Advance Your Career by Playing to Your Strengths at Work

What are your strengths and weaknesses? If the last time you considered this question was during a job interview, you're probably past due for a little self-reflection. And while it's important to acknowledge where you have room for improvement, it's actually best not to spend too much time and energy working on your weaknesses. Instead, focus on doing more of what you're already great at. After all, if your writing skills are a 1 out of 10, even months of work might only get you to a 4 or 5. So devote that time to pinpointing areas where you excel and finding ways to make your true talents shine.

When the work you do draws on your natural abilities, it's less arduous. It makes work more interesting and engaging, elevating your performance and attracting the kind of positive attention that’s key for advancing your career. But true introspection is not easy, and identifying your personal strengths in a meaningful way can be a challenge.

5 Ways to Identify Your Personal Strengths

Some people are good at asking the big-picture questions: what problem are we trying to solve and why? What are our company goals? These visionary thinkers are able to create an inspiring, positive picture of the future and rally others around it. Others excel at analyzing facts and figures and determining what needs to be done when, boiling down big-picture thinking into clear, specific goals. Still others are good at using proven techniques and tools to make processes more effective and efficient. To identify your core strengths, ask yourself the following questions:

Which activities are the most satisfying or fulfilling for you? What energizes you at work?
What tasks do your colleagues come to you for help with? What types of work do you get the most praise for?
When you look up from your work to find that two hours have flown by, what kind of projects are you working on? What kinds of skills or abilities are you using when you feel most "in the zone?"
What kinds of activities do you do when you’re not at work? What types of hobbies or volunteer work do you do? Organizing events? Building relationships?

For an even deeper understanding of your strengths, ask colleagues, mentors, friends, and family for feedback. Ask them about times when you made an important contribution or helped them in a meaningful way, then look for patterns or themes. Do you stay calm under pressure? Are you reliable? Show enthusiasm and curiosity? Persevere when times get tough? You might be pleasantly surprised at how many strengths your peers recognize and appreciate in you!

How to Apply Your Strengths to Your Daily Work

Now that you've identified them, how can you structure your work to play to your strengths? Every position has certain constraints, and not every aspect of your job will be a natural complement to the type of work you excel at. But that doesn't mean you can't tailor your projects and teamwork to play up your advantages and those of your colleagues — and draw positive attention to your efforts and accomplishments.

Even small changes can make a big impact, like shifting your schedule or adjusting how many meetings you hold. For instance, if you find that your strengths include both relationship building and creative problem solving, ask your team to share their biggest roadblocks and brainstorm ways to improve products and processes.

In some instances, no amount of fine-tuning or rescheduling will make your job a fit for your natural strengths and abilities. If you find that's the case for you, it may be time to reevaluate whether your current position is truly a good fit for your career goals and personal happiness — and arming yourself with a deeper understanding of the types of situations in which you excel is a critical first step in finding a new position or career path that you can thrive in.

Knowing your own strengths and that of others on your team makes it easier to find that collaboration sweet spot where everyone is able to play to their strengths, and not get bogged down by motivation-draining tasks where they can’t add value. So stop dwelling on your weaknesses, and start making your strengths even stronger.

For more ways to up your game at work, check out these articles on simple ways to develop your leadership skills and bring more positivity to your work.

Sources: HBR.org, Forbes.com, Medium.com

Leadership 5 min read

4 Skills Managers Will Need to Learn in the Next Decade

The fundamentals of leadership haven't changed. You lead by example, you inspire team members to do their very best work, you communicate well and often. However, the circumstances surrounding our work are constantly changing. Remote/global workforces, offshore outsourcing, and an unrelenting tide of technology and tools have changed the way we work, and the skills needed to manage our teams. Case in point: In 1997, as managing editor to a monthly lifestyle magazine, I was coordinating contributors via three archaic tools: phone, fax, and (gasp) pager. At the time, appointments had to be made well in advance and submissions by fax had to be re-encoded manually. Meetings were always done face-to-face, and there was little visibility into what other people were doing. The skills I needed then are still mostly useful, but I've had to learn much more in order to function within a modern startup. There is no doubt that a decade from now, managers will need skills that our parents probably never even dreamed of. How do you prepare for that unseen future? Simple: you take emerging work trends and extend them forward a few years, predicting which ones have the strongest chance of sticking around. Then you figure out what skills you will need to navigate work within those trends. Here is my list of the four skills that managers will need to learn in the next decade: 1. Managers Will Need Cross-Cultural Intelligence TREND: Workplaces are becoming increasingly diverse. Companies of all sizes continue to expand to overseas locations, or engage in offshore outsourcing. SKILL NEEDED: Managers are being called not just to understand cultural differences, but also be able to switch to different behaviors as the situation dictates. Cultural intelligence (CQ), like emotional intelligence (EQ), is a relatively new method of understanding ourselves and, in turn, our teammates. Author Julia Middleton explains in her book Cultural Intelligence, that CQ can be broken down into two parts: our core (the behaviors we will not change for anyone) and our flex (those behaviors we can change when needed). Managers will need to learn to use their flex side in a concept called cultural code-switching, being able to blend with a culture as needed, and even engage in behaviors that may conflict with the culture they grew up with. For example: giving feedback directly as opposed to covering it with humor, or being a more present boss as opposed to letting the team self-organize. The manager's aim should be to focus on the result and think about altering your behavior as a means to meeting your team's end. 2. Managers Will Need Virtual Collaboration Skills TREND: As organizations source talent from across the globe, remote workforces increase. According to Wrike's Remote Work survey of 1,000 employees, 80% of respondents deal with remote workers on a daily basis, either working with distributed colleagues, or as remote workers themselves. SKILL NEEDED: Managers must be able to lead their teams and engage with individuals effectively — no matter where in the world they may be stationed. While face-to-face meetings may remain the norm for companies that exist in only one brick-and-mortar location, it's becoming increasingly common to hold meetings online or in shared virtual spaces. This means managers can no longer assume that attendees are all on the same page, and communication skills must be updated to ensure no misunderstandings happen. Plus, this entails learning the technology needed to communicate effectively. 3. Managers Must Adapt to New Technologies TREND: New inventions appear everyday, including technologies that make work easier or that fundamentally change the way we work. SKILL NEEDED: The speed with which new technologies appear requires managers who are flexible enough to learn new tools and incorporate them into daily use. For example: marketing is an industry where tools are created at the speed of need. While jumping on the bandwagon isn't a formula I'd suggest, it does pay to experiment with new tech. Find out what works. Test which ones make your time more productive. Assemble your toolbox of essential tools and keep it updated. 4. Managers Will Need to Handle Information Overload TREND: Information overload is a very real thing, especially in our modern workplace. There is a limit to the amount of stuff our minds can process, a.k.a. our cognitive load. SKILL NEEDED: Managers who want to succeed in the next decade must be able to manage this deluge of data and extract the useful bits from the noise. For example: they will have to distinguish emergencies amidst the massive influx of messages in their email inboxes. They will have to prioritize work that delivers the most value, even with a huge number of mixed signals from stakeholders. They will have to be strategic despite all the pings and notifications that will have them running to "put out fires." They will need to be masters at prioritizing, time management, and focus if they intend to be successful at work and at life. What Do You See in Your Crystal Ball? If you tie all four skills together, the unifying theme is constant learning and flexibility. If you're flexible enough to take what comes and willing to educate yourself on how best to adapt, then the future holds no insurmountable surprises for you. Do you agree or disagree with my list? Do you see a management skill that's missing? Hit the comments and share your views on what skills managers will need to be successful in the future. READ NEXT: Why Employers Value Emotional Intelligence Over IQ (Infographic) Top 3 Trends Shaping Project Collaboration Is Information Overload Real? Or Are We Just a Wimpy Generation? (Video) Photo credit: Darth Grader on Flickr

Leadership 10 min read

Contrasting Characters: A Guide to Managing Different Personality Types on Your Team

How can you successfully manage all the different personalities in your team —ideally with as little crying, complaining, and frustration as possible? Here are six strategies that will give you everything you need to know for cohesive collaboration.

Leadership 10 min read

Leadership: The Keys to Instilling Autonomy, Mastery, & Purpose In Your Team

Want to build a great place to work? Instill autonomy, mastery, & purpose in your team. A lengthy, science-backed discussion on why these 3 factors increase job satisfaction for your workers, making your firm a magnet for top talent, and ultimately boosting your bottom line.

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Advance Your Career by Playing to Your Strengths at Work

5 Ways to Identify Your Personal Strengths

How to Apply Your Strengths to Your Daily Work

Emily Bonnie

Advance Your Career by Playing to Your Strengths at Work

5 Ways to Identify Your Personal Strengths

How to Apply Your Strengths to Your Daily Work

Emily Bonnie

Related articles

4 Skills Managers Will Need to Learn in the Next Decade

Contrasting Characters: A Guide to Managing Different Personality Types on Your Team

Leadership: The Keys to Instilling Autonomy, Mastery, & Purpose In Your Team

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