Over 20 years ago, I attended a conference about work styles and productivity. At the beginning of the day, they led us in a personality assessment. They would ask questions-movies or books, mountains or beach- and based on your response, you walked to one of the four corners of the room. After 20 questions and moving around the room quite a bit, the facilitator read a description of each corner of the room. While it was not intended to be a deep scientific analysis, I still noticed something interesting. NO ONE was happy with their placement. After the facilitator read the description and invited responses, one person said what the rest of the room echoed, “I want to be in that corner.”
We tend to see what other people do well as strengths and what we do well as something we just do. Some might call this humility, but I believe it’s often a lack of self-awareness. We don’t take the time to think about what it is we are really good at doing. Instead, we focus our efforts on -to use the example above- getting to a different corner. How can we develop our weaknesses into strengths? How can we become more well-rounded?
Certainly there are weaknesses we need to improve in order to survive in our jobs or relationships. The administratively challenged will still have to complete expense reports, and the introvert will still have to attend the occasional social fundraiser. But to try to turn those weaknesses into strengths can be a frustrating exercise at best and counter productive at worst. We can name the great salespeople who flamed out as sales managers and the amazing players who became terrible coaches.
Think about your strengths. What are the things in your life that you do really well? The ones that others notice. The ones that may come so naturally to you, they feel like something “you just do.” How can you claim those more fully? How can you develop those in your personal and/or professional life?
Don’t know where to start? Start this way. Find three people in your life that you truly trust. Remember, be careful who you talk to. You may have a close personal relationship with these people. You may not. Maybe you work with them, volunteer with them, exercise with them. Ask these people for feedback. “Hey, _______, I’m trying to figure some things out about myself. What are two things that you think I do well?” Sound silly? I’ll bet it does. Can you picture yourself actually asking someone this question? Probably not. But try it, and I think you’ll learn a lot about yourself.
That feedback may help you articulate some things about your own strengths that you knew, but could never fully describe. Once you have that feedback, you’re ready to dig deeper into those strengths and leverage them into something truly spectacular.
Go on. Ask someone. Let me know what they say.
Peace.
Patrick Day 