The Talent Myth

‘Talent’...the most mis-used, over quoted and least understood word in work, education, sport (and government)!

Maybe it's because I've read Daniel Coyle's 'Talent Code' amongst others, but I really do have an issue with people continuing to use the word talent ad lib. For starters, do people really know what they mean when they use it? Are they suggesting that there is some innateness or God-given level of ability that one individual has over another? I hope not. Yes, I understand genetics, but that in itself should never be a starting point for our admiration of performance. Why would any teacher even contemplate this line of thinking? Commentators use it all the time, and as a PE Teacher, it drives me crazy! As an experiment I sat and watched a host of matches in the Six Nations Rugby Championship last month. In one game - France vs Scotland the commentators including a former Scotland international Rory Lawson, made these remarks:

I saw him playing in the Junior World Cup and he's a real talent.

They tend to prey on a lot of young talent from around the smaller clubs.

Precocious talent coming in

Cheap punditry. Instead of articulating on the skills and processes that have secured success, we all too often simply label it as 'talent'. Instead of recognising the fact the elite sport is about blood, sweat, sacrifice and inordinate hours of dedication and self-sacrifice, we call it talent, even labelling the talent as 'precocious'. Instead of educating the public about what is practised, where, how and by what means - you guessed, let’s call it talent.

Business has over-used it for decades. They love it. 'This years talent pool', 'talented salesmen/women', the 'up and coming talent'. For what it represents, these are inarticulate labels, old-school thinking, perhaps even now discriminatory. An uneducated carte blanche and stereotype that we love to throw around and define people by. Even our government uses it rather embarrassingly in its own manifesto. Indeed the Conservatives 2017 manifesto (for what it’s worth now) talks about..........

making sure that everyone has the opportunity to make the most of your talents (2017, p. 7).

The BBC and other media organisations love its use. Any act that played at Glastonbury was described as ‘the wonderfully talented’. They use it to justify their own exorbitant salaries to likes of Gary Linker, Jonathan Agnew and Graham Norton. Shouldn't a public service broadcaster be concerned with developing new opportunities in broadcasting instead of topping up has beens pensions? And then there is Britain’s Got Talent and it’s global franchises.

First of all the word talent undermines someones effort and how they got where they are in the first place. If talent did exist in isolation by itself, we'd all be redundant and no one would ever need to pursue any form of career development. What's the point when there is all this 'talent' around eh?

Secondly, any mention of the word talent in a sporting or educational setting is nothing short of catastrophe. The minute you single out someone as special, of superior ability to others, capable of things no one else can do, they start to believe it, perceived effort invariably drops. Put in layman’s terms: keep telling someone how different and better than other people they are because of their ‘talent’ and see what happens. You also write every oppositions team talk for them!

Let’s use the case in the examples of Kevin Peterson (Cricket) and Danny Ciprianni (Rugby). Maybe Peterson was creative in his shot selection, took calculated risks, maybe wreckless....but talented, I’m not buying it. He didn’t go to kindergarten and suddenly start reverse slogging his dinner across the room. Highly specific skills like that have to be tried, repeated and assume confidence they will work more often than not before they can be replicated on a world stage. Was he lauded over his prodigious talent - absolutely. Did he fulfill his cricketing potential- arguably not. And what of Cipriani, so elegantly and melodramatically worshipped for his 'talent', for all of his 16 England caps. Perhaps because England fly halves didn’t traditionally run had something to do with it! Undoubtedly a highly skilful player in his own right. Hang on a minute, isn’t skill having maximum certainty with the minimum of effort? So we may even have hit another snag with that one too.

In education, I still occasionally hear the 'gifted and talented' provision in operation. What exactly was or still is that? Well, it was those children whose testing at various curricular, saw them in a uniquely high percentile of learners in comparison to their peers. It was those students who performed great physical feats at a young age (often in sport). How ironic then, that such streaming of our high achievers invariably caused a bottoming out, as those children were made to feel uncomfortably different to their peers. Such difference often misaligning their thinking that they are somehow innately different to others, given their so-called talent. If you don't believe me, go away and look at the conversion rate of winning at a young age compared to professional sport....it makes for interesting reading! In sport thankfully we just call that a player development pathway now. If someone warrants moving to the next level, we support them to get there, regardless of prior ability.

Talent - a natural aptitude or skill.

There is no 'giftedness' or 'talent' per se. Yes, some people's learning is faster than others. Yes, rates of physical development and maturation are different in us all. The human brain and body in general are capable of great things. When my son was seven, he was able to recall a whole deck of cards. I invested incredible effort in his physical development through all types of sports and activities. Imagine the intrigue it struck me with when I read his PE Teacher describe him as a 'talented individual'!

So before you casually refer to this years cohort of year 13's being so 'wonderfully talented' or the fly half of the rugby team being so talented, take a breath and pause for thought as to what you are actually saying. Find out why they demonstrate aptitude in an activity. Maybe, just maybe, their parents have invested a huge number of hours in their children. Maybe the child who has incredible levels of endurance is out playing every night. Surely it is better to praise progress, hard work, effort, open-mindedness, honesty, knowledge and a whole host of other values. Not just something that apparently none of us were taught or was learned!

So the next time you hear a Principal, Teacher, CEO, commentator or coach lauding the ‘talent’ they are fortunate to work with, give yourself a moment to pause on how you know what talent is/is not and how you wish they did too, or really should, given their role!

Perhaps, we can demystify the talent myth.

Thanks for reading.

André Double, Tianjin, March 2019.