Talent and Management Development 2 IBM 2015-2016 T.

Van den Bergh

My talents : top 5

1. INTUITIVE THINKER
I go for my gut feeling, I try
not to doubt my first thought
and aim to make swift and
correct decisions.

2. UNRAVELLER
I like going through

Justify by means of one or

more concrete examples
for the use of that talent
in studies/daily
life/professional
experience
We had a very interesting
assignment for Sales and
Marketing, we were free to
choose a product of our liking.
After this we had to develop a
country file and then an
export plan. This was all done
in a group of three people.
The biggest part of this
assignment is about trusting
on your own judgement and
the judgement of your team
member since apart from
following the theory you had
to feel if your product was
going to work in the country
you chose to export to. Even
though my group members
are very knowledgeable and
smart I took the lead because
often they would get stuck on
certain decisions that I could
make intuitively. The hardest
part for me is when I make
these decisions is not to doubt
my intuition and overthink it
because often that makes it
worse.
I will refer again to the group
assignment for Sales and

Talent and Management Development 2 IBM 2015-2016 T. Van den Bergh

assignments and dividing the

work load. I also enjoy
planning the work ahead
when we are doing a group
work and I always take the
lead in delegating and
finalizing our assignment.
I enjoy doing preparatory
work more than actually
writing huge papers,
collecting and filtering
information is something I do
naturally and have also
learned to do better in the
course of this year. The
biggest example must be the
use of Pocket, as we have
learned during E-Skills.

3. INSTIGATOR
As mentioned before Im the
one delegating the tasks and
dividing the work load. I like
to initiate the work process
and most of the time Im the
one putting up the group

Marketing. The assignment

was quite extensively
described by our teachers yet
he told us that we only had to
include whatever was actually
relevant to our company,
product and plans. I was the
one going through this
assignment every hour to
determine if what we were
writing or planning to write
would actually be useful and
relevant. Also at the end of
this assignment I went
through the entire file to filter
out whatever I though was not
actually relevant or should be
talked about more in depth.

I think there was only one

assignment this year where I
was not the first person to
make a Facebook group or
arrange a meeting, I try to be
ahead of the rest by looking
into the assignment and using
my unravelling skills to

Talent and Management Development 2 IBM 2015-2016 T. Van den Bergh

deadlines and asking group

members to do certain parts
of the group assignment. I try
not to think about things too
long since it works reversibly
with my intuitive thinking and
problem solving.

determine what has to be

done and who could do it
best.
Initiating the work process is
something I enjoy doing and
meeting up with my group
online or in real life is very
important for me. Dialogue
always gets us farther then
division and individual work.

4. OPTIMIST
I try to always be positive, this
is something I learned from
my parents who always keep
their head up and smile. The
worst thing can happen to you
yet even worse than that is
letting it determine your
happiness. Self pity is
something that does not make
me happy and is my biggest
pitfall but Humor always gets
to me and cheers me up. I
also use humor very often as
a way to communicate
difficult topics or to initiate a
conversation no one actually
wants to have.

As I mentioned before I have a

relationship for almost two
years. This goes with ups and
downs yet conversation in my
eyes is the only reason we are
still together. We try to
explain what is bothering us
immediately and I often feel
that this is something very
hard since it quickly feels like
a blame-game.
My way of handling this is to
use exaggerated examples
that explain what I find
annoying or nice about her.
This makes it so she does not
feel attacked or blamed for
something she did but in this
way we look at the situation

Talent and Management Development 2 IBM 2015-2016 T. Van den Bergh

from a third person

perspective.
By the time we both
understand whats up we
often are laughing our heads
off because we see how
stupid, annoying or impossible
our behaviour actually was.

5. Loyal Friend
Once I have given my word to
someone I will do everything
in my power not to break it. I
am a very empathic person
aswell so I really do
everything in my power to
make people around me
happy and comfortable.

When making assignments

and deviding the work I dont
usually divide solely based on
the work load but I try to
estimate who likes to do
certain tasks and who is
better in certain tasks. This
has really proven to work
since it is easier to make
people start working on a
topic when they know youve
done your best to give them a
task they would enjoy. During
the assignment of Sales and
Marketing for example we had
to do a lot of theoretical
writing and since I know
Alexander is more of a
creative thinker and original
designer we agreed that he
would be making our label
and advertisements via
photoshop while Robrecht and
I were writing some
theoretical texts and
explaining what made our
product special etc.

Talent and Management Development 2 IBM 2015-2016 T. Van den Bergh

My lever skills
My talents

1.INTUITIVE
THINKER

2. UNRAVELLER

Which lever skills

can I learn?
Summarize the
most important
points of these
skills for you
Even though
Intuitive thinking is
a skill I value highly
it is not always the
right way to make
a decision or think
about a subject.
I have to learn to
see all possible
outcomes, take my
time and patiently
weigh all possible
outcomes. I think
Weigher is a talent
that I can learn a
lot from.

Sometimes you do
not need to dissect
the entire situation
but go with the
flow. I can be a bit
of a control freak

How have you

used these skills
before? If you
havent : how will
you ensure you
develop them?
I have used these
skills when
exploring potential
places to study
abroad next year.
Even though I
would have liked to
just go on my gut
feeling and chose a
country and school
I was interested in
my parents really
pushed me to do
more research. This
was a very good
move by my
parents since my
top 3 completely
changed and I am
still very glad that I
did not go with my
intuitive feeling in
this case.
I havent really got
a clear example of
this but I do know
that I am very
consciously putting
a step in reverse to

Talent and Management Development 2 IBM 2015-2016 T. Van den Bergh

3.INSTIGATOR

when it comes to
assignments or
important decisions
even though I often
go with my gut
feeling.
I have to make sure
that I do not go too
far with this
unravelling
because I might
lose sight of the
bigger picture.
By wanting to take
the lead and be the
one to spark the
work process I
sometimes profile
myself as leader
while it is not my
place in a certain
situation. This can
be perceived as
rude.
I have to try to be
more patient, let
people around me
have the time to go
through the whole
before splitting it
up and start
working on it.

look at the whole

sometimes. I tend
to freak out when
Im focussing too
much on details
and everything that
is imperfect so I
naturally take a
break and make a
walk. This helps me
put things into
context and see the
bigger whole.
During
International
Business
Communication
classes we had to
have a group
discussion and the
roles were already
divided up front,
even though it was
not my role to
spark the
discussion I got
impatient and did
tell the moderator
of the discussion
what I thought he
was doing wrong.
I should have
waited and filled
my role better,
since it was the
purpose of the
moderator to
slowly get to the

Talent and Management Development 2 IBM 2015-2016 T. Van den Bergh

4.OPTIMIST

5.LOYAL FRIEND

point he wanted to
make instead of
having one of his
group members
take over.
Sometimes being
Being more patient
an optimist turns
and considerate
into being an
with people around
idealist or being
me should be my
blind to what the
priority more often.
real issue is.
I have to make sure
Even though I think that even though I
humor is
can still be
underrated there is optimistic I dont
a place and time
come off as an
for everything and I arrogant idealist
should be aware of that thinks
that.
everything will be
all right without
any effort.
Being a loyal friend I have already had
is a very positive
some cases where
thing in my opinion friends of mine hurt
yet by being a loyal my feelings or
friend you kind of
where they did not
expect the others
act with respect to
to be loyal to you
my feelings. I have
too.
learnt to not take
Since my father
this all too heavy
always tells me
and expect less of
you cannot change my friends and
the other, only
people in general.
yourself I should
They cannot read
really be more
my mind and that
careful and not
is ok.
expect everyone to
be as loyal to their
friends as I would

Talent and Management Development 2 IBM 2015-2016 T. Van den Bergh

be in certain
situations.