How much do you enjoy your job? Did you know that fewer than two out of ten of us get to play to our strengths at work most of the time? The most successful people do, but only two out of ten get to feel this thrill of success. Are you challenged in just the way you like to be challenged? Are you making the kind of difference only you can make? Are you experiencing the thrill of success?
You know yourself best!
You've been raised to believe that other people know you better than you know yourself. At school, you were given grades to tell you what your strengths and weaknesses were. You've taken tests to reveal what career path you should take. Parents, teachers, career counsellors, managers - they've all weighed in on you what you should do with your life.
All of these people mean well, but remember: you are the greatest teacher about you and your strengths. The best place to start is with your interests. They are a very good clue to your strengths. Your interests are part of a pattern inside you. They are the first sign of some force inside you trying to get out, something important in you that needs to be understood and expressed.
What are strengths and weaknesses?
Your strengths aren't what you're good at and your weaknesses aren't what you're bad at. Don't you have some things that you're good at, but they bore you, drain you, or frustrate you? You are certainly capable of doing them, and because you're capable, people keep asking you to do them - in fact, they come to rely on you to do them - but if you never had to do those things again it would be too soon. What do you call activities like that? Something you've been blessed with lots of ability to do well but cursed with no appetite for? You call that a weakness.
A weakness is any activity that leaves you feeling weaker after you do it. It doesn't matter how good you are at it or how much money you make doing it; if doing it drains you of energy, you'd be crazy to build your career around it.
A strength is the opposite. Strengths are any activities that make you feel strong. To discover your strengths you must look beyond "what you're good at" and pay really close attention to what you're feeling before, during and after an activity. Your feelings will tell you what your strengths are. When you look forward to doing something, it may be a strength. When time flies by while you're doing something and you can focus easily, doing that activity may be a strength. If after you're done you feel fulfilled and energised, that is a sure sign of a strength.
Always ask, "What will I be paid to do?"
People tend to take a specific job because of the "Why" - for example: it will look good on my resume, I want to make a difference, I want to make money. But then, as time goes on, those people gradually become aware of "what" they are actually doing isn't what they want to be doing at all. Even if you love the purpose of your job and the people you work with, if you don't enjoy what you do, you aren't working with your strengths and you will never be truly fulfilled in your job.
When you are looking for a job that will use your strengths, ask specifically what you will be paid to do. Find out what the job entails and what the day-to-day aspects of that job are. All the perks in the world won't mean a thing if you are unhappy.
Forget about the job description, the job title or the money. Focus on the actual activities of the job and ask yourself: will this use my strengths?
You'll never find the perfect job
No matter what job you find, there will be parts you like and parts you don't like. Start focussing on the parts you really love the most. You will grow most in your areas of greatest strength. You will improve the most, learn the most, be most creative, most inquisitive and bounce back fastest in those areas where you have already shown some natural advantage over everyone else - your strengths.
It's a competitive world out there. You'll make your greatest, longest-lasting, most extraordinary, most memorable contribution when you figure out where you have some advantage over everybody else, and then push and push those strengths into play.
Of course your job doesn't fit you perfectly. Nobody's job ever does. But you can start to do more of what makes you feel strong as much as possible.
You'll never turn your weaknesses into strengths
What about all the other stuff? What about all the other activities in your job that bore you or frustrate you or that you struggle with? What about your weaknesses?
Obviously you can't ignore them and hope they go away. Down that road lies the worst kind of reputation, poor performance and, in the end, no job. Everyone has weaknesses and everyone has to deal with them.
Often the people you work with won't really understand what your weakness is. Your weakness isn't the same as theirs and since they don't struggle with it, they find it really hard to imagine why you struggle with it. For example, because they happen to like giving presentations, they won't be able to understand just how much you hate giving them, which may lead them to say things like: "If you just worked at it and practiced it, you could turn that weakness into a strength." But they're wrong. As you grow, you become more and more of who you already are. This means that what weakens you now will probably weaken you just as much twenty years from now.
What to do with your weaknesses
Firstly, you can simply stop doing it. Some parts of your job can be done in different ways or may not even need to be done at all to achieve the desired outcome.
Secondly, partner up with someone else. Seek out someone who is strengthened by the very thing that weakens you.
Third, sharpen your strengths. Make them so powerful that they render your weaknesses irrelevant.
Finally, look at your weakness through one of your strengths. This is an incredibly effective strategy. Rudy, Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, had a weakness for public speaking. As an attorney, he was good at preparing legal cases to prosecute criminals and was also effective at arguing his cases in court. When he was asked if there was any part of talking to people that he looked forward to, he answered, "I like arguing...I like taking a question and then making my case for why my answer is the best answer." He began to turn every speech into an argument and this has been his speaking style ever since. Whenever he has to speak he makes a couple of short remarks and then marches out in front of the crowd, takes questions and argues his case. He took his weakness (public speaking) and neutralized it with his strength (arguing).
Recognise that what weakens you is only a small part of your job if you choose that job wisely. Devote your time to getting better and better at those things where you have some unfair, natural advantage over everybody else - your unique strengths.
This article is based on the book: "The truth about you" by Marcus Buckingham.
