Think of "talent," and the first thing that comes to mind is probably athletic prowess -- say, a basketball player's innate knack for sinking jump shots. Or perhaps it's musical skill, such as a violinist's inherent ability to play Mozart flawlessly.

Now, think of "motivation," and completely different images come to mind: a salesperson's drive to close a deal, for example, or a politician's relentless ambition to attain higher office. To many of us, "talent" is something that comes naturally, while motivation is synonymous with drive, usually of the hard-charging variety. Many of us buy into the myth that talent and motivation are totally separate things.

A strengths-based approach, however, debunks this myth. By understanding someone's natural talents, more often than not, we can get a clear perspective about their deepest and most substantial motivations. Simply put, their talents are their motivations; they're usually inseparable.

To make this clearer, it's important to understand that Gallup research defines talent as "a natural way of thinking, feeling, or behaving." Talent gives us clues to the specific aspects of a person's personality that may be driving him -- or at times, limiting him.

When you begin to understand people's talents from a strengths-based perspective, you start to grasp what motivates them and what they need from their experiences. Let's explore this by looking at two examples.

People who really need people

Sharon works part time in retail, but her real passion is her family and being a homemaker. Because her children are reaching an age of independence, Sharon is exploring things that interest her outside of the home. As part of her self-examination, Sharon took the Clifton StrengthsFinder -- an assessment that rank orders an individual's top 34 themes of talent: the ways he or she most often naturally thinks, behaves, or feels. This assessment offers revealing insights into a person's motivators, drivers, and needs.

Sharon's Clifton StrengthsFinder report revealed that her most prevalent talents come from these five themes: Developer, Empathy, Harmony, Relator, and Arranger. Sharon's first four themes offer talents primarily associated with helping others, understanding where others are coming from, and building deeper relationships. Talents from her fifth theme, Arranger, often contribute to orchestrating and juggling multiple tasks.

Now, let's consider what motivation looks like in Sharon's world. Just from reading the names, your initial reaction might be that there is no real sense of drive or motivation in her top five themes. Even the Arranger theme doesn't suggest the kind of "oomph" you'd expect from a high achiever. But let's take a closer look at Sharon's first four themes.

Are there motivational factors at play that we're simply not recognizing? Sharon would say yes. Sharon's motivation comes from her urge to help people, and the way to maximize that talent is to let her do just that. Of course, the line "I'm a people person" has been used so much that the phrase has lost meaning, but in Sharon's case, it's the truth.

Sharon is the kind of person who will flourish in situations in which others rely on her for support. When these situations don't exist, Sharon is highly motivated to seek them out. She is the type of person who volunteers for projects at work or to help at school. Neighbors often find her dropping off a meal when she hears they're sick. Sharon is intrinsically motivated to help because that's where her talents lie.

What motivates

Sharon's story illustrates two key points. First, Sharon's talent for helping people and her motivation to do so come from the same source. Second, if we limit ourselves to thinking that only certain themes of talent result in "motivation," then we risk overlooking, for example, how Sharon's drive comes from her Developer and Empathy themes.

One manager, Pete, could learn a lot from Sharon. Pete recently came up to me after I had finished a talk and told me, "If someone doesn't have Achiever or Competition in their top five, I'm not sure how they can get anything done." Interestingly, he had both Achiever and Competition in his top five themes of talent, which may have biased his perspective. When I pointed out to him that there are 32 other Clifton StrengthsFinder themes and that each one of them offers elements of motivation, he didn't quite believe it.