Morning Badasses – Last week we discussed how to identify your core values to ensure you understand these when choosing a suitable career path. Equally important though is learning to consider your personal resources when making career decisions.
What practical flexibility does your current situation afford you in terms of your personal finances, time, location and mobility? These should be easy to consider. Do you have any savings that could tide you over whilst you retrain at something new? Do you have dependents that require you to accommodate their needs into your working day? How simple will it be for you to relocate to a new location for a career and do you want to do that? Careful consideration of your personal resources will enable you to more effectively narrow down any future career moves.
Your personal strengths are also a hugely important component of your resource list. These are the qualities you possess that come easily to you (and not necessarily others), that should be highlighted in your CV with examples. These qualities enable you to operate at your maximum potential, whilst being relatively effortless for you.
Living a life that plays to your natural strengths will set you up for success. Likewise identifying you weaknesses is just as important in raising awareness of those in which roles you would struggle.
So how do you identify your strengths (and indeed your weaknesses) so that you can put your natural talents to work in building a prosperous future?
Identifying Personal Strengths
We can all think of things we’re pretty good at and that come easily to us. These are your personal strengths. Mixtures of these strengths are as unique to all of us, but how well do we consider them when we’re planning our careers?
When considering career options many of us simply think about what we like to do, or what we would like to aspire to do. This is a trap. Don’t confuse strengths with likes. What you like isn’t always necessarily what you do best.
Whilst it’s important to do something you at least like on a day-to-day basis, it is also critical to incorporate tasks that you can excel at if you are to progress effectively.
To identify such roles, you first need to list your natural strengths. You should aim to list at least 10. Some examples are listed below:
| Adventurous | Analytical | Assertive |
| Authentic | Caring | Charming |
| Clever | Communicative | Compassionate |
| Confident | Courageous | Creative |
| Disciplined | Emotionally intelligent | Empathetic |
| Energetic | Entrepreneurial | Flexible |
| Gregarious | Inspiring | Intelligent |
| Logical | Motivated | Natural leader |
| Open-minded | Optimistic | Organised |
| Outgoing | Patient | Persistent |
| Precise | Quick learner | Responsible |
| Self-Controlled | Socially adaptable | Spontaneous |
| Strategic thinking | Team-orientated | Thoughtful |
| Trustworthy | Visionary | Wise |
Undoubtedly you can think of others, so include any that are relevant in your list of 10.
Next ask yourself which of my list do I do best? Then arrange them in order from 1-10 where 1 is your greatest strength.
Lastly consider your top 3 weaknesses. These will highlight your imperfections and help identify tasks that you find difficult. Identifying your weaknesses enables you to focus on improving them where required.
Examples of weaknesses are opposites of those traits listed above (e.g. unadventurous, undisciplined, disorganised etc.). Overall a good strategy would be to focus your energy on your personal strengths and try to find careers where you can avoid having to rely on your weaknesses, or where you can at least delegate these tasks to other team members.
Overall identifying roles that play to your personal strengths will give you an advantage in the workplace and could have a huge impact on your quality of life.
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