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Millions of people are misguided in their careers because of the lack of understanding of their strengths. They think strength is something they are good at, so they take up jobs that they may excel at but has nothing to do with their strengths.
Billions are wasted in organisations due to wrong hiring, and here we are not talking about a cultural misfit or lack of experience for the job. We are talking about strengths and job misalignment; somehow, companies chose to ignore this. All those disengaged employees....how many of them are in the wrong job, and instead of trying to address that, we throw a pizza slice at them.
Let's be honest, your company will not teach you about your strengths. They bank on what you are good at, even if it is slowly chipping away all your energy. You need to take charge. Your professional development is your responsibility. What happens when you avoid that responsibility? You end up struggling in your job or get stuck.
But what is a strength, and what is a weakness? Lets's go back to basics.
Strength is not what you are good at, and a weakness is not what you are bad at.
Strength is an activity that strengthens & energises you. Time flies by when you do it, and you are naturally drawn towards it. You are in the flow.
Based on this definition, you are the only person who can establish your strengths, nobody else. Not even your manager:-) Why? Because their definition of strengths is what you are good at, but that's wrong. You can be good at something and still hate it or be weakened by that activity. I am good at and love facilitating sessions or public speaking, but they drain my energy, they weaken me. I need recovery time after that.
Other people can see what you are good at but not what you lean into or energises you. They ignore that! This is where talent development goes wrong. I know doctors who are extremely good at explaining human anatomy but cannot stand dealing with sick people. Yes, there is such a thing. Strengths misaligned.
By now, I am sure you figured out what weakness is about. Weakness is an activity that weakens you, drains your energy, and sucks the living life out of you even if you are good at doing it. Once again, you can be the only judge of that, not your manager. But they love coming up with their weakness statement and action plan, right? They are telling you what you are not good at but not your weakness. They cannot know that because they don't feel it.
This is where we all go wrong. We pay attention to what people are good at and confuse it with strength. This is where most managers struggle, they are good at their job, and some elements will even be aligned with their strengths, but managing others kills them.
Why? They don't have the strengths for it, and that's ok. But what do we do? We send them for management and leadership trainings that once again ignores their natural talent. I know managers who should not be near people, let alone allow them to manage one.
So instead of wasting money on useless training programs, engagement activities and other nonsense, maybe it is time to look at people for what they are. Their strengths, natural ability, inclination, and unique voice. Companies don't want to hear from it because it requires a personalised approach. Therefore, it is your responsibility to know what you are made of. Otherwise, you wake up at the age of 50 and realise you have never expressed your uniqueness and struggled, going from one job to another like a square peg in a round hole trying to find your place in life.
You can start here:
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