You may have noticed that, as a coach, I work a lot with Strengths and Confidence. My personal journey brought me to the point where I see how powerful it is to be aware of your natural talents and build up your confidence not on the wish to become someone else (like that loud and cool colleague or a friend) but on your unique strengths and talents, which you can practically put to work and shine in your own brilliant way.
What is most empowering and satisfying for me is to see that spark in my client’s eyes when they get to explore and acknowledge their core strengths! I am working with the CliftonStrengths methodology by Gallup , and it helped my clients (and myself as well) explore their unique set of talents that make them stand out in their own way. It is extraordinarily beautiful to see how something hidden behind the subconscious gates of our awareness comes to light and empowers our self-worth and confidence as soon as we talk about who we are and why we are wonderful, unique, and strong in something particular.
I have also reflected on the real-life questions and issues people have come to me for help, which we explored through the lens of core strengths and had transformative results.
- Preparing for the job interview. Probably the simplest example: When we are asked to name our strengths, do we confidently know what to say and practically explain how we apply them? What should we say not to sound too modest or too arrogant? And “what can I even say to be genuine?”, “I don’t know my strengths…”, “This is not for me to judge; ask my colleagues about this.”
- Career Transition or Promotion. “Am I ready for this role?”, “What can I bring to this role to prove myself?”, “What did I do so well, and how can I scale that in this new role?”
- I am starting a new business/project. “I have never done this before. Which of my talents can I rely on?”, ” It looks like this project would need tons of creativity (command or confidence, ability to take risks), and I don’t feel this to be my strength. What do I do?”
- Major life changes. Whether financial crisis, health problems, or divorce, we might be going through hardships, and no one is insured against them. In such times, we have lots of tough questions, and part of them may sound like this: “How can I go through this?”, “I don’t feel I have any strengths for any more challenges in this life”, “I want to be resilient, how can I get there?”, “I know I may have challenges in the future. I want to prepare myself to be better equipt and deal with them better next time”.
- Teamwork conflicts. “We are so different; how can we even work together?”, “I want to identify what I can bring to this collaboration and communicate to my partners how they can rely on me”. We can acknowledge and learn how to collaborate better when we learn about our strengths together.
- Midlife Reflections and Looking for a New Path. Sometimes, we want to know what is next for us. We may ask ourselves, “What can I bring to my new life from the past?” “How can I remain myself while changing my life and turning it in a different direction?” “I don’t know what is next, but I want to move on with confidence and love for myself.” “I want to learn to take care of myself better.”
- Receiving a harsh feedback. Especially when we hear something we don’t like, we may struggle to react and act on the feedback we have received. “So what should I take from this feedback?”, “What are then my strengths and my weaknesses?”, “How do I improve my performance in a natural way for me? I cannot become someone else all of a sudden!”
- Feeling insecure & not confident. We often live in the misconception that confidence is loud, extrovertic, outgoing, with many-many friends and air-time on the company meeting 🙂 The most natural way of getting more confidence is to be true to yourself. To do that, it is critical to know what makes you YOU! Especially when it comes to strengths.
These are just a few examples of how learning more about yourself and your strengths can help you answer different life questions.
My own list of Strengths is always in front of me, printed and pinned to the wall. Even though I know them by heart, sometimes in a tough meeting, during a heated discussion (when online, of course), I can peek at my strengths and quickly reframe my own thoughts or gain confidence in this moment to respond as my best self!
