Know Your Strengths - Part Three

A solid understanding of your top strengths and talents is essential to creating your own career success. Knowing what you're good at allows you to steer your career in the most satisfying and fulfilling direction.

When I embark on a coaching program with a new client, I like to start out by getting a sense of her greatest strengths and talents. When I ask clients to share their top skills, I'm usually met with stunned silence. Most people cannot say what they're good at! For many people, this is due to a combination of not wanting to brag and simply not knowing (or not owning) their gifts and talents.

Everyone has areas in which they excel. Too often, women overlook or devalue their greatest strengths. Since certain skills come to them so naturally, they assume everyone possesses these same gifts. Even though a certain assignment may feel effortless to you, others may struggle to complete the same task with ease.

To continue with the process of identifying your top professional strengths, ask yourself the following powerful question:

Throughout my career, when have I experienced the most satisfaction?

Identifying what gives you the greatest sense of accomplishment will give you a lot of important clues about your top career strengths.

Until next week, here’s to your continued success!

~Maret~

Know Your Strengths – Part Two

A solid understanding of your top strengths and talents is essential to creating your own career success. Knowing what you’re good at allows you to steer your career in the most satisfying and fulfilling direction.

When I embark on a coaching program with a new client, I like to start out by getting a sense of her greatest strengths and talents. When I ask clients to share their top skills, I’m usually met with stunned silence. Most women cannot say what they’re good at! For many women, this is due to a combination of not wanting to brag and simply not knowing (or not owning) their gifts and talents.

Everyone has areas in which they excel. Too often, women overlook or devalue their greatest strengths. Since certain skills come to them so naturally, they assume everyone possesses these same gifts. Even though a certain assignment may feel effortless to you, others may struggle to complete the same task with ease.

To continue with the process of identifying your top professional strengths, ask yourself the following powerful question:

Throughout my career, what assignments have been easy for me to accomplish?

Identifying what comes naturally to you will give you a lot of important clues about your greatest career strengths.

Know Your Strengths – Part One

A solid understanding of your top strengths and talents is essential to creating your own career success. Knowing what you’re good at allows you to steer your career in the most satisfying and fulfilling direction.

When I embark on a coaching program with a new client, I like to start out by getting a sense of her greatest strengths and talents. When I ask clients to share their top skills, I’m usually met with stunned silence. Most women cannot say what they’re good at! For many women, this is due to a combination of not wanting to brag and simply not knowing (or not owning) their gifts and talents.

Everyone has areas in which they excel. Too often, women overlook or devalue their greatest strengths. Since certain skills come to them so naturally, they assume everyone possesses these same gifts. Even though a certain assignment may feel effortless to you, others may struggle to complete the same task with ease.

To launch your process of identifying your top professional strengths, ask yourself the following powerful question:

Throughout my career, when have I experienced the most joy on the job?

Think about the times you’ve felt most engaged and alive at work. This will give you a lot of important clues about your greatest career strengths.

~ Maret ~

Should I stay or should I go? (Part 5 - END)

To recap what we've accomplished this month:

• Step 1 - Listed gripes / frustrations
• Step 2 - Listed what we like about our job
• Step 3 - Expanded on our gripes: what is it that bugs us?
• Step 4 - Expanded on our 'likes': what it is that we appreciate?
• Step 5 - Dig deeper on gripes - what is at the core?
• Step 6 - Fixes - what can we do to eliminate/reduce these core concerns?
• Step 7 - Write out and start to implement an action plan to improve our quality of life at work
• Step 8 - now that you've done a lot of venting, digging, appreciating what is good, how are you feeling about your work? What have you discovered?

It's common to realize that there's really a lot more 'good' than 'bad' and that the job fit is be better than we thought. Often it's 'what's between our ears' that is giving us the biggest problem. This is terrific news! Why? Because we have full control over, and can change how we perceive, respond and engage at work. This is not to say that it's easy to change our habits and self-talk, nevertheless, it can be done.

So what are the next steps?

1. Decide - do you want to stay, do you want to look for a new job, or do a little more reflection? (You can weigh each area on the 'likes' and 'gripes' and rate its importance to see how the two sides compare.)

2. As a result of this work, what do you want to take action on? Do you need support on moving forward on your action plan? (Of course working with a coach can be helpful here!)

Remember we tend to get what we focus on. Are you focusing on what you want more of?

~Gwyneth Anne~