Your best people may love what they do, but even Unique Ability® can become stale when there’s no new challenge. In this episode, Shannon Waller explains why Unique Ability never truly maxes out, how it deepens over time, and what you can do to keep your team’s best talents energized, growing, and making a bigger impact.

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Show Notes:

• Unique Ability is what you’re great at, love doing, get energy from, and can keep getting better at for the rest of your life.
• Unique Ability doesn’t max out, but it can get stale when there is nothing new to learn, solve, or improve.
• When talented people get bored, they can lose energy—or start creating problems just to have something interesting to fix.
• Don’t assume that people will stay engaged simply because they’re naturally good at and enjoy their work.
• To keep Unique Ability growing, make sure it’s being used, appreciated, rewarded, enhanced, and referred.
• People need to know that the value they create is noticed and appreciated by the people they help.
• Being paid more as your capability and contribution grow is an important part of feeling valued.
• The best work helps people get better, take on new challenges, and stretch into new territory.
• A strong reputation lets people know that their Unique Ability is making a real difference.
• When someone has solved the same problem too many times, give them a more complex problem to tackle.
• If the work itself is no longer challenging, a bigger or more interesting audience may be what they need next.
• Keep asking your best people what would make their work more interesting, challenging, and rewarding.

Resources:

Unique Ability®

Unique Ability® 2.0: Discovery by Catherine Nomura, Julia Waller, and Shannon Waller

The Impact Filter®

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