I'm hooked on the show Top Chef. It's showing daily on one of our cable channels and I only catch reruns at 11:00pm and I try not to miss a single episode. It's the only reality show I ever really watch maybe because deep inside all of us is a longing to become one. Being a chef has become increasing popular a client of mine once said they're the new rockstars; immensely popular, culturally refined and besides, women love a man who can cook.
For the life of me I can't even boil an egg, or know what's one cup of anything! But one thing I love about Top Chef is the human dynamics of it all. They get chefs from all over the US and throw them in different situations where they need to rise to the occasion. Since each contestant has different personalities they respond to the challenges differently, and with notable results. One can be thrown curveballs on every challenge and create a masterpice meal, or for others just a complete disaster. The worst performances are eventually voted out by a panel of their expert peers.
What's nice about the show is that it parallels the workings of daily life situations, even mimicking the complexities of our own corporate scenarios. At the end of every show one contender is eliminated with the outcast being given their last say. What's interesting is that a huge majority of the show's evictees always mention how much talent they have, how good they are and that they shouldn't have been voted out. If all of them truly believed that, then why were they eliminated?
This brings me to the question: is talent never enough?
You've seen this happen so many times. Some people get promoted, some do not. Some of them might be observed as less equipped or talented than the others but eventually are the first to get the promotion nod. The ones left behind then wonder if there's a flaw in the system or if it's even fair. Does some form of favoritism exist or are the bosses probably out of their minds! So isn't it enough that I was voted most likely to succeed or the declamation champion in school to be the one to get ahead in life?
Apparently talent for some seems to be enough, but you've probably seen the outcome of that as well. Hotshots believing that a school name or accolades give them enough of a swagger for the entire universe of opportunities to just open up to them. They believe they deserve to be recognized, and that it's everyone's job to accord them such.
Cue buzzer: Bam! Wrong answer.
First, it is good to be talented. But I also believe everyone is talented to begin with, it is what God gave all of us. We were once potential prodigies of some sort to begin with, and I do not believe any single person is more talented than anyone else. Others are just lucky enough to grow up in a family and environment that fostered and supported their talents while others unfortunately were not.
Take this as an example. Michael Jordan wore the number 23 because he believed he was only half as good as his brother Larry, that statement coming from the greatest basketball player who ever lived. He honestly believed his brother was twice the man he was on the basketball court. But MJ never sat on his "half" talents just as well. He had a burning desire to improve and be better than his brother so he spent hours upon hours practicing something that is as important as talent: skill.
A skill can be defined as the ability to do something through practice and training, take note of the words practice and training. It is applying everything that you have learned in school, through research and observation or directly from experience. Your negotiation, persuasion, writing and presentation skills are what you master through constant repetition and modification. Learning to play defense is a skill as important as the natural ability to dunk the ball with ease. MJ would have never been with one without the other. In the same way your natural ability to persuade potential clients to buy would have been amiss without the ability to organize your thoughts into a comprehensive sales presentation.
But then again, something's still missing here. You see, I have seen so many people who have both talent and skillset but still never reach the height of their potential. People who have mastered their field of endeavor but still fall short of their ultimate goal. Is there a third component other than talent AND skill? Isn't a flair for making an excellent foié gras enough?
Daniel Goleman, the leading authority on the subject of EQ or Emotional Intelligence noted that many of today's managers were promoted due to their innate competence in their fields or departments. They can be so-called natural born salespeople or IT whizkids who get to their positions because of their combined talents and skills. The flipside of it all though is that they become failures as managers or leaders because they lack a very important trait: Character.
Character is said to be a set of qualities that make a person different, special and admirable. Well, so much for half of the contestants of the show. A lot have more attitude problems than attitude advantages. One of my mentors told me that character is the glue that holds talent and skill together; the body frame that holds two wheels for the bicycle to move forward.
In most of Top Chef's challenges the contestants were asked to work together to either do catering for a large group of people, or 5 course dinners for a few. In these instances the best and the worst of each one really comes to the surface. Just as in our families, offices and communities, the need to work together becomes daunting when integrity, honesty and trust is a missing ingredient. Most people respect technical competence in a boss but would only follow them so far. To expect extraordinary results becomes impossible.
I would love to be purely talented, but only maybe if I was a triathlete or soloist, where the choice to compete with others is greater than to work with them. But then again what's the use of the prize when you don't have anyone to share it with?
Besides, in all the seasons I've seen, the one who works best with everyone else is the one who becomes Top Chef. I'll take that recipe for success any time.
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