Leadership Tip

How to identify your strengths

Understanding your strengths in the workplace is an important part of being self-aware and taking control of your career. Knowing your strengths and how to improve them can help you find work that you enjoy while also enabling you to hone your skills in the areas most relevant to your career path. Here's a four-step process to identifying what makes you great:

  1. List your strengths. Include skills and knowledge you've acquired through experience and education as well as softer intrinsic strengths, such as insightfulness or empathy.
     
  2. Ask for input. Ask colleagues for honest feedback.
     
  3. Revisit past feedback. Reread old performance reviews and reflect on past mentoring sessions.
     
  4. Modify your list. Adjust your original list to reflect what you've learned. Make sure the strengths are specific so that they are credible and useful.

The above leadership tip...
was sent in response to a question from a participant on our acclaimed 10/10 leadership development and mentoring programme and was adapted from Five Steps to Assess Your Strengths by Bill Barnett. Whether you're a first time manager or an experienced leader, straightforward, practical advice on best practice is hard to find. Until now. To find out how you, your team or your organisation can benefit, please contact us.


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