Multipotentiality – How to Find my Personal Magic Formula?

Additional information:

+ What is multiple intelligence?
To better understand atypical profiles, their originality, their ability to think “out of the box”, their talents beyond the norm, we can refer to the multiple forms of intelligence of Howard GARDNER. He distinguished 8 mainly intelligence (Logico – mathematical / Verbal – linguistic / Body – Kinesthetic / Intra-personal / Social – Interpersonal / Spatial / Musical – Rhythmic / Naturalist) then a 9th, spiritual intelligence. We can add here creative intelligence and adaptive intelligence…and many more…

+ What is an “Atypical” Professional and Personal Profile?
We speak about “different”, successful and innovative profiles. For example, a chemist who applies for a position of IT developer or an HR Director who applies for the position of Commercial Director are atypical profiles. Or, someone who studied artificial intelligence and have a doctorate in computer science, start to manage an HR consulting company. These are only some examples of atypical. We also tend to associate talents with sports performers, or, in the corporate world, with those who will bring the most of money in. But some atypicals are helping to change the world without quantified results. Atypicals can exercise in many trades. We have many misconceptions about them. We see them as very self-confident, “James Bond” figures. In reality, their empathy, emotionality (hypersensitivity), hyperesthesia (heightened 1 or 5 senses) are a double-edged sword. Their high IQ is coupled with great permeability to emotions and sensations. They feel the positive as well as the negative with an intensity far above the average. Their sensory sensors are super sharp which, coupled with their rapid and “arborescent” thinking often makes them visionaries but also victims of numerous micro-attacks from the environment. Stress, in the long run, can harm their quality of life: shocks from ambient noise, clothing labels that scratch, heady odours of perfumes, visual pollution, an unhealthy taste of junk food are stressful for them.

+ How to detect multi-potential, atypical, intuitive and innovative profiles in the company?
Although they have specific behaviours, their personalities are extremely varied, which makes them difficult to detect. A majority of them (2/3) do not recognise themselves (and are not recognised) as such. Their professional background and/or their studies may be far below their skills. Some are “unmanageable free electrons”. Labelled from childhood as “weird” adults spend an enormous amount of energy adjusting their ecosystem in order to be “normal”, sometimes locking themselves into a feeling of shame or even worse, losing their identity with predominant “false self.” They suffer as a result of lack of self-confidence. They’re inhabited by a permanent questioning and a strong demand on themselves. These two behaviours are maintained by the incomprehension that their atypical way of thinking arouses in their colleagues. They can develop a professional conscience far above the average. They can be hyper-engaged in everything they do so they’re able to lift mountains to carry out the mission entrusted to them … even with scarce resources that have been given to them. They can come with totally innovative and visionary ideas, disruptive creativity. Exceptional vision and intuition, an insatiable curiosity and open-mindedness characterise some of them. They have the ability to constantly renew themselves. They can have a perfectionist side and high standards. We can be surprised by their ethics, values and strong sense of justice, service and responsibility. Some of them have developed a sense of humour and a sense of aesthetics. They all like to deal with complexity and they are able to detect flaws and nuances with great rapidity.

+ What threatens multi-potential adults the most at the workplace?
In a workplace, adults can be perceived as intimidating or threatening by their colleagues. They risk harassment, rejection and misunderstanding of others. Gifted adults may be under-stimulated at work and unable to adapt. Their insatiable curiosity and constant need to learn can cause them to say “yes” to too many new projects, and find themselves chronically overloaded. And conversely, if this need for meaning, stimulation, freedom and autonomy is insufficiently nourished or fuelled by meaningless tasks, they risk bore out, burn-out, and brown-out. Chronic exhaustion, demotivation, depersonalisation at work, growing negativity and cynicism are all precursors of burnout that should alert. In the book “The Stupidity Paradox”, British and Swedish researchers examine the strange mechanism by which companies employ brilliant staff and then only ask them to create seductive PowerPoint presentations to hypnotise clients instead of using their potential.

+ Why the impact of multipotentials and gifted adults in today’s business world is of strategic value?
Companies have to face big challenges in terms of innovation, transformation, attractiveness and retention of talents. Atypical multipotentials constitute a pool of unused talents for an innovative and successful company. Detecting them and retaining them have a strong impact on all levels of the company.

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