How to identify your strengths and talents for career development

Are you on the right path for your career growth? Or do you just want to do what you do? Answer the question how your strengths and abilities match your daily work, because... it has a big impact on your quality of life.

The first factor in a successful career is unlocking your abilities, which essentially reveals your strengths that you could use. The invaluable ability factor is quite simple. It shows how good you are at what you do or how valuable you are to your company or your clients. When you started working in your position, you had a certain level of qualifications that qualified you for the job.

However, getting a job does not make you invaluable. You need to increase your overall value to ensure you are indispensable at work. Simply put, ability is a measurement of how much you exceed the expectations of your boss or clients. You can read about how to become indispensable and gain authority in our article “How to become an authority in a company and society.”

This material will help you recognize your strengths, understand your talents, and understand the process of improving them. When you put your effort into what you already have, you will reap greater benefits than wasting a lot of energy on something that is not your strength. In fact, one characteristic of highly successful people is that they have learned to develop their strengths rather than trying to improve their weaknesses .

Next, we'll look at how your talents match the job responsibilities you perform or the position you want to pursue. In today's competitive market, it is important to constantly improve and move forward. This article will help you create an action plan.

A little independent work to find out your strengths

The main flaw in our career choices is that we ignore our talents and try to get a position that does not suit them. We spend a huge amount of effort and energy to match our strengths to the position we receive. But we end up jumping from one position to another feeling that this is not what we want to do. All this is the reason for not knowing your talents.

Your talent includes three things: gift, love and skills, where:

1. Your gift is something you were born with, an aptitude you have from the very beginning. These tend to be areas where you do better than other people. This is something that has always been given to you without much effort. Every person has at least one or two gifts;
2. Love is something you do with passion and pleasure. A person may be gifted with something, but he does not necessarily have to love this gift. Let's say someone is good at math, but he doesn't like doing it. Thus, love as part of talent considers what you enjoy doing at any time. When you work, time just flies by because you enjoy it;
3. Skills represent the knowledge and abilities you have acquired over time. You acquire them with education, courses, hobbies or work practice.

Try to think of talented people you know who have achieved success in their careers and you will find that they have a natural gift in this field, they love what they do, and they have also worked and studied hard to improve their skills over time.

So, the first step to discovering your talents is to understand your gift. Your gift is something you are born with or something that comes naturally to you. It has always been with you and is part of your personality. Identifying and strengthening your gift will give you the greatest growth and benefit in the shortest possible time.

To find out your gift as your strength, you will find a form with questions, the answers to which will give you an initial understanding of your gifts. There, you will find the second part, where one of your loved ones or friends will fill in their impressions of your gifts. When answering questions, try to write the first thing that comes to mind.

1) What comes easy to you? Write here what you do with ease;

2) When you were a child (before 10 years old), what seemed easy to you then? Think about an activity that you spent a lot of time doing and enjoyed;

3) In what areas have you received awards, won competitions or received praise? This is external confirmation of giftedness and abilities. This means that some person or group of people recognized your gifts and rewarded you for them;

4) When do people tell you, “I wish I could do it like you.” How do people recognize you as a role model?;

5) Take 5 minutes for quiet self-reflection. This means doing nothing other than sitting and thinking and focusing on this question: What are your natural gifts? After 5 minutes, write your answer. Many people like to quickly answer questions with only a superficial definition of innate qualities, which may be less useful;

6) A question about the results that you have already received on a similar topic from other sources.

Once you and your “witness” have completed the required sections, you can move on to the “Other” column. This indicates any overlap between your responses and the other person's. For example, if you received an award for public speaking and your assistant responded the same way, then you check the box. This means that you and someone else have agreed that this is your gift.

After you have answered and marked everything, go to the “Multiple Mentions” section. This is where you list the areas that both you and the other person have mentioned. If you both mentioned that you are good at sales, then write “sales” in this section, etc. After doing this work, you will be left with an understanding of what your gifts are or areas in which you excel.

It's not always possible to be successful at what you love. Sometimes, there are not enough skills for this, or there is huge competition in this area. But doing what we love allows us to be more resilient and persistent. Try answering the following questions about your hobbies:

1. What part of your current job do you enjoy most?
2. If money were no object, what career field would you choose?
3. What job makes you lose track of time?
4. If you have any hobbies or interests, please list them?
5. Do these elements of your hobby apply to your work? You may be able to find a job equivalent to your hobbies. For example, attention to detail, categorization, evaluation, all these things have very strong equivalent values ​​to stamp collecting.
6. Think for 5 minutes in a calm environment about the question: “what job do you love most?” Allow your mind to replay all the work you have done since your earliest memories.

After you have answered all the questions, look at the activities that you mentioned 2 or more times.

After identifying your gifts and activities that bring you joy, consider the skills you have been taught. Our skills consist of the knowledge we acquired during our studies, the experience we acquired from our parents or mentors, and the work we have done in the past. In this case, you need to answer the following questions about your skills:

• What kind of education did you receive at college, university, courses?
• What professional atmosphere did you grow up in? Perhaps when you were younger, you heard your parents talk about this or that field of activity, the history of their professional experience. When you are present at someone's place of work, or you overhear conversations at lunch, it naturally affects your skills.
• Who were your mentors? These are people who have had a profound impact on you and your life. What have they done for their careers? Mentors can have a significant impact on your skills, perceptions and understanding because you look up to them as an example. So list some of these mentors and what careers they had.
• What positions have you held in the past?
• What do you study or read in your free time? Think about the magazines you subscribe to, the books you like, the blogs you visit, or even the podcasts you listen to.
• What additional training have you received? For example, maybe your job required you to attend some workshops, or maybe you acquired some skills through volunteer work or in the communities you were part of.

Now, based on the answers you received, determine your true talents. To do this, open the list of talents, where you will see three columns: “Gift Mentions,” “Hobbies Mentions,” and “Skill Mentions.” As you fill out this form, remember what you mentioned most often under each section. These things matter a lot in your life. Your worksheet should look something like this.

Then find the commonality between the three columns. If you listed your sales ability as a gift, and you enjoy selling, and that you were trained in sales, then put it all together with a line. This is a very likely indicator that you have sales talent. You may see phrases that are related to each other, but not exactly the same. Consider whether you can link them. For example, you might mention that one of your gifts is public speaking, and in your hobbies and skills you mention teaching people. They are closely enough related to each other that you can combine all three and draw a line connecting them and count teaching people as one of your talents.

Please note that this form has space for a maximum of three talents. This is done so that you do not spend your time on developing all your talents, scattering it, but focus on the most important ones. It is also very good if you have identified just one talent. This will allow you to focus on it fully. Remember that the people who are most successful in their careers are those who naturally focus the majority of their time, training, and effort on their talent. Next, we'll look at how to match your strengths with the work you're currently doing.

Low self-esteem.

Low self-esteem is an admission that certain results have not been achieved in the current period of life. It can be observed in those who are still far from their goals. The species is considered the worst, although this opinion is unfounded. The hardest thing is for those who have low self-esteem. This type also has advantages.

A definite plus is that a person focuses on his own dreams. He understands that the desired job has not yet been found, he will be able to buy an apartment only in a few years, and for a serious relationship he lacks the readiness to perceive the other completely. It would seem that awareness of shortcomings is the first step towards eliminating them. However, low self-esteem still does not equal adequate, so it is sometimes difficult for its owner to fight oppressive thoughts about his inferiority. But it is easier for him to get rid of self-deprecation than for those who have a low self-perception.

How to Know if Your Job Responsibilities Match Your Strengths

If you want to improve your strengths, it is important to understand the responsibilities your job requires. Ability and responsibility go hand in hand. You use your abilities to perform the duties assigned to you by your employer. If you are going to deliver what they expect, it is important to understand these responsibilities as clearly as possible. To do this, you need to know what your client or employer's expectations are.

You can determine your employer's expectations by looking at the list of jobs or responsibilities your position entails. If you do not have such a list, you can always contact your supervisor or HR department for a complete description of the responsibilities included in your position. If you notice that you are doing work that is not required by your position, you can note this fact to mention it in a meeting with your manager.

Let's say your responsibilities don't include meeting with clients or training new employees. After a certain time, when you notice that you are doing more of this type of work, ask your boss if he would like you to include this work in your list of responsibilities. This will let your manager know that you actually do more work than your job title suggests. This will not only increase your value, but will also give you an advantage in career advancement. In our case, this will give you a clear understanding of what the employer expects from you.

Now we will establish how well you combine your current job with your strengths. Let us turn to the form of correspondence between responsibilities and talents. At the top, indicate your talents (no more than three). Write down your job responsibilities at the bottom left. Now look through your list of responsibilities and check the “Talent” column for any activity that matches one of your talents. For example, if you do accounting and your talent is working with numbers, then check the box next to this responsibility.

At the end of this simple exercise, you will begin to see how your current job aligns with your strengths. In an ideal situation, you will have check marks for each responsibility, meaning that everything you do aligns with your strengths. However, it is likely that there will be areas where your responsibilities are not your talents.

What if many of your job responsibilities don't match your natural talents, or you've discovered through the exercises you've taken that you spend most of your work time doing things you don't enjoy doing? Control of the situation and job satisfaction are in your hands. The best approach to finding a match between your strengths and responsibilities is to look for opportunities at the company you currently work for.

The more you understand your business, the more valuable you become. If you move into a new business, you lose time, energy and become weaker and less knowledgeable in the new field for a while. Transition time from one company to another is very costly. Instead, you can work on a job description that better suits your strengths. To do this, answer yourself a few questions:

• Are you ready for change? You may not want to change anything if you are satisfied with your career. If you want to increase your value or job satisfaction, then be determined.
• Is your company flexible? The larger and more stable companies are, the less flexible they will be. From their point of view, they have a job to do and you are either the right person for it or you are not. In SMEs that grow very quickly, there is usually a higher degree of flexibility. There may be an opportunity to move to a different position or even change your current job description. Understanding your employer's flexibility is the first step to aligning your work with your strengths.
• Is there a position within the company that best suits your strengths? The opportunity to change positions within a company is ideal because you already understand the culture and how it works.
• If you have identified a position that is a better fit for your skill set, ask yourself what is the next step to moving into that position? If you have a good relationship with your manager, you can tell him that you would be a better fit for another position and ask what steps he would recommend for the transition.
• If you can't find a position in your business that matches your strengths, what position or career outside of your current company would be a better fit for you? Don't try to change yourself to fit the position. Instead, find a position that suits you.

Learning whether you are in the right position sometimes takes weeks or even months. But if you're willing to put in the work to understand your talents and work toward the right job, your career satisfaction will improve significantly. No one wins when an employee is in a position they don't like or don't suit their skill set. Companies are more successful when their people are highly talented and well-suited to their positions. Employees are more motivated and productive when they are in jobs that match their strengths.

An important part of improving your abilities is to continually evaluate your performance. Open the “Performance Evaluation” form and rewrite your job responsibilities that you have already noted in the previous table. On the right, you mark your performance in the responsibilities you specified: below expectations (poor performance), meeting expectations (good performance), and above expectations, which is overperforming.

For example, if you create reports for your manager or another team, but you consistently do it reluctantly and with delays, then mark it as a below-expected activity. But if you train employees, you enjoy it, spend your energy with pleasure, and your bosses constantly ask you to provide these trainings to employees, then mark it as above expectations. Your job is to evaluate your performance for each responsibility on your list.

It's important to be honest about areas where you are performing below expectations. Each of us has a couple of areas of work where we put in less effort. This self-assessment is an important step towards improvement. At the bottom of the form, you'll see a section for one action to improve low-performing areas. Think about what step are you willing to take to move forward? Once you have identified an action, write it down and decide the next step you are going to take and set a deadline for completing that commitment.

To improve your abilities, it is important to understand the growth opportunities that exist in the employee-manager relationship. Develop a positive relationship with your manager. Ask him to continually evaluate your abilities, give you opportunities to improve them, and provide any resources that will help you succeed.

Low self-esteem.

Low self-esteem is an understatement of qualities, skills, and comparisons in favor of others. It is far from adequate as well as overpriced. People who are insecure constantly compare themselves with others, drawing disappointing conclusions. It seems to them that someone is luckier, more successful, handsome, talented. Their positive qualities are ignored and perceived as insignificant.

Women are more likely to have complexes because of their appearance . Jokes about the “ugly friend” have some truth - many are afraid to find themselves in the place of an unattractive friend next to a fatal beauty. Girls turn to plastic surgeons, trying to correct, in their opinion, not the best facial features or remove figure flaws. Focusing on famous models, whose photographs are always carefully retouched, deprives one of individuality, makes one feel complex and reject one’s appearance.

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For men, comparison with more successful classmates/acquaintances/relatives/celebrities is a serious blow. The fact that someone achieves a goal and has everything one could dream of is a painful blow to the ego. These comparisons often become the cause of apathy or depression. However, both men and women experience discomfort for different reasons. Girls envy their friends who have achieved high positions; young people become desperate because their friend is considered more attractive in their circle of acquaintances.

An effective option for increasing self-love is to refuse comparisons or at least minimize them. Focusing on self-development is much more effective than suffering because friends have acquired apartments, cars, or successfully married. The latter nullifies the desire to become better, kills it at the root.

How to Improve Your Strengths and Abilities

If you want to maximize your value and grow professionally, how much time are you willing to invest outside of work hours to improve your strengths? You can invest in your career by regularly improving your skills outside of your day-to-day responsibilities. This will enhance your abilities, your value and your career security. This process includes five stages:

1. Decide for yourself how much time you are willing to spend on improving your strengths. Always reserve this time in your calendar, be it one hour a day from 19:00 to 20:00 or one evening a week, say Wednesday.

2. Select an area of ​​study. Earlier, you identified two or three areas in which you have talent. Now choose the area you are going to focus on, say, for the next month. Take the time to improve your strengths in a way that benefits you and your company.

3. Find the right material. You can develop your strengths through useful articles, online courses or seminars.

4. Do it. When performance is measured, it improves, and when performance is measured and reported, it improves significantly! Share your self-learning plan with a friend or relative, or best of all, your manager. Tell them that you are going to show them the result in the form of a report or a finished program to demonstrate what you have learned or learned.

Be sure to include a specific date and ask them to mark the date with themselves to hold you accountable. This will strengthen your commitment and allow the other person to play a supporting role in your learning. By being involved from the start, they will want to support you and provide you with all the resources to help you.

5. Work on the development schedule you created. In the time you allocate for self-development, concentrate only on improving your qualities and do not be distracted by everyday worries. As you keep track of your learning schedule and create your projects to report, you will see your talent grow and progress.

Technology can play a special role in improving your abilities and value in the job market. Consider the phone you use today compared to the one you used 10 years ago. Increases power and functionality. Without the need to regularly expand your horizons in technological innovations, you will easily fall behind more progressive workers. While most of the principles in this article focus on your strengths and your talents, you also need to regularly take the time to familiarize yourself with the latest improvements available in technology.

Try to set aside an hour or two a month to research technological innovations, new programs, applications, etc. Try to allocate time for practical knowledge of Excel, Power Point, MS Project, etc. You can’t even imagine how much this knowledge helps in career growth.

Conclusion

Once again, here's a quick rundown of the basic principles for finding and working on your strengths: First, focus as much of your efforts as possible on using the talents you have. Your talents are made up of the gift you were born with, the things you love to do, and the skills you have acquired over time. Once you know your talents, try to focus your responsibilities as much as possible on those talents and, if necessary, change jobs or positions to better utilize your strengths.

Additionally, work on creating a positive relationship with your manager. Finally, create a self-improvement and self-assessment system so that you can improve on your strengths each month. Take these actions and live these principles, and it will be easier for you to follow the path of becoming indispensable.

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Functions

Adequate self-esteem performs a number of important functions in a person’s life:

• adaptive - promotes socialization;
• protective - ensures stability and independence;
• corrective - teaches self-control;
• motivating - makes you go forward and achieve your goals;
• reflective - allows you to see yourself from the outside;
• prognostic - stimulates at the beginning of activity;
• developing - motivates to improve;
• regulatory - provides a choice;
• retrospective - allows you to draw conclusions after the end of the activity;
• terminal - allows you to stop at any time;
• emotional - gives a feeling of harmony, happiness, self-satisfaction.

With inadequate self-esteem, these functions are disrupted and lead to a decrease in quality of life.

Brief description of levels

The main character traits of a person who has adequate self-esteem:

• a realistic view of yourself and your achievements;
• critical assessment of one's capabilities;
• setting goals that can be achieved;
• state of harmony;
• self-confidence and self-confidence;
• realizing your talents and abilities;
• goodwill, but at the same time the ability to say “no” in the right situation;
• the ability to admit your mistakes and correct them;
• self-discipline;
• constant self-development.

Such people, as a rule, have stable career growth, good family relationships, a circle of friends, and respect from others.

When the level is too high, the following are observed:

• unshakable confidence in one’s own rightness;
• imposing your opinion on everyone around you;
• intransigence in disputes, inability to lose;
• failure to admit one's mistakes;
• constant competition with everyone;
• placing blame and responsibility for failures on others;
• denial of one's own shortcomings;
• selfishness.

People with such a character can achieve career heights, but become despot bosses. In family life, these are despot husbands and bitch wives. They rarely make friends. People around them try to avoid them.

A low level is characterized by:

• constant self-criticism;
• dissatisfaction with one’s own behavior, actions, and whole life;
• resentment towards any criticism;
• indecision;
• fear of mistakes;
• dependence on other people's opinions;
• the desire to please everyone;
• inability to say “no”;
• a constant feeling of guilt, which over time becomes neurotic;
• pessimism;
• envy of the achievements and successes of other people;
• prone to rumors and gossip.

Such people rarely achieve professional heights. These are uninitiative gray mice, which, however, can cope well with routine work. In the family, these are henpecked husbands who take care of children and housework, and humble wives who indulge their husbands in everything. If there are friends, then they are the same as them. Relationships with others do not go well, since they are most often outcasts in society.