When I first began to speak for a living I found it difficult to remember names of people who hired me or those I met during refreshment break or during chit chat session at end of my presentation. I knew I had to do something to improve my memory. How could I continue to speak on relationships and communication and not recall names of people I was relating to and communicating with?

After much research, study, and practise my memory improved to point where now people frequently ask how I am able to remember names of so many people. Here are my secrets. Practise them and in no time you too will be able to impress others with your remarkable memory.

The most important memory technique is DESIRE. You’ve got to really want to remember a person’s name. Most forgetting is not result of a poor memory, but rather result of a lack of desire to remember in first place. You have only ten seconds to lock a name into your memory. If you don’t lock it in within ten seconds it is gone.

Memory Techniques

* Pay attention and listen carefully.

Listen carefully when someone gives you their name. Pay strict attention. If name is unusual ask person to spell it.. Pay attention to spelling. Use name frequently in conversation.

* Repetition

Management gurus, Buckingham and Clifton, in their book “Now Discover Your Strengths,” also propose this theory and it’s basis of their StrengthsFinder ™ Profile assessment.

Taking StrengthsFinder ™ Profile is one way to discover your innate talents. How else can you?

CORE STRENGTHS

These “signature strengths,” as Seligman calls them, and “innate talents,” as Buckingham and Clifton call them, are with us from birth, show up early in childhood (to observing eye), and continue with us throughout our life. They may be repressed, ignored, neglected, or even devalued, in this world where press has been to be “well-rounded,” but they will always be there, popping up at happy moments, beckoning to be acknowledged, calling our name.

When we’re asked to do something we’ve never done before, and take to it like a duck to water, or when we do something so well we think everyone else can, they just aren’t, or when someone watches us do something and says not, “How did she learn to do that?” but rather, “Where did that come from?” we’re tapping into an innate strength. The way we feel when we watch Tiger Woods play golf, but these aren’t physical traits.

INNATE STRENGTHS OPERATIONALIZED

So what does this look like in real life?

No strength leads to any particular occupation, nor does any occupation necessarily require any certain strength, but I think I met a future manager, therapist, or HR professional this afternoon, if he stays with his strengths.

But, first let me elaborate on that statement. You don’t have to have Empathy to be a nurse, and all nurses don’t have Empathy. You can use Focus to be director of a non-profit, as a client of mine does, or to be an engineer, as someone surely is. Your strengths can be applied quite successfully to a number of different occupations. So this gifted little boy could end up being happy doing any number of things.

Now back to this little boy I encountered today. I was keeping my 2-year-old grandson, James, for afternoon. We wandered outside on this beautiful, sunny day and boys playing down street caught his attention. Allen, 18, and Kevin, 13, were shooting baskets. Around them was Alex, 8 years old, playing with his new mini-skateboard.

James tried to grab skateboard, and yelled “ball” and they were good to him, tossing him ball once or twice, and letting him have skateboard for a few moments. Nobody was talking; they were all just playing. Alex was quietest, just doing his thing over to side with his mini-skateboard.