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Do you suffer from “Skills Burn-Out Syndrome” (SBS)?

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Do you suffer from “Skills Burn-Out Syndrome” (SBS)?

You are probably going hmm … “Skills Burn-Out Syndrome” (SBS). This sounds serious!

In one of my more popular posts,  I talked about the differeskills burn-outnces between talents and skills. We acquire skills throughout our careers, usually because they are required for our jobs, by our employers OR because they make us more valuable in the marketplace. Only occasionally, do we acquire skills because we want the skills.

If you have been working for more than ten years you have acquired multiple skills in that time. If you have been working for over thirty years like myself, you have acquired a whole lot more.

Your Skills

Some of these skills we are really good at!

Many of these skills paid the mortgage, put food on the table and put our kids through college.

Do you have skills valued in the market that you no longer want to use?

Do you suffer from “Skills Burn-Out Syndrome” The TLA (Three Letter Acronym) is “SBS.”

I am finding SBS increasingly common among baby boomers.

How many unhappy lawyers do you know? There are a lot of unhappy lawyers out there who suffer from SBS!  They have valued skills that … many would choose to stop using, but do not for a lot of reasons:  money, prestige, student loans …

In my post, Talents versus Skills – Do you know the difference, I talked about my talent for being a storyteller.  I have spent most of my career in the computer and networking industries as a trainer and communicator. I developed the skill to inhale technologies and then spit them back out in stories, analogies, and pictures that anyone could understand.

My skill to inhale technologies was acquired over a very long period of time. It did not come naturally and when I overused it I would burn-out.

After my bicycle accident in 2002, where I should have died, I just did not want to do work in technology any longer. After teaching high school math and working for a non-profit for three years, I went back to using my old skills.

Why? I was lost and did not know what else to do. I relapsed back to what was familiar.

Falling Back to What is Familiar

After working for three years almost non-stop from 2007-2010, I said, “enough is enough.” I did not want to use those skills anymore. If I had to inhale yet another complex technology I was going to BARF! I loved the story-telling,  but the inhaling of complex technologies that provided little value to our day-to-day life … well … BARF!

Could I do this? YES!

Would people pay me a lot of money to do this? YES!

Did I want to do this? NO!

Very often when we become directionless we fall back to what is familiar. That is what I did. What is familiar is not always what is good for us.

Does this sound familiar?

I have multiple clients who have used the same skills for years. Frankly, they would rather set their hair on fire than to keep on using them.

What happens when they tell friends and colleagues that they do want to use them anymore?

OHHH … you are so … good at it. Why would you want to stop?

I bet this sounds very familiar to a lot of you!  I am sure when you hear this you start to doubt your thinking.

“Skills Burn-Out Syndrome” is when you overuse skills that are not connected to an innate talent.

Do you suffer from “Skills Burn-Out Syndrome” (SBS)? 

Are you using skills that are not connected to an innate talent?

What skills do you possess that you do not want to use?

What is stopping you from doing something different?

Marc Miller  

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Do Your Skills Match Your Interests in Your Career [Updated]

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skillsSkills Versus Interests

We develop a lot of skills throughout our career. Most of us learn these skills because they are in demand by our employer or industry.

Our interests are aligned with our talents. If you are not sure of the difference between your talents versus your skills please read the post Talents versus Skills – Do you know the difference?

What happens when your skills are not aligned with your interests?

We get bored, burned out or left behind.

Example #1

After I had a near fatal bicycle accident in 2002 I went off to teach Algebra I and II at an inner-city high school. I lasted 2 years before I realized I could not teach and stay healthy. When I left teaching, I was completely lost. I went to a career coach and I was given an MBTI assessment.  This is pretty standard and it told me I was a teacher and trainer.  I went DUH! I was told to talk to former colleagues and have them tell me what they thought I was really good at.  They told me that I was phenomenally good at taking very complicated technical systems and explaining them in terms just about anyone could understand.

DUH!!  I knew that and more importantly, I did not want to do that anymore!!

What was the reason? I was interested in training and helping people but the thought of learning one more complicated technical system made me want to barf. My interest in that skill was long gone. I was bored and burned out.

Example #2

I have had multiple clients who have been excellent relationship salesmen/women. You might call them account managers or in the sales world, you would call them farmers.

All of them became salesmen/women because someone told them early in their careers – “You should be a salesperson. You are good with people.”

Well… Sales have been changed by the Internet forever. The relationship building has been removed from the sales process. Customers can get online, research products, and even purchase relatively complex products without ever speaking with someone.

This has forced a lot of B2B (Business to Business) salespeople to think about if they can continue in this line of work. What they were interested in (building lasting relationships) is no longer a valued or even required skill.

You might want to listen to Mike Martin’s story on the Repurpose Your Career Podcast episode #24 as his story follows this storyline.

Skills Alignment

My skills had been honed over 30 years in working in corporate America.  My skills no longer aligned with what I wanted in my career and more importantly my life.

Has this happened to you? Do you have valuable skills in areas that no longer interest you?

As you move into the 2nd half of life you may have skills that you want to leave behind. If this topic intrigues you please read the post What Skills Will You Use in the 2nd Half of Life?

Marc Miller  

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Suffering from Skills Talents Disconnect Disorder?

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Skills Talents Disconnect Disorder?

skills talents disconnect
Copyright: mariusz_prusaczyk / 123RF Stock Photo

I’m sure you are wondering, what that the heck is Skills Talents Disconnect Disorder (STDD)?

This is a serious problem that afflicts most of us in the 2nd half of life. Skills Talents Disconnect Disorder occurs when we develop skills that are not connected to our natural talents.

If you are not sure of the difference between talents and skills, please go read my post, Talents versus Skills – Do you know the difference?

Some of you may need help determining your natural talents. If so, please go read my post, What are your natural talents?

Skills Talents Disconnect

We develop a lot of skills throughout our career. We develop most of these skills at the behest of our employer. We get paid for our skills.

When the market shifts, we often develop new skills that follow that change.

When we see job postings that require the most current and trendy skills, we often pursue training that helps us acquire those.

The most common of the Skills Talents Disconnect Disorder is learning to behave like an extrovert.

I am guilty of this. I am a closet introvert!

To learn more about being a closet introvert, read my post, 3 Signs You Are a Closet Introvert and What to Do!

Example

I grew up a pretty shy kid. To get attention as a teenager, I learned to act goofy. I was a goofy looking guy. When I graduated from high school, I was 6’4″ tall and about 145 pounds with a huge head of red hair. I looked like a giant carrot.

To get the attention of girls, I had to learn to act like an extrovert. It did not work, but I tried!

After college, I went to work at IBM. Eventually, I developed the skill to give technical presentations, and I became pretty good at it. After working there for about 15 years, presenting became my full-time job. In the last 10 years of working for IBM, I probably gave 1000 to 1500 presentations to audiences of up to 1000 people.

In my 30s and 40s, I could present every single day. I had to monitor my diet throughout the day to make sure I had the energy for the next presentation.

I recently turned 60, so I do not have the energy I had in my 20s, 30s or even 40s.

The issue? I am not a talented presenter. It does not come naturally. I have learned to become a great presenter. This is a classic example of Skills Talents Disconnect.

I know A LOT of salespeople who are closet introverts and have Skills Talents Disconnect.

Burn Out

Burn out occurs when you overuse a skill that is disconnected from your talents. I learned how to be a strong public speaker.

You might think giving presentations come naturally for me, but it does not. My knees now buckle when I walk off stage. I am exhausted. It consumes a lot of energy!

Last year, I made the decision to back away from pursuing paid speaking gigs. I thought I wanted to belong to the National Speakers Association, but in order to qualify for membership, I would need to speak several times a month. This probably meant traveling several times a month. I know myself—I would have burned out quickly.

I have experienced burn out several times in my career due to Skills Talents Disconnect Disorder. Similarly, I have watched this happen to friends, colleagues, and clients when they have over-used a skill that is not directly related to innate talent.

Next Steps

Spend some time determining your talents. This will not come quickly or easily if you are in the 2nd half of life. Just because you are good at something or even like doing something does not mean it is a talent. If you have not already read my post, “What are your natural talents?” then I suggest you read it now.

Make a list of your skills. This is usually a much easier task for people. Skills are what you get paid to do.

Can you connect your skills to your talents? Which skills do not connect?

Do you suffer from Skills Talents Disconnect Disorder?

Marc Miller  

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Talents versus Skills – Do you know the difference?

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Talents versus Skills

Can you differentiate between your talents versus skills? Talents versus SkillsDo you know what talents you have? Do you know what skills you have?

For most of us, the answer to both questions will be I do not know. We might be able to say something about our skills but …. talents…. well….

Most of us have forgotten what talents we have. They have been blurred into building our career, making money, paying the mortgage, putting our kids through college, saving for retirement,……

For More: Larry Bird, Winners, Talents and Skills

Talents

Lets look at the definition of Talent. According to Dictionary.com

tal·ent [tal-uhnt]

noun

1. a special natural ability or aptitude: a talent for drawing.
A talent is something we do naturally. It is something that we do not think about we just do it.
Think back to your childhood. What did you just love to do? What did you do that it required little thought? What did you do that left you energized?
Think back to when you entered adulthood. Ask yourself the same questions.
Is this hard?
Make a list of all of your talents. Hmmm… can’t think of any or only a few? Let’s move on.
talents versus skills

Skills

Lets look at the definition of Skill. According to Dictionary.com

skill1 [skil]

noun

1. the ability, coming from one’s knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc., to do something well: Carpentry was one of his many skills.

A skill is something that we learn. Skills are developed. You might attend training to learn a skill. You will practice that skill. You can master a skill such that it appears to be a talent.

This might be a hard skill like programming, hardware design, technical writing, web design, content marketing,…..

This might be a soft skill like negotiating, project management, people management, …..

Make a list of all of the skills you have. This will take a while.

What talents enabled you to learn these skills?

Again, I ask what are your talents versus skills? Getting any easier?

For an example check out this post – Larry Bird, Winners, Talents and Skills

I quoted the great basketball player Larry Bird – A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals

What are your God-given talents?

The Crux of the Problem

If you have been working for thirty plus years like me, you have developed a lot of skills. I have been paid a lot of money to produce products and services using those skills.

The crux of the problem is many of us are now saying we are sick and tired of using those skills.

Why did we develop some of those skills? Many times it was because our employer paid us to develop those skills? Did we like using those skills? Many times using those skills was okay!When were required to use those skills over and over and over and over….. it got old real fast.

When we say, we have had enough you may hear:

  • You are so good at it, why would you want to quit?
  • They pay you a lot of money, why would you want to quit?

Sound familiar?

The problem is the overuse of those skills that were developed because someone else wanted you to learn those skills.

Over the last twenty-five years, I have inhaled many complex technologies and spit them back out in culturally neutral stories, analogies, pictures, animations, and other adult learning formats. I am really good it. I enjoy the design and creation of the materials but if I have to inhale one more complex technology that has no real social value well …….

I am really good at the inhalation process, but that is a skill that I have developed. I do not want to do it anymore!

What about you? Want to learn more?

Download the Talents and Skills – A Winning Combination White Paper. It is free!

Marc Miller  

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Larry Bird, Winners, Talents and Skills

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Winners, Talents, and Skills

talents and skillsI was looking for a quote about talents and skills. I found the following quote from Hall of Fame Basketball player Larry Bird:

A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals

Larry Bird

I am only a few months older than Larry Bird. We were in college at the same time. I was at basketball dud Northwestern University while he took little known Indiana State to the National Championship game his junior year.
Anyone who saw Larry standing on the sideline would say he was just an average player. In college, he was tall and some would say did not look like an athlete.

Talents

He had some real natural talents. My guess they were great vision and hands. He could see the court and teammates out of the corner of his eye. He could make the basketball twirl and spin in his subtle hands.

Skills

Larry Bird developed into a tremendous shooter and passer. Did this come naturally?  No, he worked hard at it. His talents made it seem easy. He could see things on the court that allowed him to leverage the natural skills in his hands to make great passes.

Would you call Larry Bird a winner? HECK YES!

What are your talents?

I want you to go back to childhood. What did you just love to do?

I was talking with my friend who gave me the idea for this whole series and asked her what she loved to do.

She loved to ride horses. It was the challenge of working with the horse. A horse that was big and powerful. She thoroughly enjoyed it.

Childhood was a time of innocence. We did not have work, society, and other factors telling us what we wanted or loved to do.

What were your talents in your youth?

Did you build skills to complement your talents?

If you had identified your natural talents did your build skills that complement them. For myself, the answer was no. I quickly got on the path of doing what my parents told me to do.

There is enough time in your life to develop new skills. Target them to complement your unique and individualistic talents.

Are you ready to discover your talents?

I just celebrated my second anniversary of saying goodbye to corporate America. As I prepare to do my 2012 income taxes, this will be the first time in over 40 years where I did not receive a single paycheck in a calendar year.

I am discovering my talents and focusing on developing new skills that complement my talents.

How about you? Are you ready to focus on your talents and skills to become a WINNER?

Marc Miller  

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