The Five Indispensable Talents by Elaine Stirling

Leadership and talent feel like rare commodities these days. We ascribe leadership to people who sit high on the organizational chart, but where does that leave everyone else? As for talent, well, it’s nice if you can get it. The fact is, everyone of us carries leadership and talent within us. This means in an organization with one thousand employees, you have the potential of one thousand talented leaders. Can you imagine how that would look—talented leadership flowing through every office, plant and distribution center? If your answer is yes, then you’ve begun the process.

Eight thousand years ago, talent was a form of currency. One talent was equal to 3600 Babylonian shekels, and the word also meant balance, abundance and wealth—the goals most organizations, then and now, aspire to.

The ancients understood leadership too. At its simplest, leadership initiates. The writer leads the reader; the speaker leads the listener. In these binary relationships, both parties are necessary and occur in a certain order. But if you’re going to lead your readers and listeners from one place to someplace better, whether it’s improved operational standards or a reduction in employee absenteeism, a greater “something” is needed.

The ancients called that something quintessence, which means the presence of all five elements operating in balance. The elements in those days were fire, earth, air and water, with spirit or ether as the mysterious fifth—hard to measure in the 21st century. So what I’ve done is retained the template and updated the terms.

Five elements become five indispensable talents. We were born with four of them. Cultivate the fifth, and you become a brave new business leader. Practice them in every moment, and regardless of how things may appear on the balance sheet, ...