story might seem, at first blush, like a simple case of convincing a manger or organization to offer fair pay for a certain level of responsibility. For Alexandra it was much more than that. She knew that she was a good leader and that her team thought so, but there were many times when her environment demanded that she be something that she was not – as she put it, “tough.” I suggested that she begin an inward journey to fully discover what made her tick. In essence, she set out to discover her natural strengths. This chapter will help you do the same.
This chapter is dedicated to helping you build the life that you really want by asking you the questions: Does your life reflect who you are, and are you happy? The answer to these questions lies in understanding and knowing yourself; therefore, to build the life that you really want, you should consider:
● Discovering your natural strengths
● Leveraging your natural strengths
● Being confident enough in your authenticity (natural strengths) to let it drive your actions and behavior, even when you get stuck, want to quit, are stressed, or are figuring out what it is that you really want
We all have an inkling as to what makes us tick in general terms, for example: I am collaborative, not competitive; I am deliberative, not impulsive; I believe in action, not analysis; and I lead from the front. What I am asking here is for you to take the deep dive and go way below the surface to understand your innate strengths.
What Is a Strength?
Your strengths are your who and your results are your what. Everyone produces results. The differentiating factor is the impact of your results and who you are when you produce these results. The question becomes, Who are you when you are driving results? Asked a different way, how do you drive results? Imagine that I am looking for a new leader for a special project in my organization. Whether the hire is internal, external, or from my team whom I know very well, if I am looking for one type of leader, and I hire another type of leader, it will not be a good match for either side. As an example, if I am looking for the leader who drives results through building relationships with his or her team, but I hire the leader who drives results by sitting in an office analyzing data and asking his or her team to produce pounds of reports, neither the newly hired employee nor I will be happy. To use our strengths authentically, it is incumbent upon us to know ourselves intimately and show our strengths to the world.
When I was still working in the corporate world, trying to build the life that I really wanted, one of the important lessons that I learned from my coach, which I enthusiastically pass on in my coaching practice, is identify your strengths – what you are good at and what you love to do. Then actively seek out environments in which you can use those strengths that make you the happiest.
The diagram (Figure 2.1) that I use to demonstrate this shows your interests plus your abilities equals your strength.
Figure 2.1 The Strength Formula
Whenever I present this concept, I like to say that the whole game of being happy in your work is to figure out what you are good at and what you love to do, and find someone to pay you to do it.
As an illustration, I love to sing (interest), but I can clear a room because I am so bad (ability); and no one is going to pay me to do it. The point is that strengths must be both your interests and abilities.
The reason that this concept is so profound is because it can give you so much clarity.
Using and Leveraging Your Strengths
The personal power that comes from being sure of what you are good at and what you love to do is the first step toward unleashing your Inner Leader. It certainly was a huge discovery for me. Remember the story told in Chapter 1? I discovered that I am a maximizer and that I am much happier working on the good to great projects rather than the bad to good projects. That has shaped my every decision and my every move forward. It almost becomes second nature to me that when I get a client referral, within the first 10 minutes of conversation, I can tell whether this is an ideal match for me or whether I should simply refer him or her to another coach whose strength is more in the development (bad to good) area.
This idea of finding clarity can be a huge boost to your productivity and efficiency. How, you might ask? The answer is that when you are doing what you love to do, it hardly feels like work; when you do more of what you love, you will become a master at it, and that will lead to ultimate success. Still not convinced? Let's think about the concept of spending your personal energy through the story of Carlton.
I worked with Carlton, a very successful project director whose top strength was harmony. What that meant for Carlton was that he led projects by moving all the stakeholders to consensus, and then he had to manage only the few exceptions that they could not agree on. Building consensus was his natural strength; he enjoyed leading in that mode and was good at what he did. Enter his new boss, who was extremely analytical and began to demand spreadsheet after spreadsheet from Carlton. Building spreadsheets was not Carlton's strength because he did not like it and he was not good at it. When Carlton came to me with this dilemma, we discussed the obvious. Maybe he could take some Excel classes and get better and more efficient at this task. Then I asked him the following question:
“What would be your personal return on this investment? For example, if you invest 50 percent of your time in this learning experience, will you receive at least an equal or greater return on your investment? In other words, if you invest 50 percent of your time in this, will you come out with at least 50 percent better Excel skills?”
Carlton rolled his eyes at me and emphatically stated that he hates building spreadsheets and no matter how many classes he attends, he knows that he would never get 50 percent better.
What would you do in this situation?
Much of Carlton's instinct was to grin and bear it and either wait for the boss to move on in a few years or leave the job that he used to love. I requested that he pull on his Inner Leader and think of other alternatives. The one he chose was simple: find someone on his staff who loves to do spreadsheets, who has a natural strength in analysis, and let him or her do it.
That seemed so simple but the person that he had in mind did not have building spreadsheets as part of his job. Carlton approached that person and they worked out a way to make this happen. Then Carlton used his natural strength of harmony (building consensus) and approached his boss, using his language of analysis. The boss not only hardily concurred that Carlton's staff person could do the spreadsheets but also was excited to have someone who loved building these spreadsheets to work with.
In today's world of doing more with less, this concept of personal return on investment is huge. However, it is usually at this point in the discussion that I get some interesting pushback. That pushback is normally in some form that states, “Vickie, this is all well and good, but my job is so demanding and so multifaceted that I just do not have the luxury of only doing what I love to do and what I am good at.” My answer is that I understand that wholeheartedly, and my suggestion is that you slowly begin to chip away at parts of your work life where you can use your strengths. Imagine if you could make it a goal to use your strengths 20 percent of the time in the next four months. Then move on to expand that to using your strengths 30 percent in the following four months. Also, for those who are looking at the next step in their career, building a career plan around using your strengths could be exactly the secret ingredient that you have been looking for to help you find the place where you can do what you are good at and what you love to do and get paid for it. Now your Inner Leader will be smiling.
