Focus On Your Strengths

To most of us, the idea of self-improvement is about overcoming or improving our weakest qualities. I followed this conventional wisdom for years, constantly focusing on fixing my weaknesses. So, you can imagine my surprise to learn that research suggests the opposite may lead to faster, more efficient professional growth. One study found that “employees feel more confident, self-aware and productive when focusing on strengths rather than weaknesses…which leads to higher employee engagement, increased performance and significantly lower attrition rates.”

This idea of focusing on our strengths rather than weaknesses to develop ourselves was first introduced to me at a Strength Training workshop by Dr. Ariana Freedman from Maventree Consulting. We took the Clifton Strengths Assessment to determine our strengths and the workshop focused on how to best utilize our top five strengths. When Dr. Freedman was asked how we can learn what our bottom five strengths are, she responded that this was irrelevant. She explained that our greatest potential for improvement did not stem from the competencies that we struggle with, but rather from learning when and how to use the ones we excel at.

Why focus on strengths?

The premise of this workshop was that we are our best selves when we focus on what we do well, rather than what we do wrong. First, when we spend more time working on the things we enjoy and excel at, we’re more likely to feel fulfilled and accomplished. How many of us have forced ourselves to study our least favorite subject or practice one of our weaker skills, only to end up feeling defeated and discouraged? That’s not to say we shouldn’t try our best at the skills we struggle with, but rather we should focus more energy on improving our strengths than our weaknesses and use these strengths to approach our problems in new ways.

Focusing on strengths is about more than just making yourself a better person, though. This tactic can help us in our relationships with others as well, both professional and personal. The idea of avoiding criticism in favor of praise isn’t a new one, and is in fact a common theme in the famous book How to Win Friends and Influence People. I don’t know about you, but I definitely feel a lot more motivated when given praise rather than criticism, so this rang true for me. The book’s author emphasizes that one of the things good leaders do well is praise others often. Praising others can be a powerful motivator, so taking the time to recognize people for their hard work or talent may encourage them to continue performing at their best.

How can we use our strengths to develop ourselves?

One of the things we discussed in our Strengths workshop was how underutilizing or overutilizing our strengths in different situations can be what causes us to struggle with certain tasks. As an example, my top strength was being analytical. This meant at my best I can use this strength to solve problems logically, but at my worst it hindered me when I removed emotion from situations that require feeling, or tried to solve problems that didn’t need solving. We can improve ourselves by learning when and how to dial up or down certain strengths and when to use others. I had never put much thought into how to approach certain situations, but this exercise made me realize I could improve how I handle certain problems by using other strengths.

One of the other strengths the assessment identified was being deliberative, which meant I was good at reflecting and putting a lot of thought into decisions. I learned that while being analytical might help me strategize how to structure a group project, being deliberative may come in handy more for helping resolve a relationship conflict between friends. The first step in taking this approach, however, is knowing what our strengths are. Our strengths are a combination of what we are naturally talented in and the skills in which we invest time and energy. Once you recognize what these are, learning when and how to use them may just help you find more fulfillment in your life and more success in your professional pursuits.

Featured Image by Meghan Holmes on Unsplash