Discover and Use Your Personal Strengths

Discover and Use Your Personal Strengths

When people don't know their strengths, they devote time, energy and resources trying to improve their weaknesses. Yet, it's proven that to succeed in any endeavor, people must use their natural strengths.

The problem is, less than 15% of people ever take the time to discover what their personal strengths are. And only a mere 2-3% learn to use their strengths consistently.  What makes other people want to work with you? What do you enjoy most in your work, or business? What comes to you naturally? What keeps you focused on a specific task or enables you to multitask? What helps you bounce back after setbacks?

You significantly increase your chances to succeed at work, in sales and in leadership when you discover your personal strengths and use them repeatedly until using them becomes a habit.

As a leader, did you know that to inspire people to believe in your vision and for them to act on it, as if it were their own vision, you need to use your personal strengths 50% of the time? If you use your positional power more than 15% of the time, you become manipulative and those you lead work out of fear instead of inspiration.

If you use your knowledge power more than 35% of the time, you become overwhelming and intimidate those around, thus making them afraid of contributing or analyzing what's wrong.

One of the exercises participants in my on-site leadership training seminars (where participants work in the same organization and know each other relatively well) helps them discover what makes them successful in creating a positive team environment and keep all team players at all times.

In groups of threes, I have each participant write down his/her top five strengths ranging from well organized, to goal oriented to punctual to caring to humorous. Then I have the other two members of the group write down what they know or consider as their colleagues' top five personal strengths.

When that is done, each individual shares what he/she wrote as main strengths and then listens as the others tell what they know or consider as the individual's strengths. Some of what individuals write as their strengths is affirmed by their colleagues. Other strengths, not listed by an individual, are highlighted by their co-workers. It is fascinating to watch people discover their strengths.

Honest                                     Punctual                                   Optimistic

Intelligent                                  self-initiated                              Loyal

Goals-oriented                          Forgiveness                              Visionary

Determination                           Enthusiastic                               Competent

Organized                                 Motivated/inspirational  Confident

Active                                      Persistent                                  Patient

Responsible                              Decisive                                   Go the extra Mile

Flexible                                    Positive identity             Learner

Commitment                             Focused                                   Team player

Caring                                      Disciplined                                Encourager

Dependable                              Integrity                                    Positive attitude

Self appreciation                       Knowledgeable                        Hope

Experience                               Wisdom/common sense            Faith

What are your top five?

Ask your colleagues or family members (but not teenagers) to tell you what they consider as your personal strengths.

Once you become consciously aware of your key personal strengths and make it a lifetime goal to use them all the time, you will increase your productivity, be more pleasant to work with and save yourself the pain of trying to improve non strengths. We don't succeed by using our weaknesses. We thrive by using the full potential of our strengths.