Answers to the above questions can lead you to the most precious asset you have for building a successful career: Your strengths.
Why bother about strengths? When you use our strengths, you will enjoy your work and give your best performance. Opposite is also true. Failing to use your own strengths is a recipe for boredom and mediocre performance at work.
You may wonder if you have any strength in the first place. Indeed, when people see a great musician, painter, orator or sportsman perform, they recognize readily his/her strength. But they fail to ask themselves what their own strengths are and quietly assume they have none.
There are three main reasons why people fail to leverage on their own strengths. First, what you are good at comes easily to you. Therefore, you may take it for granted. For example, if your strength lies in, say, leading people, you may find this activity so easy that it may not appear as anything special to you.
Second, your strengths may be such that you may not be able to publicly express them, unlike in the case of a painter or musician. Therefore, no one, including you, recognizes them.
Third, since many people do not recognize their strengths, they fail to develop them. As a result, the strengths remain dormant, like an unpolished diamond.
Here's how you can spot your own strengths if you don't already know them:
Feelings Pay attention to the activities that give you a feeling of joy or enjoyment. That's a clue to your strengths.
Energy Do you suddenly feel energized while doing certain activities? If yes, that's another clue to your strengths.
Achievements Look at all your past achievements and see if you can detect a pattern of specific activities. If you can, these particular activities are nothing but expressions of your strengths.
Excellence Find out what you excel at consistently. That's a definite clue to your strengths.
Compliments Interestingly, people can identify others' strengths (and weaknesses) quite easily. If you can notice others' strengths, they too can notice yours. So, if someone compliments you for good work, pay attention. He may be pointing at your strengths unconsciously.
Compulsiveness A person's strengths are like a blown-up balloon under the water--they keep surfacing. Sub-consciously, you may feel a compulsion to express your strengths. For example, if your strength is writing, you may grab any opportunity to write.
Ask yourself: "What do I feel compelled to do?
Yearnings Like a magnet, your yearnings pull you towards your strengths. So, if you catch yourself longing repeatedly to do something, say, teaching others, therein may lie your strength.
Rapid learning If you are able to learn a particular skill rapidly, that again is a clue to your strength.
Losing track of time Not being conscious of the time while you are doing something is one of the most reliable clues to your strengths.
Ask yourself: "What do I enjoy doing so much that it makes me lose track of time?"
Feedback analysis This method was suggest by management guru Peter Drucker. It works as follows:
1. Whenever you take a key decision or action, write down what you expect to happen. 2. Later, perhaps after a few days, weeks or months, compare the actual results with your own expectations.
According to Drucker, if practiced consistently, the feedback analysis will reveal to you both your strengths and weaknesses.
With so many ways to uncover your strengths, it is time you unleashed them to enjoy your work, give superior performance and savor success in your career.
I heard and experienced myself where people would advise me to focus a lot on my weaknesses to develop myself further. Through such process, I had faced disappointments. I took responsibility for the decision on building such focus too much but through the process, I learn greatly that one can achieve excellence and ultimately reach his goal better if the individual understand his strengths better and focus on it consistently.
There are a couple of methods involved in achieving a dream goal through strength building and focus. Firstly, the individual clearly needs to understand his strengths. He has to dig deep in himself and find out what are his strengths. One has to be clear about his strength clearly to achieve great goals. Once he understand his strengths, create a plan, focus and act consistently to build on those strengths. The act can be in small steps but it can lead one to reach great achievements through consistency.
Let's take an example of an individual who is naturally soft spoken and been told by others to change himself to be a louder individual. In brief, it means he must change not to be the person he is. He might find himself in uncomfortable positions and end up in frustrations not being himself. How should he react to focus and build on his strength? Let's see.
Firstly, he should take a step back and react to the feedback positively. In good strides, he must realize that he is unique in his own way. Everyone is special in their own ways. He must find out why and what is so special about himself. Next, he must work greatly towards understanding that his soft spoken approach can be his greatest strength.
For example, he can build a list of values that he can learn from other successful people and apply it consistently such as keep learning spirits high, never give up, make it a point to step out of comfort zone such as public speaking, learning to network with people to develop on his strength better.
Next, he needs to find the avenue to apply it. For example, starting a part time business such as home business, networking and communicating with people from all walks of life or participating in events that involved large audiences are great avenues that he can participate to develop his strengths.
He should also make it point to find and learn from a mentor in the different areas to guide him along. For example, in public speaking, get a mentor to guide in organizing his speech and practice the speech rehearsals with the mentor. He must be able to lower down his ego to accept criticisms and feedback from his mentor. He must also be a willing listener and learner to continue learning and understand that learning never stops. "Never become so much of an expert that you stop gaining expertise. View life as a continuous learning experience." - Denis Waitley . I believed that with a simple, concrete and effective plan,the individual who builds and develops his strength consistently and apply it to great use can achieve great dreams and goals in life.
Both Atul Mathur & Mohamed Abdul Rauf Bin Mohamed Yusope are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Atul Mathur has sinced written about articles on various topics from Web Development. Atul Mathur is the author of three ebooks: 5 Quick Steps to a New Job, The Best Career Move: Know Yourself and The Secret of Finding the Right Career Direction. He also writes Career Tips, a free monthly newsletter dedicated to career development.We. Atul Mathur's top article generates over 22200 views. to your Favourites.
Mohamed Abdul Rauf Bin Mohamed Yusope has sinced written about articles on various topics from Finances, Work From Home and Sell Home. Free Internet Home Business Tips Newsletter that can be shared and delivered to your inbox.Simply Download it for free here: Mohamed Abdu. Mohamed Abdul Rauf Bin Mohamed Yusope's top article generates over 165000 views. to your Favourites.