think you could have done better or that you just had a ‘good audience’ with no real bump in confidence.”

Our mindset

She notes that “Twenty years of well documented research by leading expert in motivation and personality psychology Carol Dweck and author of my new favorite book Mindset, confirms what I’ve been saying for years.

“Namely that for better or for worse, your perceptions of what it takes to be competent, has a powerful impact on how you measure yourself and therefore how you approach achievement itself.”

Dr. Young adds, “This kind of chronic self-doubt robs you of your successes and ultimately your own happiness and fulfillment.”

She has developed an ebook program to deal with the Impostor Syndrome titled
How to Feel As Bright and Capable As Everyone Seems to Think You Are.

More resources:

Self-esteem / self concept resources

Self concept / self esteem articles

Related post: Exceptional, gifted adults without enough positive self-regard.

building self confidence, self esteem confidence, confidence building, building self esteem, dealing with insecurity, actors and insecurity

By Joe Smydo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Though he received a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant for his work in paleontology, Christopher Beard doesn’t consider himself a wunderkind or believe he was genetically predestined for success.

Not entirely, anyway.

Dr. Beard said he had his parents’ guidance, along with their genes. He’s worked industriously to make a mark in his profession. And he believes that serendipity has been on his side.

“Some people would call it luck,” said Dr. Beard, curator and head of vertebrate paleontology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, who received the $500,000 MacArthur research grant in 2000.

The question of whether high-performers are born or made long has captivated the scholarly community, whose search for answers has led to studies of chess players, musicians and leaders in various fields.

In the 1980s, Howard Gardner, professor of cognition and education at Harvard Graduate School of Education, published a ground-breaking work proposing multiple kinds of intelligence. Dr. Gardner, a 1981 MacArthur grant recipient, also proposed multiple kinds of creativity.

In Dr. Gardner’s view, “Picasso probably could not have been Mozart and Mozart probably could not have been Picasso because they had different kinds of intelligence,” said Kenneth Kiewra, professor of educational psychology at University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

In recent years, the mystique of high-performers has been grist for popular books, such as Daniel Coyle’s “The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How,” Geoff Colvin’s “Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else” and Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers: The Story of Success.”

The books downplay the notion of genetically predetermined greatness and suggest that other factors, including many hours of strategic practice, differentiate high performers.

“Great performance is in our hands far more than most of us ever suspected,” Mr. Colvin wrote.

Some believe that talent and work both are part of the mix.

“Neither one is sufficient; both are necessary,” said Yong Zhao, professor of education at Michigan State University and author of “Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization.” The book, published by the education group ASCD, says schools should do more to help students nurture individual abilities.

With determination and practice, a person can attain proficiency, if not greatness, in many fields, Dr. Zhao said. “I would say everybody can learn to swim, but not everybody can become Michael Phelps.”

Time constraints are one factor limiting a person’s improvement in a given field; developmental factors also may play a role. For example, Dr. Zhao noted that research has suggested that mastery of a foreign language becomes more difficult after early adolescence.

Schools recognize innate abilities by offering special programs to “gifted” students.

However, giftedness is no all-or-nothing proposition.

Some students classified as gifted struggle with an advanced curriculum; other gifted students show a knack for one discipline but struggle in another, said J. Kaye Cupples, associate professor of education at Point Park University and retired executive director of support services for the Pittsburgh Public Schools.

Dr. Kiewra said a variety of environmental factors could influence a person’s performance.

They include early exposure to a discipline or hobby, perhaps through one’s parents; sustained family support of a child’s interest; and the right kinds of mentors or instructors at various points in life. He said there’s also what researchers call “accumulated advantages.”

For example, a young soccer player with an elder sibling to practice with outperforms teammates lacking the same opportunity. The young player gets more touches than his teammates, which translates into a still-higher skill level, which leads him to a more-advanced team with better coaches.

“That kind of thing happens all the time,” Dr. Kiewra said.

Personal qualities are important, too, including the drive Dr. Kiewra called a “rage to learn.”

The nature-or-nurture question often leads to a discussion of golfing great Tiger Woods. Mr. Colvin and Dr. Kiewra are among those who cited two interrelated factors — a rigorous practice regimen and the influence of Mr. Woods’ father — as key factors in Mr. Woods’ development as a golfer.

Practice is so powerful that it changes the brain. For example, Dr. Kiewra said the brains of taxi drivers “grow” in the areas governing spatial skills.

But how circumscribed is greatness? How successful would Mr. Woods be in another line of work, even another sport?

Dr. Kiewra noted that Michael Jordan, a basketball superstar, has proven less adept at baseball and golf.

Each year, the MacArthur Foundation awards no-strings-attached grants to a select number of people in various disciplines, recognizing their “creativity, originality and potential to make important contributions in the future.”

They’re commonly called “genius grants,” though the foundation doesn’t use that term. The foundation won’t say whether it considers its recipients to be prodigies.

Dr. Beard and Luis von Ahn, assistant professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University and 2006 recipient of a MacArthur grant, said many factors influenced their success.

Dr. Beard said he received good guidance from parents who encouraged him to take schoolwork seriously. He had an early interest in animals, which grew when his father, a biology teacher, began relating stories about extinct animals and fossils.

After receiving his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, he had an opportunity to teach and conduct research at a medical school or to take the paleontology position at the Carnegie.

Dr. Beard said he had the good fortune, or luck, to choose the latter. The Carnegie position led to cutting-edge research in China, which, in turn, attracted the attention of the MacArthur Foundation.

As for talent, Dr. Beard didn’t cite technical ability but a knack for helping others to understand a project and buy into its importance — a gift he said some scientists lack.

Dr. von Ahn said he got his first computer when he was 8 and soon was doing things with it that his peers could not.

“There may have been talent, but more than talent, I think, there was curiosity,” he said.

And a work ethic, too. “I know the following: You can’t do it without hard work, at least in my case,” Dr. von Ahn said.

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

~~~~~

Related article: Genius: The Modern View, By David Brooks, Op-Ed Columnist, The New York Times

Related posts :

It takes more than talent.

Grit and perseverance mean more than talent.

Outliers and developing exceptional abilities

gifted adults, gifted adult information, gifted adult personality, psychology of giftedness, high ability, high aptitude, advanced development

Mia Wasikowska earned acclaim for her intense performance in the HBO series “In Treatment.”

She plays the title role in the new “Alice in Wonderland,” and notes that at age 20 she is still fairly new to acting:

“I was at dance school doing about 35 hours practice a week until I was 14. Then ballet started to grate – the whole idea of trying to attain perfection started to ruin the experience, so I decided to try another type of performance.”

From article Mia Wasikowska: My adventures in Tim Burton’s Wonderland.

Excellence can be fueled by perfectionism

Linda Kreger Silverman, PhD, Director of the Gifted Development Center, says “Excellence is the hard-won prize of those whose zeal and dedication are fueled by the drive to attain perfection, as they envision it.”

But that drive can affect others – as well as those who experience it.

Director Jane Campion said about working with Nicole Kidman [see profile]: “She can be quite murderously challenging in her perfectionism. Take Twenty: ‘Are you sure that’s good enough?’ We’re going, [wearily] ‘Yeah.’ ”

A vice and an asset

Emmy Rossum says that for her, being prepared for a role is crucial: “It’s not about control but perfectionism – my biggest vice and one of my biggest assets.” [photo from "The Phantom of the Opera"]

That is a perspective shared by many other talented people.

Michelle Pfeiffer has commented, “I’m a perfectionist, so I can drive myself mad – and other people, too. At the same time, I think that’s one of the reasons I’m successful. Because I really care about what I do. I really want it to be right, and I want it to be good, and I don’t quit until I have to.”

A number of talented and accomplished actors and other creative people are energized – or burdened – by this drive. Jennifer Connelly has admitted, “I am an obsessive-compulsive and a perfectionist. I don’t say it with pride.”

And Bridget Fonda has said, “I’m afraid of making a mistake. I’m pretty neurotic about it.”

“No, I’m a greatist.”

It’s also a matter of how you think of it.

Director James Cameron refutes being labeled as a perfectionist: “No, I’m a greatist. I only want to do it until it’s great.”

But a drive to be perfect can be an obsessive emotional force that helps fuel insecurity and dissatisfaction with your work, and undermines healthy self esteem.

Jane Fonda – in her memoir My Life So Far – admits to suffering from a destructive aspect: “Because I believed that to be loved I had to be perfect, I moved ‘out of myself’ – my body – early on and have spent much of my life searching to come home… to be embodied.”

So it’s a matter of balance, of using this need to “make it great” to refine yourself, your talents and your work, without being overwhelmed or undermined by it.

> Related pages:
Perfectionism
Perfectionism articles
Perfectionism articles & books
Article: Perfectionism – by Douglas Eby

Related book: When Perfect Isn’t Good Enough: Strategies for Coping With Perfectionism, by Martin M. Antony, Ph.D and Richard P. Swinson, MD.

Here is a podcast interview with Dr. Antony [source page] by Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney.
..

dealing with perfectionism, perfectionism books, being a perfectionist, Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman, Emmy Rossum, James Cameron

Article by Cathy Goodwin

“James is so restless and energetic. I wonder if he’s hyperactive.”

“Nancy seems to be all over the place. She’s got a dozen projects going at once!”

“Harley does things so fast! He put up a website in two weeks.”

“Marlene is so intense. She needs to lighten up.”

While it’s possible that James is hyperactive, Nancy is scattered, Harley skates on thin ice and Marlene is depressed, it’s also possible that each of these people wears the label, “gifted adult,” often unaware.

Gifted children often lose interest in school because they’re bored.

They don’t always get top grades because they think in unconventional patterns.

Gifted adults can be misunderstood. Those who read books like Jacobsen’s The Gifted Adult often feel relieved: “Finally, someone understands where I’m coming from!”

Gifted adults often face unique career challenges. Job environments rarely reward creativity, a hallmark of the gifted, and frequently punish anyone who threatens to color outside the lines.

Corporations often resemble football games, where players are rewarded for being in position to receive the ball everyone wins by executing the coach’s play.

Gifted people function better when their game resembles playground basketball, where you can scramble and make plays as you go.

And when gifted adults seek career guidance, they must filter feedback they receive from friends and consultants who are not familiar with their situation.

* “Whoa! You’re trying to be a jack-of-all trades and you’ll end up a master of none.”

* “Wow! I’ve never seen anyone move as fast as you do. I’m sure you’re going to be a success.”

* “You’re going too fast! Slow down or you’ll fail.”

* “Focus on one thing at a time.”

* “Boy, you’re catching on fast! You must be well-suited to this field.”

If you’re gifted, you probably already have some idea that you’re “different.”

Read a few books and articles. Browse websites.

Understanding how you operate can help you avoid, “Why is this happening” questions and reach success on your own terms.

About The Author

Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., coaches midlife professionals for the First Inning of their Second Career: business, retirement, new career moving, or enjoying more of what you have.

Free report: 5 Reasons Most Career Change Fails (and how to write your own success story):
http://www.cathygoodwin.com/subscribe.html

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cathy_Goodwin

~~~~~

Related article: Giftedness in the work environment.

gifted adults, gifted adult information, gifted adult personality, psychology of giftedness, high ability, high aptitude

Backgrounds and practical recommendations

By Noks Nauta, Sieuwke Ronner

This article was published in Dutch in Tijdschriftvoor Bedrijfs-en Verzekeringsgeneeskunde (Journal for Occupational Health- and Insurance Physicians), TBV 16, no. 11 (Nov. 2008): 396-399. Publisher: Bohn Stafleu Van Loghum, Houten, The Netherlands. The editor agreed with translation and publication on this website.

Key words: GIFTEDNESS, CHARACTERISTICS, FAVOURABLE AND UNFAVOURABLE ENVIRONMENTS

In November 2002, an article was published in this journal entitled Gifted individuals at work.1

Up until then, little had been published on the subject of giftedness and work, even outside the Netherlands. The article thus provoked many responses.

What particularly caught people’s attention was the table presenting side by side two perceptions of problems encountered by the gifted in fitting in with their environment: one from the perspective of the gifted employee and one from that of his/her environment.

On various occasions, we heard that both employee and employer literally acknowledged ALL the points!

Additionally, many occupational health physicians were able to better recognise gifted individuals by using this table, thereby enabling them to provide more effective guidance.

As a source of information and as an aid to recognition, the article continues to prove its worth.

In the last six years, increasing attention has been focused on this subject, for example for gifted children in education. One result of this is that some parents come to discover that they too are gifted.

And with the founding of various think tanks and the attention being paid to retaining special talents for industry, the subject is now on the political agenda.

However, until fairly recently, many misconceptions existed concerning what giftedness actually is. Additionally, the image of gifted individuals was not always a positive one.

That is why in 2006/2007 a so-called Delphi study was conducted into the characteristics of giftedness.2

In this article, we will discuss briefly the results of this study, with the emphasis on the relation between the gifted individual and the work environment.

We will then provide a number of practical tips for the occupational health- and insurance physician, based on the current state of knowledge and experiences.

We will also briefly discuss the guidance offered by psychologists and other professionals. And finally, we will describe what the gifted individuals can do for themselves.

Central points

• Occupational health- and insurance physicians can recognise gifted employees based on a number of the characteristics

• Knowledge of the interaction between a favourable or unfavourable work environment and the gifted employee is of great importance if a clear problem analysis and effective guidance is to be achieved.

GIFTEDNESS AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS

In practice, various definitions of giftedness exist, a fact which has not made the communication concerning giftedness any easier. Differences in insights were often linked to the question of whether the diagnosis of gifted referred only to the IQ (the top 2% of the scores in a valid IQ test) or whether the person being assessed was required to achieve high-level performances.

In other words, is it possible for someone with no educational qualifications, and who has not produced any tangible achievements (e.g. playing the violin exceptionally well), or who does not occupy a good social position, to still be called gifted?

For this reason, in the Netherlands throughout the year 2006/2007, a national consensus trajectory was carried out regarding what a group of experts (people who are themselves gifted and who also work with the gifted, including psychologists, coaches and career coaches, occupational health physicians, and a psychiatrist), precisely consider to be giftedness .

Use was made of the Delphi method and the result of this study is an existential model from which the following picture of commonly shared characteristics can be distilled:

A gifted individual is a quick and clever thinker, who is able to deal with complex matters. Autonomous, curious and passionate. A sensitive and emotionally rich person, living intensely. He or she enjoys being creative.

In the above-mentioned study, attention was paid to the naming of the specific characteristics of gifted individuals who are in balance.

When the gifted individual is in a situation in which he or she is not able to effectively deal with his or her characteristics, skewed growth may occur, leaning in the direction of an exaggeration or collapse.

It is possible for gifted individuals to make a contribution to work processes through their characteristics (their talents), provided that their talents and their contributions are also seen to be positive, and provided that they do not grow skewed, through, among other things, insufficient appreciation or non-professional guidance.

We’re talking here about an ideal typical character. The gifted individual doesn’t exist (just as the American or the European doesn’t exist), and gifted individuals also differ amongst themselves.

A gifted individual will possess quite a few of all the characteristics mentioned in this model, but need not possess all characteristics in equal amounts, or possess an extreme number of them, according to Kooijman.2

The model is not intended to be used as a measure or for making diagnoses.

The following characteristics are the most eye-catching from the list:

• highly intelligent (thinking);
• autonomous (being);
• many-faceted emotional life (feeling);
• passionate and curious (wanting);
• highly sensitive (perceiving);
• creation-directed (doing);
• sparkling original, quick, intense and complex (interplay)

A more detailed description of this collection of characteristics and a diagrammatic representation can be found in chapters 4 and 5 of Kooijman et al.2

The value of this collection of characteristics will need to be demonstrated in practice, says Kooijman.2

She explains that the model is primarily intended for the gifted individuals themselves to help them develop a more balanced self-image and to identify their own potential, pitfalls and learning points.

Additionally, the model can be used outside the group of gifted individuals, for example for occupational health professionals and coaches and/or career coaches.

And it may be used for PR purposes to rectify the occasionally one-dimensional (and often negative) image of gifted individuals.

ORGANISATIONS IN WHICH THE GIFTED FUNCTION WELL

With their creative talents, gifted individuals can make a useful contribution to innovations within organisations.

In the article Gifted employees, key to innovation , we suggest that gifted individuals possess many more creative possibilities than the averagely gifted person.

To make use of their innovative ideas and to implement them, however, an effective interaction between gifted individuals and their work environment is essential.4

In Table 1 we show why gifted individuals are able to contribute effectively to innovation.

Table 1 – How do gifted individuals contribute to innovation?

• The gifted individual can easily identify the relationships between goals, missions and assignments.

• The gifted individual has the ability to focus intensely on the content. Arguments based on content are key. Habits, traditions and social pressure are quickly spotted. If these seem to be in conflict with the content, they are discarded as being irrelevant.

• Thinking out of the box is second nature to them.

• Switching between one’s own professional area and other disciplines is no problem at all.

• The opinion of a formal authority does not weigh any heavier than the opinion of another party.

• Information from others is checked against one s own experience or against other information.

• The gifted individual has a high degree of commitment and passion.

• Existing protocols, structures and approaches are only followed if they appear to be effective and are well-founded. A customized solution is sought for each individual situation, often when this has not been requested. ‘Standard problems’ are also approached in this way.

Favourable environmental factors that are required for making use of these contributions are listed in Table 2. The favourable characteristics listed in table 2 correspond strongly with the task culture and person culture, while the unfavourable characteristics correspond with the role culture or power culture from Harrison’s typologies of organisational culture.5

Table 2 Favourable and unfavourable organisational characteristics for the gifted

Favourable organisational characteristics

• flexibility
• little hierarchy
• few procedures (only if they are useful)
• the development and needs of employees are of importance
• room for productive conflicts
• power and influence can be acquired through expertise, dedication and success (or, at most, through personality, expertise and outstanding performances).

Unfavourable organisational characteristics

• procedures determine the work
• power and influence are predominantly dependent on your position
• the development and needs of employees are of little importance
• conflicts are avoided

THE ROLE OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH- AND INSURANCE PHYSICIANS

Occupational health- and insurance physicians appear on the scene only when an imbalance has resulted in sickness symptoms becoming evident.

We often see stress arise as an expression of problems experienced by the gifted individual in adjusting to his or her work environment. That may have something to do with the nature of the work: the work might be too routine, or offer too little of a challenge.

In that case, the gifted employee will typically be located in a situation where he or she will be unable to make optimal use of his or her talents.

But a contributory factor may also be the relations at work. Some managers might feel threatened, or colleagues might consider the gifted individual to be a know-it-all .

Problems encountered in fitting in with the environment can be identified if a physician realises that in many work situations there is a huge difference between the IQ of the gifted individual and that of the other employees.

Gifted individuals are able to think more quickly, can analyse well, understand complex situations, and therefore they will appear at the frontline relatively quickly.

Additionally, their areas of interests can diverge strongly from others, as can their type of humour.

At the same time, it is useful to realise that many gifted individuals have felt that they were different from a young age and therefore feel isolated more quickly than the average classmate or colleague.

Some will also have been bullied due to their being different .

If being gifted plays a role in the occurrence of health complaints and incapacity to work, it is important that this is acknowledged at an early stage.

An employee with innovative ideas may have fallen into the pitfall of nagging or knowing it all and as a result may have come into conflict with colleagues or superiors.

By acknowledging this mechanism, in which a talent has become a pitfall, the occupational physician can contribute to raising awareness in both the gifted individual and his/her superior.

A few clarifying or coaching talks can often work wonders, in our experience! On the internet you can find various articles and different portals in this area, such as (in Dutch) www.hoogbegaafd-en-werk.nl and www.hoogbegaafd.startpagina.nl.

Some websites where you can find information on gifted adults in English:

http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/index.htm

http://www.sengifted.org/

http://www.kreimeier-smith.de/giftedadults.htm

When the employee suffers from serious complaints or if the problematic situation is of a persistent nature, a referral to a psychologist or a psychotherapist may be useful. Gifted individuals feel more comfortable with practitioners that are familiar with giftedness as well as having an affinity with it.

PRACTICAL TIPS

We will now summarize a number of issues that are of importance for the practice of occupational- and insurance physicians.

How can giftedness be recognised? If an employee arrives at your consulting room how do you recognise the above-mentioned characteristics of giftedness?

We will specify a few here, including in brackets the corresponding term from the Delphi study:2

• wide interest in all kinds of fields (curious and passionate);
• sensitive for, for example, noise at work (highly sensitive);
• can speak passionately about a subject that interests him or her, starts speaking more quickly, the eyes light up, makes agitated gestures (passionate);
• quick analyses of the work situation: that’s how it works (highly intelligent);
• focused primarily on the content of the work (highly intelligent);
• wants to work in his/her own way (autonomous);
• wants to see a lot of variety in the work (creation-directed);
• produces unorthodox solutions that are not generally accepted (sparkling original).

Focus points for the problem analysis

• Gifted individuals suffer relatively often from stress and burn-out. Factors that can be of influence here are the nature of the work (sufficient challenge), the degree of autonomy and the defining of borders. Gifted employees are especially passionate and have the tendency to insufficiently specify their own limits.

• Bullying, or other forms of aggression: because a gifted individual does not fit the requirements of the average employee. As a result, fear/anxiety disorders may arise.

• Depressive feelings often start at an early age. Gifted individuals can therefore more easily feel lonely and isolated.

• Fear of failure as a result of setting the bar high and the tendency to perfectionism.

• The gifted individual can come across as having ADHD. The combination of giftedness and ADHD is not uncommon.

• Gifted individuals have a high sensitivity for odours and sounds. They more quickly experience certain circumstances as being a hindrance.

THE ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGISTS AND OTHER PRACTITIONERS

The theme of gifted adults in the work situation has hardly been an issue for the professional group of psychologists up till now.

Although the number of preconceptions about giftedness is on the decrease, it would appear that many psychologists are still insufficiently aware of the characteristics, talents and pitfalls of gifted individuals, and the interaction between these characteristics and the work situation.

Additionally, the focus remains strongly on the individual, with little involvement on the part of the employer. The content of the work and the mutual relations can however be just as obstructive for the functioning of the gifted employee.

This demands more deliberation between the various professionals themselves, the employer and the gifted employee. We therefore recommend setting up the plan of approach in joint discussion with the employer, employee and occupational health physician (in collaboration with other relevant professionals).

Agreements concerning the guidance and the expected results of a re-integration trajectory are then specified and registered. These are evaluated at the end of the guidance period.

THE GIFTED INDIVIDUAL TAKING THE INITIATIVE

To achieve an effective collaboration between work environment and the gifted employee, the gifted individual must obviously take action himself/herself.

In the book Unguided missiles on course, working and living with giftedness , the authors provide a number of tips based on their experiences in guiding gifted individuals in their work.6

The book describes eleven examples of gifted adults in search of their own path, after having been blown off course in their work and/or their private lives. The most important focus point is to keep the balance of the many talents of being gifted and to make these talents visible in connection with the work environment.

To achieve this, it is important that gifted employees are aware of:

• their talents and the effects of these talents on the environment;

• their motivations and passions;

• their specific pitfalls, which are strongly related to being gifted;

• other ways of dealing with their talents and passion;

• other ways of communication to demonstrate their talents to their environment;

• a work environment in which their talents are given the place they deserve. For gifted individuals, a workspace offering the freedom to explore and fostering creativity is favourable for them to be able to display their talents.

If there is no positive interaction between the gifted employee and the work environment, a moment can arise when the balance between talents and pitfalls is disturbed. Occasionally, the gifted employee succeeds in re-establishing the connection with himself/herself and the work environment all on their own, and sometimes professional help is required.

CONCLUSION

Although more attention is now being paid to gifted employees, there is still not much known about specific characteristics of giftedness and its significance for the work situation. Gifted individuals can be exceptionally useful for companies and organisations, provided that their talents are acknowledged and made use of.

If the gifted employee is in danger of missing the boat, we make a plea for focussing attention particularly on the specific talents of the gifted individual and how this can be effectively made use of in the work situation.

We observe that there is a tendency for the problem to be individualised or medicalised. The interaction between the organisation and the gifted employee deserves more attention, in our opinion.

LITERATURE

1. Nauta N, Corten F. Hoogbegaafden aan het werk. (Gifted adults in work.) Tijdschr Bedrijfs Verzekeringsgeneeskd (Journal for Occupational Health- and Insurance Physicians) 2002; 10(11): 332-335. This article is available in both Dutch and Polish versions from the first author.

2. Kooijman-van Thiel MBGM (red). Hoogbegaafd. Dat zie je zó! Over zelfbeeld en imago van hoogbegaafden. (Highly Gifted. Obvious? On Identity and Image of Gifted Persons) Ede: OYA Productions, 2008, ISBN 978 90 9023526 4.

3. Mary-Elaine Jacobsen. The gifted adult. Ballantine Books, 2000, ISBN 0 345 43492 7.

4. Corten FGP, Nauta AP, Ronner S. The highly intelligent and innovation. Key to innovation? Academic paper for HRD conference Amsterdam, October 2006. See websites www.werkenwaarde.nl, www.noksnauta.nl and www.meriones.nl.

5. Geffen G van. Mensalen and the organisation culture types of Harrison. Article in Mensaberichten 2000.

6. Noks Nauta and Sieuwke Ronner. Unguided missiles on course. Working and living with giftedness. Harcourt Book Publishers, June 2007. ISBN 978 90 26517990.

AUTHOR INFO

Ms Noks Nauta is an occupational health physician and a psychologist. She works as a freelance trainer and teacher, amongst others, in the field of the gifted. www.noksnauta.nl.

Ms Sieuwke Ronner is a clinical psychologist and organisational expert. She supervises change trajectories in companies, gives training courses and coaches gifted individuals. www.meriones.nl.

CORRESPONDENCE ADDRESS – Email: info@noksnauta.nl.

TRANSLATOR – Translation from Dutch into English by Kumar Jamdagni (Language Matters, Zwolle)
Translation date 9 October 2009

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Additions by High Ability site author Douglas Eby :

Article published here with kind permission of author Noks Nauta.

Related book: Making Work Work for the Highly Sensitive Person, by Barrie Jaeger

Related site: Highly Sensitive

Achievement / Vocation articles

High Ability articles

Stress articles

More about book Escape from Cubicle Nation in The Inner Entrepreneur post Pamela Slim on Excuses People Use To Stay at a Job.

gifted adults, gifted adult information, gifted adult personality, psychology of giftedness, high ability, high aptitude, gifted adults and work

Polish psychiatrist and psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski (1902 – 1980) worked with creative adults and adolescents, and developed a theory of personality and emotional development that is often applied toward understanding the psychology of gifted and talented individuals.

One aspect of his Theory of Positive Disintegration is the concept of unusual intensity and reactivity, as Lesley Sword explains in her article Overexcitabilities in Gifted Children:

“Overexcitability is a sensitivity of the nervous system, an expanded awareness of and a heightened capacity to respond to stimuli such as noise, light, smell, touch etc.”

[Also see the Highly Sensitive site.]

Stephanie Tolan notes the original Polish word can be translated more literally as “superstimulatabilities” and “involves not just psychological factors but central nervous system sensitivity.”

She describes the Psychomotor form of Overexcitability or Excitability: “This is often thought to mean that the person needs lots of movement and athletic activity, but it can also refer to the issue of having trouble smoothing out the mind’s activities for sleeping. Lots of physical energy and movement, fast talking, lots of gestures, sometimes nervous tics.”

From the page Dabrowski / advanced development.

Sword describes the Psychomotor form as “surplus of energy: rapid speech, pressure for action, restlessness impulsive actions, nervous habits and tics, competitiveness, sleeplessness.”

Michael Jackson exemplified a number of these qualities as a singer and dancer.

But for some people, including him, this high sensitivity and surplus of central nervous system activity can be very challenging.

Jackson took a variety of drugs that included powerful sedatives, reportedly more than ten Xanax every night. “He had a long-running addiction to several prescription painkillers, including the powerful narcotics Diprivan and Oxycontin.” [From article Jackson Death Puts Focus on Painkiller Addiction.]

The clip of Jackson is from the new documentary This Is It.

> Also see related post: Developing Creativity: Excitabilities – Our Teeming Brains

gifted adults, gifted adult information, gifted adult personality, psychology of giftedness, high ability, high aptitude

“I did not perform well socially in junior high. I was a strange girl and I was in a lot of pain because of that, like most teenagers.” Claire Danes

Elaine Aron, PhD comments on some of the consequences of being very sensitive as a child: “…family and school problems, childhood illnesses, and the like all affected you more than others. Furthermore, you were different from other kids and almost surely suffered for that.”

[From post: Sensitive and suffering as a teen: Claire Danes on being shy and high achieving]

If identified early in life as gifted, a prodigy, a Wunderkind, genius etc – that label can be another kind of burden, along with not fitting in socially.

Many highly talented people do achieve great things or feel creatively fulfilled as adults, but there can be many challenges on the way, including coming to terms with an identity as ‘gifted’ or ‘exceptional.’

In her article Growing Up Gifted Is Not Easy, Elaine Aron (author of The Highly Sensitive Person) writes about people being put into a role as a beyond-human exemplar, which can start in childhood or as a teen.

She writes, “There’s one thing about archetypes: No one can be identified with an archetype without being greatly damaged by it. It’s just too much.

“Women who identify with the Great Mother, or are identified by others with Aphrodite (e.g. Marilyn Monroe), for example, or men who identify with the Hero (JFK, Martin Luther King Jr.) will sooner or later try to do things or be expected to do things beyond human capabilities, or be scapegoated for failing, or martyred in some way.”

From post Gifted, talented and archetyped

Both idolized and resented

In her article Young + Brilliant, Blessed + Cursed Patti Hartigan writes about young people with exceptionally high levels of intelligence often struggling “to balance the life of the mind and their place in the regular, workaday world, a struggle that intensifies as they reach adulthood.

“Starting with their first social or academic encounters, they face conflicting reactions to their talents. On one hand, they are viewed as anomalies, strange beings who don’t fit in with other children and who are sent out to the school hallway (or, in one humiliating case, to the classroom closet) to work independently.

“They are often resented by teachers and peers. Such treatment can do irrevocable damage, especially for those who are awkward or shy.

“At the same time, learning comes so easily that they are used to excelling, and they are frequently singled out for their extraordinary abilities.”

They are no longer alive to ask, but maybe my parents had some awareness of these kinds of problems – not that I was a prodigy, by any means – and chose to pretty much ignore my differentness, except for allowing my grade school to advance me a couple of grades “on account of my height” as they explained it.

Why bother acknowledging your gifted qualities?

In her post Gifted Adult – Pros and Cons of a Label Elisa notes, “There is a lot of debate about whether it’s good to apply the label ‘gifted’ or bad.  Certainly a lot of people reject the label, possibly because gifted is a terrible word and there is ambiguity as well as misconceptions about what being a gifted adult is.”

But, she adds, “For me, having the experience of my life explained by someone else, having words put to it, is affirming.  To re-consider some of the qualities that I thought were particular to me as part of a shared experience is helpful.  I think differently and have emotional responses that are are often out of step with people around me.  I appreciate having some context for my unusual perspective and I am less likely to see it as ’something wrong with me’ personally but to recognize it within the framework of my being a gifted adult.”

Life coach Lisa Lauffer affirms, “There is a point to exploring giftedness as a grownup, and this is it: if you are a gifted person, you can only live the life you were meant to live if you acknowledge and integrate your giftedness into your adult life.” [From her post Exploring Grownup Giftedness: What’s the Point?]

One aspect of that recognition is authentic, positive self esteem.

Stephanie S. Tolan notes in her article Self-Knowledge, Self-Esteem and the Gifted Adult, “Many gifted adults seem to know very little about their minds and how they differ from more ‘ordinary’ minds.  The result of this lack of self-knowledge is often low, sometimes cripplingly low self esteem.”

It may not be comfortable, or help us be as “ordinary” or compatible with the majority as we may feel we want to be, but recognizing and accepting ourselves as exceptional can help us realize our talents. Isn’t that worth some discomfort?

gifted adults, gifted adult information, gifted adult personality, psychology of giftedness, high ability, high aptitude

In a very real sense, everyone may be called “underachieving” regardless of whether they are gifted or not. One short definition is “Performance below potential.”

But high ability and giftedness are much more than advanced potential, high scores and notable achievements. What really matters in talking about underachievement is the inner experience of “falling short of potential” – how that impacts our identity, esteem, life satisfaction and mental health.

Many of us are “naturally” self-critical, and not fulfilling more of the wide range of talents we have can be yet another source of fuel for calling ourselves deficient.

Video: Gifted Underachievement – Jerald Grobman, M.D.

This video is an excerpt from the 90 Minute Webinar Presentation by SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted) “Understanding and Treating Anxiety, Depression, Bipolar Disorder and Underachievement in Gifted Children, Adolescents and Young Adults” – presented by Jerald Grobman, M.D.

From the SENG Webinar Program info page: “Anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and underachievement are common concerns of gifted children, adolescents and young adults and their parents.”

See related articles at his site Psychotherapy Services for the Gifted.

In one of those articles: Underachievement in Exceptionally Gifted Adolescents and Young Adults: A Psychiatrist’s View, Dr. Grobman writes, “By mid-adolescence, these exceptionally gifted young people had begun to seriously and consistently undermine their gifted development. Each limited how he or she used his or her potential strengths and began to act in other very self-destructive ways.”

Whose standards?

Dr. Grobman comes across as very helpful and sympathetic about his gifted patients – but many health professionals may be uninformed about gifted characteristics and challenges, and may tend to pathologize some behaviors. Cutting, for example, is often considered a disorder. But it can be a temporary self-medication maneuver. Angelina Jolie said of her self-cutting, “It was a release of some kind.”

In her post Underachievement and the Gifted Adult, Elisa writes, “Not working to your potential.  How often have many gifted adults encountered that phrase in their life?  How often do gifted adults say that to themselves?

“I think the problem with that phrase is how ‘working to your potential’ or ‘living up to your potential’ is generally understood in narrow terms.

“As a child it means getting exceptional grades.  As an adult it means earning a lot of money and/or eminence in your profession…. ‘‘Performance below expectation’ – who’s expectation?  And how do we understand ‘performance’?”

Good questions. But another issue is self-limiting behavior patterns.

In his book Your Own Worst Enemy: Breaking the Habit of Adult Underachievement, Kenneth W. Christian, PhD defines how “Self Limiting High Potential Persons etch enduring pathways over time by repeating their characteristic self-defeating methods.”

For example, one pattern is “Sleepers. The style most often seen in people from families or communities without models or traditions of high achievement. Sleepers lack accurate information about themselves, the extent of their talent, and ways to express it.”

Read more of his patterns on the page Self-limiting.

adult underachievement, gifted adult personality, psychology of giftedness, high ability, high aptitude

A number of movies include gifted and talented characters, and depict a variety of characteristics that are positive and relate to exceptional abilities, but also can generate not so positive reactions – such as “You think you’re so smart,” or, “You’re too verbal… too bossy… too nerdy… too sensitive.”

And, of course, we may still experience some of those reactions as adults.

Movie clips include Matilda (1996, with Mara Wilson, Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman); Little Man Tate (1991,directed by and starring Jodie Foster, with Dianne Wiest, Adam Hann-Byrd); Phoebe in Wonderland (2008, Elle Fanning, Patricia Clarkson); Akeelah and the Bee (2006, Keke Palmer, Laurence Fishburne); Akeelah and the Bee (2006, Keke Palmer, Laurence Fishburne).

Short list of gifted characteristics in video from article What is giftedness all about? – by Linda Kreger Silverman, Ph.D., Gifted Development Center.

List of other films: Hoagies’ Gifted: Movies Featuring Gifted Kids (and Adults!)

The image is food critic Anton Ego from the movie Ratatouille [video clip].

I was reminded of the stuffy and dour character while reading Laura Berman Fortgang’s The Little Book on Meaning , and her reference below to “high analytical ability.. often black-and-white thinkers.. Quick to decide what is good and what is bad..”

I know I sometimes limit my appreciation of nuances and grays on account of that tendency.

Here is the excerpt by Fortgang :

We are all faced with choices… Do we allow ourselves to be fear-minded, anxiety driven, scarcity-minded? Do we allow anger, hurt, and resentment to rule our minds? Do we dig ourselves deep into a trench and fight all the time causing ourselves great stress, even for a “good” cause like a paycheck?

Do we linger in the glory of our discontent? Any of these mental states involve a choice on our part. It’s not simple to make the choice, unfortunately – there may be work needed in therapy to unravel the root beliefs – but it is absolutely possible to free ourselves from fearful and angry thoughts to embrace thoughts that nurture love and connection.

What’s interesting is that some of the smartest people with the most developed minds suffer the most at the hand of their own high analytical ability when it comes to having happiness and meaning in their life.

These often black-and-white thinkers, who see very little that is gray or colorful, are highly and quickly decisive but who can also easily miss joy in the way they process.

Quick to decide what is good and what is bad, little room is left for mystery and discovery and some of the other elements that slow us down long enough to feel meaning.

barriers to personal growth and development, emotional intelligence, intellect and ego