Importance of Knowing your Strengths
“Our studies indicate that people who do have the opportunity to focus on their strengths every day are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life in general.”
Tom Rath; Strengthsfinder 2.0; Gallup Organization Research
Those are pretty impressive stats. Wouldn’t it be great to be totally engaged in your job? Wouldn’t it be amazing to have an excellent quality of life and career?
The old paradigm of operating – from school to organizations – was essentially gap-analysis – if you were weak at a particular area, you needed to chuck a lot of time, money and effort at it, to possibly become – adequate – at it? Even the thought is luke-warm. How much better are you likely to function when you’re doing something you love doing, are good at and are becoming better at fast?
You are far more likely to excel at something you have a natural talent for, and will hone your skill far quicker than slogging your way to adequacy on something that you don’t have a natural inclination towards. This is not to say you can’t you can’t become good at something – you will however require a lot more effort to get there. If you’re not a natural golfer, you might well spend a huge chunk of your life practising, but probably never be champion-class. You will inevitably become expert at it faster if you have an innate talent for it. Your confidence levels and enthusiasm will also be effortlessly higher.
There is an exponential curve to doing what you’re good at – the more you do of that skill, the faster you excel at it.
It’s importance to know what your weaknesses are too, so that you can either avoid or outsource those skills where possible, leaving you to concentrate on what you’re good at.
Resources for determining your strengths:
- Strengthsfinder 2.0 by Tom Rath- this book allows you to do an online assessment of 34 different strengths based on extensive research, and offers ways to exploit these qualities
- VIA Signature Strengths Survey- www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu Dr. Martin Seligman, Director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania and founder of positive psychology, offers a free on-line test identifying 24 top strength qualities
- Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham – co-developer of the Strengthsfinder test. He offers deeper insights into ‘identifying talents, building them into strengths, resulting in consistent near perfect performance’. His books should be handbooks for all managers by helping staff feel empowered and strong in their jobs.
Once you know your strengths, be guided regularly by the following questions:
- Where do I use these strengths already?
- When, how often, doing what activity?
- How can I use these strengths in other situations?
- How can I develop these strengths?
- How can you build your life and work around these strengths?
- Ack: Adam Chalker, creator of the Personal Growth Library
Enjoy discovering and harnessing what makes you strong, as well as identifying what weakens you and which you need to side-step!