Defining Your Strengths

You may be familiar with Marcus Buckingham, his books, and the “Strengths Revolution” he advocates. As you may recall, he says the way to finding passion at work is through our strengths, and then to play to those strengths with all our might. In fact, with this in mind, it may not even be necessary to change jobs – take a look at your favorite tasks in your current job, determine where your strength is in those tasks, then build your job around them. Changing jobs too early could mean packing around the same mistakes along with you unless you take the time to analyze what pieces you do truly enjoy.

In an article in the September issue of O Magazine, Marcus says “Our strengths are those situations in which we are intensely, happily, completely engaged.” He also says that all of us, no matter how confused and unhappy we may be about a work situation, have “very good instincts about what we should be doing.”

Think about that. Even if you’re currently planning an exit strategy from your job, you must admit there are some tasks you enjoy doing – things that make you feel good, completely absorbed in the moment, and time seems to fly by when you’re working on these activities. This is where he says to start – define your strengths as narrowly and concretely as possible. To help you do this, he offers a couple of worksheets – one to make notes on during the course of a week about what you “loved” or “loathed”, and the other to test your “loved” ones on a strengths scale. You can find these worksheets here: http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/200709/omag_200709_idea.jhtml

I can’t think of anything more valuable than this type of self-analysis when realizing something needs to change in your work life. This can make all the difference and can be as simple as rearranging your job duties so you’re spending as much time as possible on those things you love to do!

Please post your thoughts on this topic - Strengths in the Workplace. And, visit my website at www.LousbergUnlimited.com for more information about my career transition services.