I read Rebel Talent book by Professor Francesca Gino at Harvard. She described different rebel talents that bring joy and meaning in life. For example, Massimo Bottura is the owner and chef of Osteria Francescana, a Michelin 3 star restaurant yet he hasn’t been to culinary school (dropped off law school). He has 2 sous-chefs of different background (from Japan and Italy) and strengths (one is comfortable with improvisation and the other is obsessed with precision) and often reminds his team ‘if you want to innovation, you need to know everything then forget everything’.
Professor Gino also offered a free assessment on www.rebeltalnts.org to help people determine their rebel talents and areas to grow. I took the test and found out that I’m a climber. A climber is described as particularly strong in two of the rebel talents: perspective and novelty – seeing the world from new perspectives and having a drive to explore the unfamiliar. That describes me well that I’m very curious, love trying new things, and always look for ways to get better.
In terms of areas to grow, the site recommends the climber to identify people who are different from us, or challenges me, and make a plan to get to know them better. This is a timely advice as I’m in the midst of changes and newness (people and projects). I decided to start with 3 colleagues: building relationship with a new stakeholder, proposing different ways of engagement with one who often challenges me and team, and getting to know another who has a very different style from me, to figure out how we can best collaborate forward~