“If you could’ve been born with elite-level proficiency in one skill, what would you have wanted it to be?”
That’s a question I used to ask folks on backcountry trips.
When you’re camping with a group of people for two or three weeks, you’ve got nothing but time to chat. And you’d be surprised how quickly people burn through the usual small-talk stuff. Sillier questions are light and they feel unassuming, but I also found that when you give people a chance to tell you what they like, you can use that info to set them up for success later. That’s originally why I started including questions like that in my weekly scrum meetings with my team leads. I’m pretty sure my boss thought I was crazy at first, but it helped me know where to place people without making them take a personality test. I’d have them run through their team’s updates and then, at the end of their report-out, they had the option to answer the question for that week.
From what I’ve seen, we become interested in our weaknesses if they’re framed as non-consequential. These low-stakes hypotheticals let people volunteer hopes and dreams they might not admit otherwise. And, often, their answers pointed toward real opportunities where they could work toward them.
For example, I had someone who wished they could’ve been born with the ability to understand any language. I took it to mean they liked people, novelty, and detail. So, I later asked them if they’d be interested in working with our project manager to interview folks across our broader team to figure out how they handled task prioritization. They were. Later, that led to helping spearhead an overhaul of our task ticket system.
“Tell me about yourself” is an awful question.
Oh, and if I could’ve been born with elite-proficiency in a skill, it’d be singing.
Maybe that’s why I’ve always gravitated towards stages for other reasons.
And if I weren’t such a chickenshit, I’d take singing lessons.
Our Daily MAP Year Prompt
323/365
How well do you read between the lines?
onward.
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