Marcus Buckingham, the co-author of Now Discover Your Strengths (Amazon affiliate link), has a new strengths assessment available on the the internet. It’s called StandOut. You can take the assessment for free to receive a report of your top two roles or pay a fee to get the full report. I took the free assessment myself and found it quite informative.
Archive for 'strengths'
Step #1 Pay attention to what you’re focusing on.
This step alone can do wonders for you almost immediately. First understand that what you focus on affects your emotional state, or how you feel.
If what you’re thinking about makes you feel bad it affects your energy level in a bad way. If you’re thinking about something that makes you feel bad you will quickly start to feel stressed or tired or just generally have a bad attitude.
On the other hand, if what you’re thinking about makes you feel good it affects your energy level in a good way. It doesn’t really matter if what you’re thinking about it is true or not what matters is if it helps you feel good.
So use this to enhance your career. For example if thinking about the weekend or free time makes you feel good then don’t wait until Friday to daydream about the weekend. But if thinking about the weekend makes you feel bad because you want it to be the weekend now or it makes you yearn for the weekend, then avoid thoughts about the weekend choosing to focus on something to make you feel good instead.
Here is another example. On a recent episode of Dancing with the Stars, Olympian Evan Lysacek was being coached by his dancing pro Anna Trebunskaya. Evan is a top notch technician but was not good at showing emotion in his dancing. Anna asked him, “What makes you happy?” Evan mumbled something about cars and then said, as his face lit up, “my baby nephew!”
He then proceeded to show cute little videos of his nephew on his phone to his coach smiling & laughing the whole time. Anna capitalized on that reaction and brought it to his attention. Long story short, he danced like a whole new man in that week’s competition. Even more importantly, he now knows a trick (shall we say, a Jedi mind trick?) for something to focus on when he notices he is not feeling as happy as he could.
Step #2 Use your strengths in your career.
Strengths as related to careers are activities that you enjoy doing, that you do well, and that you don’t mind doing repeatedly. This new hot philosophy on strengths was developed by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton in the book, “Now, Discover Your Strengths.”
They promote the idea that we can be happier in our careers by focusing on strengths instead of trying to improve weaknesses. In fact, they say that one can advance further and faster in skill attainment by practicing and developing one’s strengths rather than one’s weaknesses (for example, their idea that you can work everyday to improve a weaknesses and achieve only lackluster results). The book is a little long winded because of all the theory and development talk, but when you buy the book you get an assessment code to enter online to take the assessment. The more recent version is StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath. The book is much more of a friendly, quick reference which also includes an assessment.
Step #3 Be selfish.
No, I don’t mean selfish in a bad way. It is simply that factoring in everyone else’s opinion of what you should be doing in your work, (or for that matter what anyone thinks about the work you do) is exhausting and fruitless…so be selfish! After all, YOU are the one putting in the time and attention to whatever you choose for your career, and you are the one noticing everyday how you feel about your career (see step #1). So be selfish, and take charge of your career development to make sure your work is life-enhancing.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) is a personality assessment. It can help you communicate what is special about you and it can give you insight as to how you communicate and learn best. Also research has shown how certain personality types tend to congregate happily in certain career fields. Many people who take the MBTI® begin a wonderful journey of self-discovery. In fact, some describe it as life changing. Please contact me if you are interested in taking the assessment.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and MBTI are a trademarks or registered trademarks of the MBTI Trust, Inc., in the United States and other countries.
Sometimes people are surprised to realize what an inside game career management is. In fact if you are feeling stuck about what major to choose or what career to choose or what job to look for next, a great first step is to start envisioning what your ideal career or job looks like. This can only come from the inside! Only you know what you prefer and how you would like to live.
People really underestimate the importance of thinking about the the lifestyle they prefer when choosing too. It reminds me of a story I once heard about a fisherman who goes out to fish for a few hours everyday to earn his living. Then comes home, enjoys lunch, plays with his kids, then goes to town to play guitar each evening with his wife. Some vacationers come to town and one guy can not resist telling the fisherman how he can get more wealth by building up his fishing operation. Long story short, the fisherman is already living how he wants to live! The point is that that often lifestyle choice is a good way to weed out distractors. You might like to hear the short story for yourself though.
Another thing to consider early on in your decision making process is your natural strengths. This is very important because a fulfilling career is built upon natural strengths which enable one to work with ease and to gain expertise faster. Sometimes defining your strengths can be tough because we often tend devalue what we do well — everyone can do that, it’s not special…that kind of inaccurate thinking.
So one action to take is to record what you believe your strengths are. Then take some time to go to 3-6 people who know you well and ask them what they have observed that you do easily and well. Take notes and compare responses, including your own, to come up with a list of your natural strengths. Another good tool to try which I have mentioned before to get more data about your natural strengths is Marcus Buckingham’s “Now, Discover Your Strengths
Next, you can take what you have learned about yourself and start comparing that data to what is required in careers you are considering. You do that not only with internet research but with invaluable field research a.k.a. informational interviewing. Can I just tell you, it is amazing how much the view of a potential choice can change after talking to a few folks already in the career field. I cannot overemphasize how learning about careers in this way brings career choice to life (in addition to the other perks of actually talking to people and building networking relationships)!
Mostly though, I encourage you to follow what appeals to you now as that is a big indication of your intuition at work. Follow your nose with an understanding that you may not end up where you thought but career choice a process not a destination. I encourage you to dive into the process one optimistic step at a time.
I was thinking the other day about how child’s play reflects interests and strengths. It is amazing to me how very quickly you can begin to see a child’s natural strengths emerging. Also the preschool years are a time when the child is just doing their thing without worrying about other people’s opinions for the most part.
If you are stuck trying to figure what what you want to do for your career, or if you are trying to build your personal brand based on your strengths, you might try thinking about your preschool years to get back in touch with what really brings you joy. Or you could talk to several people who knew you as a toddler and preschooler. Ask them what you seemed to learn quickly at those ages and phases of interest you went through. What would your relatives and caregivers say about you? Now, you may need to take this info with a grain of salt but by asking 3-5 opinions you should get some interesting data to consider about yourself.
It is better to focus on your strengths and be aware of your weaknesses from the standpoint of having a high quality of life. It is stressful to work exhaustively on improving weaknesses and furthermore it doesn’t honor your strengths or the strengths of those around you. It is okay that someone else is better at something than you. Respect them for their gifts while honoring yourself for yours too.
Most likely, you will learn about or create lots of other opportunities while going through the exercise of recognizing your strengths. Possibilities for career changes or enhancement will emerge that you never imagined.
A widely held myth about careers is that there is a perfect one out there for everyone. That is not true because there are actually several careers out there that would be a good match for you! Isn’t that exciting news? I believe it is. For one thing, this point of view relieves the burden of continually seeking the perfect match in order to find career happiness. Instead you are free to focus on where you are currently in your journey allowing life and opportunity to unfold in ways more satisfying than you could have planned. I think this is primarily due to the enthusiasm that will shine through you when you give yourself permission to embrace your unique strengths and interests. That enthusiasm then serves as a strong attractor of people and circumstances to propel you on your way.
“When you follow your bliss…doors will open where you would have thought there would not be doors, and where there would not be a door for anyone else.” —Joseph Campbell
Millionaire Blueprints is one of my favorite reads. There are great stories in here to inspire entrepreneurs and people in traditional careers since the featured bios demonstrate a lot of creative thinking and persistence. You can also feel the passion of people in all kinds of businesses and careers which is very inspirational.
I think reading good stuff like this makes an abundance mindset more likely by helping to keep us more aware of opportunities all around us as well as our own potential based on our unique combination of personal strengths.
Looking over my last post brings me to a good question though. There are some great info products out there with giant price tags from people who are well recognized as leaders in their niche. How do you decide which one purchase if any? In my mind, there are two ways to look at it.
I read some books over my little hiatus that complement the careerillionaire idea nicely, “Now, Discover Your Strengths
The central idea presented is to focus on what you are naturally good at for the best chance of outstanding improvement and to “enjoy consistent, near perfect performance.” Also explained is that many people work to improve their weakness spending time, effort, and focus with little to show for it; meanwhile their strengths are virtually ignored. The suggestion made is to identify and focus on using your strengths while working around your weaknesses by enlisting the strengths of others or otherwise ignoring your weaknesses as much as possible.
I have a feeling that careerillionaires tend to develop their strengths either naturally or as a strategy they learn along the way. They must eventually realize that not everyone can be good at everything and then consciously decide what they enjoy and excel at the most. From there careerillionaires probably work to make those natural talents even stronger. They must realize too that doing tasks that take extra effort from them and that lead to lackluster results are just not worth their time. They must become adept at partnering with others and finding solutions so they don’t have to spend a lot of effort doing things that don’t energize them. I’m convinced that in following their bliss careerillionaires are led to streams of work and income that serve to enhance their own personal development and quality of life.
Go and see!
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |