"You can be anything you want to be, if you just try hard enough." Is this true?
Have you heard this expression before? What do you think of it?
Tom Rath, author of the top-selling business book, StrengthsFinder 2.0, discusses this maxim as potentially misguided. He discusses the idea of focusing on your innate strengths and developing them towards success and not focusing on your weaknesses. The belief is that those with innate strengths can develop skills a lot easier than those who do not have them. Rath believes trying hard at strengths you don't essentially have is a waste of energy when you should be using your time wisely to develop the strengths you have further and using that as the focus of your potential career. It has been proven that those who have the opportunity to focus on their strengths every day in their work are six times more likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to believe they have an excellent quality of life overall (Rath, 2007, iii).
Personally, I do agree we should focus more on our strengths to develop them further. Often times we figure out what we are good at and then think we are all set. We have to keep working at our skills to make them better. However, contrary to Rath, I do think we still need to work on our weaknesses as well. However, I do agree with Rath that it should not be our primary focus.
StrengthsFinder 2.0 believes the key to human development is building off of who you already are. If you purchase the book brand new, it comes with an access code in the back. If you go to their website and register your code, you can take a free personal assessment to find out your strengths. The report is customized to describe your personality and what makes you unique. The assessment takes roughly half an hour and gives you your top five strengths with their descriptions, insights, ideas for action, and steps to increase your talents towards achievement.
My Top 5 Strengths:
- Achiever
- Achievers have a great deal of stamina and work hard.
- They take great satisfaction in being busy and productive.
- Support and motivate individuals around them.
- Physical and mental endurance to work continuously after others have stopped.
- I agree with these statements. I feel as though I have always taken my goals seriously and once set I strive hard to achieve them. I love to motivate those around me to succeed together and help out with that in any way that I can.
- Relator
- Enjoy close relationships with others.
- Satisfication found when working hard with friends to achieve a goal.
- Comfortable being open and honest.
- People come to you for words of wisdom.
- Recommendations seeked from you by others.
- I also agree with the relator strength. I think I work well with others and am able to give good feedback. I am approachable and encourage others to seek input.
- Strategic
- Create alternative ways to proceed.
- Quickly spot relevant patterns and issues.
- Innovative thinker.
- Think of alternatives first, then choose the best option.
- This is true as well that I love to think of all options before executing any course of action. I like to think of approaching things differently if it will produce a better outcome. At the very least, I like everyone to consider and discuss all the options before jumping too quickly into a decision.
- Focus
- Prioritize, then act.
- Takes direction and follows through.
- Avoid irrelevant distraction.
- Aim to make important contributions and influence others.
- Determined to act correctly, ethically, and right.
- This is similar to the strengths above. I do have the ability to zoom in on what is important for right now and take care of the rest when it is time. I prioritize often by deadlines and importance.
- Discipline
- Enjoy routine and structure.
- Timelines and deadlines are important.
- Attention to little things.
- Establish processes to handle recurring tasks.
- I do look for easy ways to perform frequent tasks. I perform best when given timelines and deadlines to complete tasks. I create my own deadlines for steps of tasks to be complete and function well with to-do lists.
Finding out your strengths can help you figure out not just what you are good at, but also where to focus your attention to find success in the business world. Pursue your talents in the work force to enjoy what you do and to advance. This will also help you learn how you relate to others and how others function differently as well. Also, this will allow you to observe what your blind spots are. Your blind spots are caused on the extreme end of your talents. For example, a person who may have "Consistency" may be focusing solely on keeping steps uniform and ignoring the overall goal or flexibility.
When in an interview, you want to know what your strengths and weaknesses are. You will probably be asked, and if not you definitely want to showcase your strengths and add a story to it that ties into a specific example from your related work experience. For example, if I went into an interview I would showcase that my strength is I am an achiever. Then I would say, "I say this because..." and input my work experience relevant for the job position I was applying for. This would please your potential employer that you have what they are looking for.
Most people do not know what their strengths and weaknesses are. I definitely recommend checking out this short book. It is cheap and will offer you valuable skills. You can then take the assessment on your own to learn what your unique traits are. Has anyone out there also read this book? What were your strengths? Or what do you think your strengths are (even without reading this book)?