4 Ways to Activate Your Strengths Today
Anything that points you inward and leaves you there offends your strengths.
Strengths based leadership goes astray when it makes success all about you. The world doesn’t revolve around you. The Universe is ambivalent to your existence.
Your strengths are irrelevant until you put them to use in service to something bigger than yourself.
Leadership and selfishness are like oil and water.
You need to know your strengths AND you need to use your strengths.
4 ways to activate your strengths today:
#1. Know your strengths.
Self-awareness, self-reflection, self-assessments, and input from others clarify your core strengths.
7 questions:
- What’s true of people you enjoy hanging with? How might you have some of the same strengths?
- Notice what you’re doing when your energy goes up and time stands still.
- What are you admired for?
- What value do you frequently add to teams?
- What do people say about you when they talk about you to others?
- What strengths have you used to face big obstacles?
- What do you notice that others frequently miss? What strength lies behind this ability?
#2. Turn outward.
You’re a blackhole when you focus on yourself. Turn inward to strengthen your ability to contribute.
“There is nothing more liberating and energizing than getting over yourself.” Tom Rath
#3. Meet a need.
Once you catch a glimpse of your strengths, how can you best utilize them?
Connect your strengths to your team’s need.
What does your organization or community need that you can provide?
Reflect on your contribution, not your passion. (Life’s Great Question)
#4. Build and strengthen relationships.
People are more important than projects.
Include people on your to-do list.
I was fortunate to ask Tom Rath, author of StrengthsFinder 2.0 and Life’s Great Question, how to operationalize a strength-based approach leadership.
What can you do today to activate your strengths?
Still curious:
The Path to Meaningful Contribution Begins Here
How to Find Fulfillment When Work is Frustrating
Too often, we are told to identify our weaknesses — sorry, improvement opportunities — and focus on those. The end goal, of course, is for everyone to be good at everything. It’s refreshing to be told to focus on your strengths and how you can use those better.
Thanks Jennifer. Peter Drucker said, “A person can perform only from strength. One cannot build performance on weakness, let alone on something one cannot do at all.”
Some weaknesses need to be addressed because they inhibit success and/or frustrate our strengths. But the principle of focusing on our strengths should be obvious once we reflect on the futility of focusing on our weaknesses.
Delegate the tasks that don’t align with your strengths. Free up time to use your strengths to add value in more areas of your work and family.
Really good article
Great blog post. I find that many books, seminars, and podcast encourage us to identify our weakness and address them. But, this allows us to neglect our strengths. As humans, we all have weaknesses. However, I feel by amplifying and focusing on our weaknesses, we miss the best parts of ourselves. I appreciate how this article encourages us to activate our strengths, which are our superpowers. Thank you!
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