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To order a copy of Soar With Your Strengths, click here.
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"The most responsible, the most challenging, and, in the sense of being true to yourself, the most honorable thing to do is face up to the strength potential inherent in your talents, and then find ways to realize it."
-- Buckingham and Clifton, Now Discover Your Strengths
"Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best ."
-- Henry Van Dyke |
Looking for an inspiring and entertaining speaker for your organization or group?
My passion is helping others to discover their purpose and reach their potential. I would love to speak with your group about strengths, optimism, leadership, vision, values, emotional intelligence and other development-related topics. For more information, visit www.kathylight.com/speaking | |
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| Focus on Your Strengths - Part II
Strategies for Leveraging and Developing your Strengths
Greetings!
Last month we talked about identifying your strengths and deciding which ones to concentrate on for maximum impact. Focusing on strengths, rather than weaknesses, leads to higher productivity, increased performance and greater happiness. It is the best way to truly reach your potential.
Once you've decided which strengths give you the most satisfaction as well as the biggest return, you owe it to yourself to find a way to develop and leverage them. Just imagine what you could do if you put all your energy into the things you do best! While it's not always easy to focus on just one or two key strengths, that is ideal, because spreading your energy among too many areas will inevitably dilute the benefits of your strengths.
So how do you leverage and develop your key strengths? Here are several strategies:
- Begin with an image of your ideal self as a master in your particular strength area. What would success look like? What would you like to achieve? How will you measure your success, and how will you know when you have achieved it? Visualizing the desired outcome is a powerful motivator, and this ideal image becomes your development goal.
- Next, brainstorm ways to use your strength more often. For example, if your chosen strength is influence and persuasion, think about all the ways you can practice that skill - in meetings at work, community involvement, committees at church, family discussions, etc. If you are conscious of your desire to develop your strength before each encounter, you will be more likely to practice the skill.
- Become a master in your particular strength area. In addition to using your strength more often, commit to continuous improvement. This can include reading or taking classes on the topic, practicing in front of others to get feedback, watching or listening to other experts who have mastered your strength, and so on.
- Put your goal, measures, activity ideas and timelines in writing. Call it your "Leveraging Strengths Plan" or your "Strengths Development Plan" or whatever makes it more actionable for you. The simple act of putting the plan in writing dramatically increases your likelihood of achieving the goal.
- Dedicate a certain amount of time each week or month to developing your strength, and put your development activities in your calendar. As I tell my clients, as busy as we all are, things just don't happen if we don't put them in our calendars. Even activities that were already in your calendar will become more developmental if you make a note to be conscious about developing your strength during those activities. Honor the time in your calendar as though it is a meeting with a client or an appointment with another professional.
- Tell as many people as you can about what you are working on and surround yourself with people who will support you and give you ideas to help you grow. The more people you tell, the more likely you are to do what you say you will do. Hire a coach, work with a mentor, or enlist the support of a trusted friend to keep you on track and encourage your success.
As with anything worthwhile, developing your strengths takes focus and repetition, but the results are well worth the effort! I've seen many clients make tremendous progress in their development and reap huge rewards by implementing the steps I've outlined above. For example, an entrepreneurial client of mine had been struggling for several years with sluggish revenues and mediocre new client acquisition. He'd been spending more of his time on back-office operations than on meeting with prospective clients. He hired me to help him increase his business results.
After a year of continued focus on seeing prospective clients and generating revenues, his client acquisition results improved by over 70%, and his overall revenues increased by more than 30%. By developing the strength that he most enjoyed and had the biggest bang for the buck, he not only dramatically impacted his bottom line but also had a lot more fun at work!
If you are interested in working with a coach to help you leverage your strengths and get what you want out of life, I would love to talk with you. Please contact me for a complimentary consultation at 972.359.0509 or kathy@kathylight.com.
Did you learn something valuable from this month's newsletter? If so, consider forwarding it on to friends, clients or colleagues who might also benefit from this information.
Have a great month! I wish you all the best! ~ Kathy
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