Hi! During our recent Action Learning Session, which is essentially a group coaching session, I noticed one of the ways that the Belief Talent Theme showed up, and thought I should talk a little about it.
Firstly, what is the Belief Talent Theme? Here is the definition from Gallup’s Website.
“People exceptionally talented in the Belief theme have certain core values that are unchanging. Out of these values emerges a defined purpose for their lives.If you possess a strong Belief theme, you have certain core values that are enduring. These values vary from one person to another, but ordinarily your Belief theme causes you to be family-oriented, altruistic, even spiritual, and to value responsibility and high ethics – both in yourself and others.
These core values affect your behavior in many ways. They give your life meaning and satisfaction; in your view, success is more than money and prestige. They provide you with direction, guiding you through the temptations and distractions of life toward a consistent set of priorities.This consistency is the foundation for all your relationships. Your friends call you dependable. “I know where you stand,” they say.
Your Belief makes you easy to trust. It also demands that you find work that meshes with your values. Your work must be meaningful; it must matter to you. And guided by your Belief theme it will matter only if it gives you a chance to live out your values.”
So that’s the definition from the site.
During the Action Learning Session, the person with the Belief Talent Theme demonstrated it by constantly asking about what was valued by people, and drawing people to clarify what the values of each stakeholder was. In fact, during the debrief, an observer highlighted how this person talk about about values than any other person in the group. And clarifying beliefs is a valuable way for people to understand and relate to each other.
Later during the session, the person said something along the lines of “I believe that if a couple is really committed to something, they will find a way to talk about X.” and later he asked if the other party was committed to the marriage.
The question stems from the person’s own beliefs, and while was a useful question to ask, can come across as insinuating that there wasn’t commitment to the marriage by one or two of the parties.
A person with the Belief Talent Theme is naturally drawn to express his own Beliefs, and also draw out or talk about the beliefs and values of others. Unknowingly, this person may appear to be challenging the beliefs and values of others, and this can cause some discomfort to the receiving party. If you have the Belief Talent Theme, you may want to manage this aspect of the talent theme if you are experiencing the same thing.
Firstly, you need to be aware of the impression that you may be giving other people. You may appear to be challenging and confrontational, perhaps even intrusive, as the values and beliefs of a person is very personal to that person.
Secondly, it would be useful to state your intention for asking such a question before asking a sensitive question that touches on another person’s belief or values.
Thirdly, you can use the skill of contrasting. This is something that I learnt from the book “Crucial Conversations”. The idea is to also state what it is that you are NOT doing, or what your intention isn’t. In the case of the earlier example, the person could say something like “I’m not suggesting that you or the other person is not committed to the marriage.”
Fourthly, when touching on a sensitive topic, always give the other person an “out”. Acknowledge that the subject is sensitive and the person can choose not to answer. This may sound ridiculous since the choice has always been present for the person, but highlighting it actually demonstrate that you are respective the person’s space to choose.
That’s it! If you have the Belief Talent theme, let me know if you find this relevant for you, and if this was useful.
