Many of us aspire to be exceptional, don’t we? Some use words like gifted and talented to describe exceptionality in humans. I ask YOU what makes a person exceptional?
Almost certainly, many of you may have immediately thought of outstanding abilities and skills that make a person exceptional. Let’s call this competence. One can easily recall the examples of extraordinarily flexible gymnasts and timeless poets who mesmerize us with their special abilities and skills that almost look like magic to us. Certainly, one needs such remarkable competence to become exceptional.
But is competence enough for a person to become exceptional? We can certainly think of many competent people who did not have a focus in life and thus failed to become exceptional. Sometimes we encounter children who have immense potential to achieve amazing things but fail to do so because they do not work hard enough. Thus, one needs remarkable dedication to stick to a task to achieve anything great. Let’s call this commitment to task. Can a scientist meet with any discovery without patiently trying out hundreds of experiments? Can a brilliant student excel in a high-stakes test such as an Olympiad without any devoted efforts? I believe the answer is pretty clear. No! The point being one needs a strong commitment in addition to competence to reach exceptionality.
But imagine a competent and committed leader who treats their colleagues unfairly. Imagine a successful businessperson who cares not about the environmental impact of their business. What these individuals lack is a concern for others’ wellbeing. Having a concern for others becomes extremely important for one to become exceptional in a world that is hyperconnected where the smallest of one’s actions can have an astronomical impact on others. For example, when one’s plastic ends up in someone else’s food, it can threaten their existence. A conflict between two nuclear powers threatens world peace. Excessive share in power by one group marginalizes other groups for generations. Then, can we continue to allow the indifferent experts, people who are competent and committed but not concerned, to run the world? That is disastrous, Isn’t it?
To sum up, I believe true exceptionality lies in developing high competence, remarkable commitment to task, and a deep concern for others (See the figure below).
Where do we stand as teachers and parents on this path toward developing true exceptionality? How much of our effort is geared toward making our children become not just competent and committed but concerned? How often do we model empathy and compassion through our behavior? How deeply do we care about others? If at all we want to make this world a better place, I believe we need to work more on the third C, that is, developing a concern for others in ourselves and our children. That is when we can live the dream of a sustainable, equitable, just, and most importantly, humane world.
I recently published a paper on this 3C conception, that is, competence, commitment, and concern, in Gifted Education International, a free copy of which is located here. See the table below for a quick summary of this paper.
How to read the table?
People around us are usually good at one or more of the three things we discussed in this article—competence, commitment, and concern. Using combinations of these three, I created seven different profiles of exceptional people. I argue that as educators or parents, we may start with one of the first three profiles (the competent, the committed, the concerned) and move toward becoming one of the next three profiles (the indifferent expert, the amateur altruist, the committed thinker). However, all of us should aspire to become the person in the seventh profile—one who is developing their full talent by combining competence, commitment, and concern for others!
Please share your comments and questions in the comments section below, or write to me at chowkase.aakash@gmail.com.
This article was first published in The GenWise Newsletter in February 2022. Thank you, Team GenWise for the invitation.
Aakash Chowkase 