7 Ways to Develop within Your Strength Zone

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Seven Ways to Develop Within Your Strength Zone by Chad Hall, MCC

Surveys conducted by Gallup reveal that most of today’s employees are not very engaged in their work and many are even actively disengaged. In my own conversations with managers, leaders, and executives, one of the main reasons for this debilitating lack of engagement is that people do not play to their strengths more often at work. Rather than bringing and giving their best, many workers leave their best at home because they find themselves in roles that do not leverage what they do best and do not align with who they truly are. When we use skills (developed ability) that are not supported by strength (natural capacity), everything is fine at first. But when challenge comes, we experience stress, fear, and a sense of not being the right person for the job. Even in not-­‐so-­‐challenging circumstances, the same thing happens when we use these unsupported skills for lengthy periods of time – we develop a gnawing fear of “being found out” because we know that what we are doing (skills) is not truly supported by who we are (strength). At iNTERNAL iMPACT, we’ve recognized that employees have more opportunity than they realize to change the way they work in order to use their strengths more often, resulting in a more humanized workplace, better performance, and greater fulfillment. So how can you develop within your strength zone? Here are seven ways: 1. Know your own strengths For many professionals, there is great confusion between what you can learn to do, versus what you’re naturally supported in doing. Since humans are adaptable and creative, we can develop skills that are not supported by innate strengths. This ability to develop unsupported skills clouds and confuses because it’s easy to mistake a developed ability for strength. To recognize your strengths, look beyond what you can do and notice the natural talents, traits, preferences and capacities that have supported your performance since you were young throughout your life. Also, look back across your life and notice what skills did you most enjoy developing; often these skills are the ones supported by your innate strengths.


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7 Ways to Develop within Your Strength Zone by Chad Hall - Issuu