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Using Your Strengths: How to Harness Your Natural Gifts for Greater Satisfaction Let us begin with research from the Gallup Organization on using your strengths: What are you built to do? Although we know we should do what we're built to do, this often seems to go against most of what we learned growing up and still practice at work for personal and professional "development." "You had a really good year. You're great at X,Y,Z and your accomplishments were A,B,C. Now, the one thing you could improve is ______. I think this could take your performance to the next level next year. Let's spend the next 59 minutes of our hour conversation discussing strategies for you to fix your weaknesses. . ." Sound familiar? This pattern exists everywhere - school, work, home. We have been trained from a young age to find problems, think critically, do a "gap analysis," and analyze what needs fixing. Now, looking for problems is incredibly important when you are building a bridge or doing your taxes. But, when thinking about your personal growth, using your strengths and learning to harness them is actually an infinitely more productive strategy than fixing your weaknesses. (You'll want to manage your weaknesses and blind spots and fix them enough so that they do not derail you; but you want to spend most of your time building your strengths.)  Here's why it's more rewarding to focus on using your strengths: your strengths act as a natural multiplier for practice and hard work (i.e. investment) you put into something. Trying to develop your weaknesses only results in incremental improvements.For example, if you have a natural talent for singing AND you train dilligently, you will likely see quick and dramatic progress. But, if you can't carry a tune, you could train all day every day but it's unlikely you'll ever become a great singer. You might be able to sing a few songs, but those with natural talent who put even a little effort into training will quickly surpass you. How Do I Determine My Strengths? Discovering your natural talents and honing them into consistent strengths can bring you both happiness, satisfaction, flow, and engagement AND incredibly high performance. To help determine your strengths, here are a few of my favorite resources. You might try several of these different "lenses" and use them to put the puzzle together. . . 1) Strengthsfinder 2.0: The quickest place for starting information about using your strengths is Strengthsfinder 2.0. You can get it for about $15 in any bookstore. The book, which is only about 75 pages, has a 30 page introduction to strengths theory. It's a very quick read. And, most importantly, it has an online assessment you can take that immediately tells you your strength themes and how to harness them. 2) VIA Signature Strengths Survey: On the famous Positive Psychology website of Martin Seligmann there are many great assessments to take. One of my favorites is called the VIA Signature Strengths Survey. (Scroll down and look on the bottom right-hand side.) If you sign up, you can take the free online test. Immediately, you'll receive a list of your character strengths. 3) Go Put Your Strengths to Work by Marcus Buckingham: While the first two resources provide high level strengths themes, Buckingham's book provides many exercises to help you drill down and determine concrete specific activities that are strengths for you - in the sense that they "make you strong" and give you energy. Here is one of my favorite exercises about learning and using your strengths that I frequently recommend for coaching clients: Carry around notecards with you for one week. As you go through your day, write down when you realize you love what you're doing. It will probably feel like you have a lot of energy, time stops, and you're in the zone. Be specific about what's going on and what you're doing. And, use the notecards to write down when you're miserable as well. At these times, you'll probably feel drained and bored, and time won't pass quickly enough. Similarly, what's going on? Then, at the end of the week, take your cards and look through them. Identify the three strongest moments of strength, and the three strongest moments of weakness. (Buckingham will show you how to mitigate these later.) Then, take each statement and ask yourself the reporter questions. Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. For this activity, does it matter "Who" I'm doing it with?, "Why" I'm doing it?, etc. As you ask yourself these questions, you'll probably discover that you DO have preferences. Turn these preferences into a long run-on sentence that jazzes you up when you read it. For example, I start with the statement, "I like public speaking." When I ask myself the reporter questions, I get a concrete and precise strengths statement: I like public speaking about personal growth (WHAT) to audiences of 10-15 people (WHO) in an outdoor setting (WHERE) at dusk (WHEN) for the purpose of helping them grow and develop (WHY) and providing a thought-provoking and introspective experience(HOW). See how that's much more focused than "I like public speaking?" With that kind of clarity on a strengths statement, you could literally walk out the door and go do it. And, if you do this for your weaknesses too, you'll know exactly what drains you the most so you can minimize the time you spend doing it. Buckingham's "Go Put Your Strengths to Work" really is a fabulous resource. It also has many techniques for using your strengths in daily life and tips to help you stop spending time on your weaknesses. I highly recommend it. You may also want to visit Marcus Buckingham's website devoted to using your strengths. Cheers, Leave Using Your Strengths and Return to About Personal Growth Main Page Leave Using Your Strengths and Return to BPGR HomeRelated Articles: About Growth: What is Personal Growth?
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