Discover Your Strengths

​Have you ever wondered why some things are so easy for you and other things are much more difficult?  Why some kinds of jobs appeal to you and others don’t?  Why some people are successful and others aren’t?
In a society that focuses on what’s wrong with people, Donald Clifton, the former chairman of Gallup, asks instead:  “What would happen if we studied what is right with people?”  Gallup is more than a company that conducts polls, they are a driving force in the field of strengths development.  Over three decades, Gallup interviewed more than two million people in a variety of professions to determine their strengths.  An additional four decades were spent studying the “best of the best” in their respective professions. From this research Gallup developed an instrument to identify one’s top five talents through an instrument called the Clifton StrengthsFinder.  Here are three takeaways from this study:

1. Top achievers fully recognize their talents and develop them into strengths.
2. Top achievers apply their strengths in roles that suit them.
3. Top achievers invent ways to apply their strengths in order to achieve.

One of the things Gallup learned was that if we identify and develop our talents, we have the potential to grow exponentially. By comparison, if we try to improve our weaknesses, the most we can hope for is to be average in that area. 
The application of this knowledge to career planning is profound. When you are aware of your strengths, you can identify areas that would be good career choices.  Is this job one which will allow you to use your strengths?  Is it an environment where you will thrive? 
You can use this knowledge to describe your strengths in a resume, and use the job description to show that you can perform the activities required. You will be able to paint a picture of who you are, what you can do, and how you have used your strengths in the past to accomplish your goals. 
Use this knowledge to describe your strengths in an interview.  When an interviewer asks you to say something about yourself, you will have a language to answer with specificity.  Instead of saying “I’m good with people.”  You can say, “I have the ability to sense what people are feeling and then to articulate it.  I have the ability to help people reach consensus.”
If you would like to discover your strengths, enhance your life, and receive coaching during this Pandemic and tough job market, please contact me at carolv09@cox.net.