A journey in strengths discovery
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I was recently interviewed for an article about Strengths and asked to talk through my own insights to what led me into working in this field. Reflecting on this was hugely enlightening. Here is what I learned:
Your strengths show up at a young age
When you’re Strengths Spotting, both in yourself and in individuals, the chances are that what you are inherently good was obvious from a very young age. On talking to my parents about this my Dad told me that I was always asking questions of people and wanting to find out information. No surprise that one of my top strengths is Input – I am naturally inquisitive and have a natural curiosity about most things, particularly people. I remember as child, teenager and young adult being told I was nosey! As I’ve got older my inquisitiveness has become more selective as my other strengths such as Maximiser – wanting to be the best usually in something selective - has come into play. I've also worked to mature my questioning techniques.
Because of the strengths in my top 10 I enjoy developing strong relationships and naturally see and appreciate the individuality of those around me who I want to help be their best. It’s interesting as I observe this with the young people around me in my life. My 7-year-old niece who asks questions non-stop (often to the exasperation of those around her). She has the ability to get everyone around her to love her for the personality that she is and I already see the strength of Woo (Winning Others Over) coming out in everything she does. She gets bored very easily and adapts to different types of play. If you compare that to my nephew who is older he enjoys the company of people he already knows and loves the process of learning about new things. He is also absorbed in new learning for hours and is always completely in the moment, which is in contrast to his sister.
That’s the miracle of individuality because we are all unique. How amazing would it be as parents to recognise this and develop it with our little ones to help them develop their talents at a young age? As parents we can have a tendency to dampen the spirits of our children because they talk too much, ask too many questions or share too much information. What if we understood our young people better by seeing their strengths at a young age? Chris Wejr in his amazing Ted Talk highlights the importance of starting with strengths from a young age. Click here to view the video.
Your strengths come naturally to you
When we have strengths they come so naturally to us that we often take them for granted.
In my early 30’s as a senior manager for a large construction consultancy I was continually stretched to learn and grow and given complete autonomy to do my job and manage my team by my boss. After the recession hit the construction industry in 2008 I inherited a number of people due to unfortunate redundancies of other managers. My boss called me in and told me to do what I do best and re-configure the team to play to their strengths. By understanding their strengths I had everyone concentrating on what they do best and our productivity levels went through the roof.
Knowing what I know now my strengths lent themselves to naturally focusing and re-configuring the team to their strengths. Fortunately, at the time, I had a boss who was able to strengths spot and see exactly that in me. When I look back it’s one of the standout moments in my corporate career when I recognised all my strengths were at play. It achieved amazing levels of engagement and productivity as a result.
You love to do it and would do it for free
I love reviewing strengths reports and talking to individuals about their insights and helping them see what they do when they are at their best. Equally looking at what might be frustrating them and showing up as weaknesses as a result of understanding their strengths.
Because of my strength of Arranger I particular like to look at the configuration of teams and map their strengths. I can get absorbed in it for hours and the time passes by without me even noticing it. When your motivated in this way you are always likely to be working from your strengths. And when you describe it as something you ‘love’ to do that makes you feel great when you do it, you are referring to your strengths.
I have always been an ‘organiser’, a sure sign of an Arranger talent at work. I love organising events, get together’s and trips. As part of my training 30 of my family and friends took the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment. I used to think they were lazy when they asked me to organise things. From reviewing everyone's strengths I realised I am the only person with Arranger in my family. It changed my perception because now I realise they come to me because I’m good at it, not because they are being lazy.
You learn at a rapid rate
Every wondered why you can learn some things so easily but yet other things take forever to grasp and you feel drained as a result? You learn quickly when your strengths are at play. When I discovered Strengths I went into overdrive as a result of my top strengths. The configuration of my Maximiser, Input and Learner strengths means I am selective about what I choose to learn and I completely hone into gathering as much information as possible in a chosen field. This included finding out what I could do to accelerate teaching strengths full-time which led me to studying with Strengths Strategy, the world’s leading strengths application organisation. Videos, articles, coaching, on-line learning forums, talking to individuals…you name it I wanted to learn it. And it was effortless. Rapid learning often indicates an underlying strength or configuration of them at play.
Your energy is high
If you get a buzz from what you are doing, even if you are physically exhausted, you are playing to your strengths. My greatest buzz comes from team days. A room of people whose strengths I understand who are being taken through a journey of discovery when it comes to their strengths. An individual from a recent group of graduates said to us that it was like ‘a magnifying glass that was being held up in front of them that showed themselves for the very first time.’ There is nothing more rewarding to me than individuals and teams seeing their strengths and understanding how to achieve great results from what they have learned. I might have been standing on my feet for 10 hours but I don’t care.
On the flipside of this what makes you feel weak, de-energsised and thoroughly de-motivated? This is a sure fire sign the needs of your strengths are not being met and you are focusing on your areas of non-strength. When we focus on our areas of non-strength we feel depleted, even if we have had a busy day because it’s been such an effort! High performance when you feel low energy is a recipe for burn out.
You feel like the real you
I remember sitting at my desk at work. I had a great job and team but something wasn’t right for me. I couldn’t put my finger on it but I was telling myself I was here to do more than I was doing. For such a long time in the corporate world I was working in an environment where there was a focus on trying to improve people in the very areas they weren’t good at. The pursuit of being well rounded had always struck me as a complete waste of time (spoken like a true Maximizer). No wonder I felt so frustrated because my strengths had needs – the need to contribute and they weren’t being met. I wanted to help configure teams to work to their best but the block was always that people needed to be better at that weren’t good at which made no sense to me. Engagement levels were low because individuals were not being given the opportunity to do what they do best, which was having a direct impact on productivity and profitability levels. The fastest way to increase profits is to engage your people by allowing to do what they do best everyday.
Putting time and energy into what you are mediocre at is time wasted and who wants to waste time when we have so little of it? And we know from research that if you put your energy into improving something you a mediocre at it will be completely wasted in terms of return on investment.
Trying to be well-rounded robs the world of our uniqueness and we are supposed to be collaborative NOT well-rounded. We all have a natural instinct to want to contribute and offer help to others which is something that has been drummed out of many of us at the pursuit of climbing the corporate ladder.
I know first hand the amazing results you get when you focus on your strengths. I want to sprinkle the magic fairy dust as far and wide as possible because I know it’s transformational. Because when you do your organisation will see the very thing they have been looking for - increased levels of productivity and profitability.
When we work to people’s strengths, rather than focusing on what is wrong with them, we are asking them to do more of what they enjoy and do best. And as research has shown, using your strengths is associated with significantly higher levels of happiness, well-being and fulfilment. When we operate from our strengths we feel truly authentic and in touch with ourselves because we are acting in ways that feels true to ourselves.
Be someone who understands your strengths. It will change your life.
