Extraordinary people visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible.  And by visualizing the impossible they begin to see it as possible.

I found that where employment is concerned, gifted adults exhibit an intensity, an insistence on the integrity to do the work at its best, as well as chronic impatience with shoddy work and slow thinkers.

Gifted adults work too quickly, get bored, and show it. They raise the standards for everyone else, and that is always resented. They have odd approaches to things, which irritates their coworkers. They ask for more work and make enemies.

The idealism of the young person is still there, and can cause problems with authority figures or with fellow executives. In addition, the bright mind has difficulty in accepting the illogical and may be very stubborn in expressing doubts about a project or in criticizing others.

And yet, because of heightened sensitivity, this same person may be unusually vulnerable to peer group rejection. College degree or not, gifted adults carry around in their feisty minds questions the boss cannot answer .

And sometimes they threaten the boss, because that odd approach turns out to be better than the boss’s idea.

Which is why, when the downsizing begins; and this is not a new phenomenon, the smartest employees are often the first to go.

Industrial psychologist David Willings told us in 1981, “Job performance is not a significant factor in promotability. Social acceptability, the ability to fit in, to think as the rest of management thinks; these are the factors which make a person promotable.

The gifted employee is not readily promotable. This idea that the gifted will get ahead anyway, and if they do not, they were not really gifted, has no basis in fact.”

                          From Unrecognized Giftedness: The Frustrating Case of the Gifted Adult By Marylou Kelly Streznewski

Lynne Azpeitia specializes in the challenges, development and psychology of multi-talented, high-achieving, and creative persons. She provides coaching, consulting, in-service training, and psychotherapy services in person and by telephone.

Lynne's specialties include professional and creative development, workplace relationships, business problem solving, work related stress, professional self-care, interpersonal conflicts, and optimal performance.

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