Career Change – Identify Your Strengths

It’s in our nature as human beings to dismiss what we do well and focus on what we need to do better.

Are there some things in your career that you know you’re not great at, but deep down you have no particular interest in improving them? Would you rather focus your energies on the things you do well?

Workplace development plans can feed the habit of not celebrating our strengths and force us into the mind set of highlighting our weaknesses. For the next 6 months we are then required to put our efforts into turning our weaknesses into strengths.

Why can’t we focus on what we do well and do more of it! ?

Strengths are where your natural talents are, they are things that you do easily and have a natural flow when doing them. This is why they are so hard to identify and we can take them for granted, not even recognising we have a natural ability.

You need to tune into what you do and what you contribute to the world around you to recognise their existence, slow down and hold a mirror up to yourself to see what you actually do and have done well.

Our greatest satisfactions come when we do what we do best and play to our strengths.

Try the following:

• Reflect on 4 or 5 key experiences or difficulties you have overcome throughout your life, what did you achieve and how did you overcome any obstacles?
• Write down 10 aspects you like about yourself
• Ask your nearest and dearest what they think your strengths are, ask your work colleagues.
• Be really in the moment with what you do and journal what came easily to you and what you enjoyed.
• Notice any recurring themes and write down what you see as your key strengths.
• Note how you use the same strengths in different situations; this is what makes them transferable.

With this self-knowledge it will help you identify what you may need to adjust to develop your current role or even take that leap to initiate a career change.

Does your current role allow you to play to your strengths?

Helpful resource:

Strengths Finder

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.