Building Your Strengths At Work

By Angelina Eynon

Here's a familiar scenario: it's performance review time; you sit down with your manager to discuss the year just passed and the new one about to start. You may reflect upon the achievements of the year gone by, you may or may not discuss rewards or remuneration, and then there will be time to discuss your development needs. I remember from consulting days that identifying my development needs usually involved thinking about my 'weaknesses' (we don't use that word in politically correct society any more!). In my case, it might have been 'detailed planning' - the quick fix: book me in on an MS project or Excel training course. Development need fixed. Box ticked.

After three straight years of MS Project & Excel courses I still didn't know how to work a macro and started to see the funny side of it all, stopped beating myself up for what I was never going to be anything more than 'mediocre' at, and turned my energy toward what I'm really good at. Not surprisingly, I now have a much more satisfying (and successful) career.

Peter Drucker, the renowned business theorist, says that, '. it takes far more effort to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it does from first rate performance to excellence.' This may sound counter-intuitive but it makes a lot of sense: build upon our strengths to create more strength and greater resilience that will help us face hardship and even counteract our 'weaknesses'.

Tip Number 1 is to learn what your strengths are and cultivate them . We are happier, healthier and far more productive when we incorporate our strengths into our work and our lives - daily. If you don't know what your strengths are or you'd like some clarification, a good starting point is to do the (free) VIA Signature Strengths survey online ( web link below ).

The signature strengths survey was developed by Martin Seligman and Chris Peterson, recognised as the founding fathers of the field of positive psychology. Together they researched and classified a list of 24 character strengths. Through their research they have found that people's most satisfying experiences (both work and personal) come from utilising your core strengths.

Tip Number 2 - Find ways to use your strengths at work. People want to be happy at work and to derive meaning from what they do. Work ranks number three, (after family relationships and financial situation: R. Layard, 2005), as an influencer on our level of happiness at any given time. Mihaly Csikszentmihaly's work on 'moments of flow', (where people are 'in the zone'; time disappears and they are completely engaged in what they are doing), found that we experience a majority of our 'flow' moments at work. This is despite our deep-seated cultural associations of work with pain and leisure with pleasure.

Tip Number 2 - Help others recognise and cultivate their strengths. Work with your colleagues to set goals and objectives that align with their strengths and values. An example is that if someone has 'kindness' in their top five strengths, they may grow and be empowered by mentoring a new or more junior staff member. Ask your team members to think through how they employ their strengths in a work perspective (and this may take some reflection - it's not a question people are asked every day), and they will be able to give you some insights that you can build upon together.

Tip Number 3 - Make sure you ask for and give feedback that truly helps to build and grow . Feedback is an area fraught with anxiety. There are those who want 'brutal truth' - they want, value and expect to hear and receive warts and all, 'constructive' feedback. Saying, 'That was good,' doesn't cut the mustard and may in fact be perceived as being weak or even evasive of the (brutal) truth. Then there is the other extreme: those who shirk from giving any feedback that could be perceived negatively at all. If stretched, they might use the sandwich - a positive, a negative and another positive - but the only message the recipient is focusing on is the negative - or they leave the conversation feeling confused.

Think about how you would like to receive feedback, and how others around you do. Be very specific about what you want feedback on, and ask permission or at least give context before providing someone else with 'the brutal truth'. Lose the word 'but' and use more of the word 'and' to build upon what someone is already doing well, e.g. "Kate, I like the way you managed your voice and tone in that customer conversation and I think it would also be powerful if you used paraphrasing to show your understanding of the customers' requests."

Finally, Tip Number 4 - Give yourself (and others) permission to be human

We learn from painful emotions and experiences. We especially learn from our mistakes. Dr. Ben-Shahar says to his Harvard students, 'My wish for you is that you fail more.' This is a way of making our experiences and growth richer and stronger.

« Back to News & Resources