Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

When it comes to a child’s potential, it’s not nature and it’s not nurture that will decide if they will maximize it. It’s both. This means that a parent’s primary way to increase the chances of maximizing their child’s potential is to nurture the nature of their child.

A child’s nature is found in their talents. So, for a parent to nurture their child’s talents, I like to use the Gallup StrengthsFinder approach as described below:

When people supplement their talents with knowledge and skill to the point that they can provide consistent, near-perfect performance in a given activity, they have a strength. And in applying and further refining their strengths, they move closer to fulfilling their natural potential as individuals.

With this in mind, the first step a parent must take to help their child maximize their potential is to help them know their talents. A talent is something that helps your child reach a goal while energizing them because they naturally enjoy it. For example, being competitive is a talent, organization is a talent, and relating to others is a talent. There are many different types of talents. Gallup categorizes them into 34 themes.

Depending on the age of your child, a parent can use one of three methods to identify and help their child become self-aware about their talents:

1. For children under the age of 10, use “Strengths Spotting” to observe your child’s talents. This uses the 4 categories of behavior clues:
   Yearning: What activities or environments is your child repeatedly drawn to or eager to try?
   Rapid learning: What new skills or activities does your child pick up quickly and easily?
   Satisfaction: When is your child most enthusiastic and fulfilled?  Which activities is he or she excited about doing again and again?
   Timelessness: When does your child become so engrossed that he or she seems to lose track of time?
2. For children and teens ages 10-14 use the Clifton’s Youth Strengths Explorer. This is an assessment to identify areas where a child’s greatest potential for building strengths exists.
3. Young adults and adults use the Clifton’s StrengthsFinder. This is an assessment that measures strengths using the 34 CliftonStrengths themes.

Next, it comes down to helping your child turn their talents into strengths. This generally cost money and time. Children need teachers, coaches, and experiences to facilitate the process of turning a talent into a strength. Moreover, this process is far more likely to lead to a child maximizing their potential when they are also in an environment with peers and friends who nurture their talents.

A Checklist to Verify if You are Helping Your Child Maximize Potential

To sum this up I will end with this simple checklist. If you are doing these three things, you’re what I would classify as a parenting rock star.

• Helping your child build self-awareness so they know their talents.
• Investing in your child’s talents by paying for courses, private coaching and lessons to turn those talents into strengths.
• Consistently putting your child in environments with mentors, friends, and peers who nurture their talents.