Main Line Career Development Expert & CEO Releases New Book

“How can I become successful?” This seems to be the fundamental question on just about every career-driven person’s mind. However, while there may be many answers, there seems to be one constant conclusion – a person’s natural abilities.

Founder and CEO of Innovative Management Development Dr. Thomas N. Tavantzis examines the subject of natural ability in his new career development book “Hard-Wired: Taking the Road to Delphi and Uncovering Your Talents”. An innovative examination of one’s innate talents, “Hard-Wired” provides readers with a unique way to think deeply about his or her own natural aptitudes – and how they influence career and role choices.

The inspiring book is based upon Apollo’s Oracle at Delphi, which is said to have borne the inscription “Know Thyself”. This maxim has worked its way through Socrates and Plato to the great modern thinkers in the organizational and career development field. So how does one find what he or she is really good at? According to Dr. Tavantzis, that is the difficult part. Which is why, rather than utilizing simple self-administered testing instruments, he uses the Highlands Ability Battery, a three-hour online test that doesn’t have to be completed at one sitting. It is combined with professional interpretation to measure one’s real abilities and skills.

For example, it asks the questions pertinent to discovering one’s natural work style, including: “What are your strongest problem-solving methods?”, “Do you work more through logic or through intuition?”, “How do you best take in and pass along information?”, “How far into the future are you comfortable projecting?” and “What work environment suits you best?”

The answers to many of these will likely be a surprise to the reader. For instance, the number of ideas generated has little to do with their quality. And how quickly a problem is solved may have little to do with the quality of the solution. Whatever answers that are received may provide the tools necessary to articulate to others how one can contribute and be most productive – and be the most personally satisfied.

“Hard-Wired” is built on case studies of people at different career stages and how they used the Battery and follow up consultations to reveal their true strengths and develop a personal vision of how to turn them into a survival kit for today’s ever-changing economy.

An action guide to thinking about career plans, leadership style, and how to work with others to support natural strengths, “Hardwired” provides the tools needed to begin changing one’s life today.

“Hard-Wired: Taking the Road to Delphi and Uncovering Your Talents” is currently available at Amazon.com.

About Dr. Thomas N. Tavantzis

Dr. Thomas Tavantzis’ has spent his 35 year career as one of the industry’s top leadership psychologists and career development experts. He earned his BA and MA in counseling psychology from Pierce-Deree College and Ball State University, Muncie Indiana European Division, in Athens, Greece and his doctorate in counseling psychology from the University of Albany in New York. Shortly after graduating from the University of Albany, Tavantzis moved to King of Prussia, Pa. with his wife Martha and founded Innovative Management Development (IMD). This unique, Philadelphia based boutique global consulting company combines people acumen with the science of organizational psychology to provide leadership solutions to some of the country’s top businesses, including: Cephalon, PECO-Exelon, GSK, Comcast Spotlight, Merck, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals , Novartis, PJM , Sanofi-Aventis and more.

Practicing what is commonly known as “positive organizational psychology”, emphasizing natural strengths, optimism and values, Tavantzis has extended his reach by helping others obtain their fullest potential through his career development book as well as contributing to several other educational publications, including co-editing the ‘Don’t Waste Your Talent,’ chapter in the book “Counseling and Therapy for Children,” a chapter in “Adolescents and Family Therapy,” a chapter in “Roadmap to Success,” and his article “The Road to Self-Knowledge,” that appeared in ASTD’s T&D magazine, in August 2006, along with several other professional journal articles. He has also developed a training video entitled “Just Like a Family”, and co-created and led teams that developed online psychological-based distance learning courses for emergency respondents and the counter terrorism community, including one-on-one leadership.