Knowing your personal strengths is crucial for several reasons. Firstly, it allows you to capitalize on those strengths and use them to your advantage in your career and life. Secondly, knowing your strengths enables you to seek out opportunities and roles that allow you to showcase those abilities. Finally, understanding your strengths helps you identify and improve upon your weaknesses. Let’s explore these ideas further.
Leveraging your strengths
When you have a solid understanding of your own natural talents and abilities, you’re able to leverage them for success. Here are some of the key ways knowing your strengths helps you excel:
- Focus your efforts on playing to your strengths. Don’t waste time trying to improve skills that don’t come naturally to you – instead, zero in on the things you’re already good at.
- Look for roles and opportunities that align with your strengths. Seek jobs or projects that will let you utilize your top abilities.
- Combine your strengths with others’ strengths. Collaborate with colleagues whose abilities complement yours.
- Turn your strengths into competitive advantages. Determine how to best apply your unique combination of talents to stand out.
The most successful people build their careers around their strengths. Self-awareness of your innate skills allows you to be more strategic and effective in how you allocate your time and energy.
Seeking out strength-based opportunities
Once you know what your strengths are, you can be more intentional about pursuing opportunities that play to them. Here’s how to do it:
- Target companies that value your strengths. Research to find employers that need and appreciate the abilities you excel at.
- Tailor your resume and cover letters. Emphasize how your strengths make you an ideal candidate.
- Prepare for interviews by planning how to highlight your strengths when answering questions.
- Accept roles that utilize your top abilities. Decline roles that fail to leverage your best skills.
- Shape your current role to apply your strengths whenever possible.
Seeking out strength-based jobs and projects is rewarding. When you get to do more of what you’re good at, you’re likely to enjoy your work and perform better too.
Improving your weaknesses
While it’s wise to focus on your natural strengths, it’s also important not to ignore your weak areas. Knowing your weaknesses allows you to improve them. Here’s how:
- Use self-assessment tools to identify areas for improvement. Personality tests, skills assessments, and 360 reviews can reveal your blindspots.
- Ask for constructive feedback from managers and colleagues. They may point out weaknesses you’re unaware of.
- Work on your weaknesses. Take courses, get coaching, or tackle projects to enhance your poor skill areas.
- Find ways to complement your weaknesses. Get help from others who have abilities you lack.
- Change roles or responsibilities if a weakness is crippling. Don’t stay stuck in a job that highlights your poorest abilities.
You don’t have to be perfect at everything. But when you know your weak points, you can take steps to upgrade those skills so they become less of an impediment.
How to identify your strengths
Now that you know why it pays to understand your strengths, let’s discuss how to pinpoint what they are:
- Look back at your track record. What activities, classes, and roles did you excel at? When did you get praise?
- Pay attention to what energizes you. Pursuits you’re passionate about likely utilize your strengths.
- Listen to what others say about you. Friends and colleagues may point out talents you take for granted.
- Review past feedback from managers and teachers. Look for consistent themes about your abilities.
- Take assessments like StrengthsFinder, VIA Character, or Myers-Briggs to reveal your top traits.
- Observe what skills come easily to you compared to others. Your natural talents likely feel effortless.
Combining self-reflection with external input can help you accurately identify your strengths. It may take time, but the payoff makes it worthwhile.
Top examples of strengths
Not sure what kinds of strengths you might have? Here are some examples across various categories:
Communication strengths
- Writing skills
- Public speaking and presenting
- Storytelling ability
- Persuasiveness
- Active listening
Cognitive strengths
- Problem-solving
- Creativity and innovation
- Spatial awareness and visualization
- Pattern recognition
- Mathematical reasoning
Social strengths
- Teamwork and collaboration
- Mentoring and coaching skills
- Ability to motivate others
- Influence and leadership
- Empathy and supportiveness
Personal strengths
- Time management
- Initiative
- Adaptability
- Discipline and focus
- Organization
What stands out from these examples for you? The more you know about common types of strengths, the easier it’ll be to identify your own.
Maximizing your strengths at work
Now that you know your top strengths, how can you optimize them in your career? Here are some tips:
- List your strengths on your resume, LinkedIn, and any bios. This shows employers what you excel at.
- Explain during interviews how your strengths make you a great fit for the role and company.
- Bring up your strengths when negotiating responsibilities. Volunteer for tasks that use your top abilities.
- Speak up in meetings to offer your strengths-based perspective on issues.
- When giving a presentation, emphasize the strengths you leveraged in the project.
- Assign yourself to projects and teams where you can take on roles that maximize your strengths.
- Offer to mentor newer team members in your strength areas by sharing what comes naturally to you.
- Keep your manager updated on major accomplishments that stem from your strengths.
The more proactive you are about applying your strengths, the more rewarding your work will become. Don’t downplay them – make them central to your daily work life.
Avoiding burnout by using strengths
Focusing on your natural abilities not only boosts your performance – it also helps stave off burnout. Here’s how leaning into your strengths prevents burnout:
- Tasks that utilize your strengths are easier and less draining. They won’t sap your energy as quickly.
- You’ll achieve greater success and satisfaction from playing to your strengths, protecting your motivation.
- Being able to do more of what you’re good at allows you to be more engaged in your work.
- You’ll receive more positive feedback and recognition when using your top abilities, keeping your morale up.
- Working in your strengths zone makes you happier, more optimistic, and resilient against stress.
Burnout often stems from being forced to use skills that don’t come naturally. Capitalizing on your strengths is an antidote.
Strengths-based time management
Managing your schedule wisely means spending time on playing to your strengths when possible. Here are some strategies:
- Block off large chunks of time for your most critical strength activities.
- Schedule strength-based tasks when you have the most energy.
- Eliminate or delegate tasks outside your strength zone.
- Batch smaller strength-based tasks together.
- Allow flexibility in your schedule to capitalize on spur-of-the-moment strength opportunities.
- Outsource your weaknesses so you have more time to leverage strengths.
- Automate repetitive non-strength tasks when possible.
Your calendar should reflect your abilities – prioritize strength zones over weakness zones. Be choosy with your time.
Strengths-based goal setting
When establishing your next set of goals and objectives, craft them around your strengths.
- Set SMART goals that revolve around your top one or two abilities.
- Choose stretch goals that demand you leverage your strengths in new ways.
- Ensure your goals are intrinsically motivating by linking them to activities you excel at and enjoy.
- Set metrics that allow you to tangibly measure success based on your strengths.
- Find accountability partners who can support you in reaching strengths-focused goals.
Basing your goals around your sweet spots makes them far more achievable and satisfying to pursue.
Strengths-based team building
As a leader, you can build highly effective teams by strategically matching people’s strengths.
- Assess each person’s strengths and look for complementary abilities.
- Assign roles that allow team members to maximize their strengths.
- Delegate tasks based on which strength zones they fall under.
- Design strengths-based development plans for each person.
- Show people data on the value they bring through their strengths.
- Have team members collaborate on projects using their diverse superpowers.
- Highlight examples of team members excelling in their strength areas.
The more you can Structure collaboration around strengths, the more productive and harmonious your team will be. Lean into each person’s genius.
Strengths-based leadership
Great leaders don’t try to be good at everything – they know their strengths and weaknesses. Lead from your strengths in the following ways:
- Reflect on how your natural abilities help you excel as a leader.
- Seek feedback to identify your leadership superpowers as well as blindspots.
- Delegate tasks outside your strength areas to other capable leaders.
- Communicate your vision and lead change initiatives in a strengths-based way.
- Model utilizing your own strengths so your team does the same.
- Inspire and motivate through sharing stories of strengths-based leadership.
The most effective leaders multiply their impact by sticking to what they do best and empowering others.
Strengths-based coaching and mentoring
When coaching or mentoring someone, help them become more aware of their strengths.
- Use assessments to help them discover their top abilities.
- Ask probing questions to uncover times when they excelled.
- Help them tell their strengths story and own it.
- Encourage them to find roles that better match their strengths.
- Collaborate on strategies to maximize their strengths at work.
- Share examples of how you and others have leveraged similar strengths.
- Celebrate growth and wins related to their strengths development.
Guiding others on their strengths journey will unlock their potential and fuel their growth.
Conclusion
Identifying and developing your natural strengths is one of the best investments you can make in your career. It enables you to operate in your genius zone, achieve your potential, craft a fulfilling job, collaborate powerfully with others, and lead from a place of authenticity. Take the time to get to know your strengths at a deeper level – you’ll be amazed at how far they can take you.