Identify and use your strengths for optimal functioning
"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
- Albert Einstein -
Let's start with an experiment: take a piece of paper, a pen and write "I use my strength" with your not preferential hand. Write down what you feel inside. Then do the same thing with the other hand.
What do we feel when we use something that is not our preference? We lose energy, we constrain ourselves, we feel frustration, and in the end it wears us out. Whereas if we focus on our preference, we take pleasure, we gain energy, and we can develop twice as fast.
This experience describes the difference between strength and weakness. Our society is built around a key idea: "We must correct our weaknesses!" So most people are more aware of their weaknesses than of their strengths. Ask your colleague what his/her real strength are, he / she will not necessarily answer you; ask him rather what his/her weakness is, he / she will be able to quote you 10. Western society is built on this representation. From primary school we must fill gaps to progress and not strengthen our areas of excellence.
I. Another angle of approach is possible
What if we took another angle of approach? If we considered that to overcome our weaknesses, we had to focus on our strengths to get the best out of it?
The good news is that we all have strengths (humor, leadership, empathy, strategy, social intelligence, courage, sense of work, love, competition ...). According to a meta-analysis by the Gallup Organization[1], a company that focuses on potentiating the strengths of individuals has a 36% higher performance rate than other companies; on the contrary, a company that focuses on the offset of individual weaknesses has a 27% lower performance rate than other companies.[2]In this same analysis, the Gallup Organization asked the following question to 198,000 employees of different companies: "Do you get to use your strengths at work every day?". Respondents who answered "yes, absolutely" were the best performers in the organization, had the best customer satisfaction rate and the lowest staff turnover rate in their units. The best chances of professional and personal development of each individual reside in the areas where they possess their best assets.
Alex Linley describes a strength as "a strength is a pre-existing capacity for a particular way
of behaving, thinking, or feeling that is authentic and energising to the user, and enables optimal functioning, development and performance"[3]
Thus, a strength has three components:
- Authenticity: when I use this force, it is the true "me", individual’s sense of self
- Energy: when I activate this force, I gain energy
- Performance: I'm not just good when I use this force, I'm better than anyone, I am excellent
It is also said that a strength is present since childhood.
Attention, a strength is not a skill, nor a talent. A skill is an acquired ability that I now master, “I can do it well” (e.g mastery of excel, cook, write reports ...). A talent is a gift in a certain field that can be ruined if it is not exploited (singing, playing piano, skiing, painting ...).
It is also said that a strength is present since childhood.
Attention, a strength is not a skill, nor a talent. A skill is an acquired ability that I now master, “I can do it well” (e.g mastery of excel, cook, write reports ...). A talent is a gift in a certain field that can be ruined if it is not exploited (singing, playing piano, skiing, painting ...).