Today we are going to talk about how to harness what makes you as an individual uniquely powerful. Find the show notes on my website at Poweryourimpact.com/18.
Talent is innate, it is natural, it is who you are. We all have strengths and we all have areas we can improve.
But too often we put more focus on the areas we need to improve instead of leaning into our strengths.
Think about the last performance review you had, or the last performance review you gave. Did the discussion focus more on the opportunities for improvement and less on celebrating excellence?
If so, how did it make you feel? What did you focus on after the review? Did you gloss over the praise received, and instead focus on the areas of improvement?
Instead, if after the review you had placed more emphasis on what you had done well, imagine how energized and engaged you would’ve felt.
Now imagine if instead of overinvesting in the development opportunities that had been laid out for you, you could have harnessed your strengths.
Leaning into your Talent DNA fosters excellence, but it requires identifying your strengths and a mindset shift
You would need to free yourself from external expectations and allow yourself to focus on developing your personal best.
When I was developing my Leadership Coaching business, a friend of mine introduced me to the Clifton Strengths Assessment. I was familiar with Hogan and Meyers-Brings personality tool, but had not come across Clifton Strengths.
The Clifton Strengths Assessment is designed to help individuals identify their natural strengths across 34 talent themes. The 34 talent themes comprise 4 domains of leadership:
- Executing
- Influencing
- Relationship Building
- Strategic Thinking
The on-line assessment is comprised of 177 questions and typically takes under 1 hour to complete.
I had researched several tools for my Leadership Coaching Program and ultimately selected the Clifton Strengths Assessment for 2 reasons:
- You deepen your understanding of your strengths
- You receive concrete ideas for taking action so that you can advance your goals, address challenges, and develop your strengths
Feedback to-date from those who have invested one hour to take the Clifton Strengths Assessment has been overwhelmingly positive.
I can only imagine the value that I as a leader would have derived, both for my own personal growth and also for the members of my teams, had I discovered this tool when it first came out in 2001.
Imagine the excellence that you would achieve if you leaned in to your natural strengths.
