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Women, Do You Recognize Your Strengths?

What are your strengths? Can you articulate them? Do you focus on them? I’m going to guess that you don’t as much as you should—for two reasons. One is the psychological phenomenon of “positive” and “negative illusion”. Research shows men have “positive illusion”—thinking they are smarter and more capable than they actually are. In contrast, women tend to have “negative illusion” which is the opposite. Therefore, we look at everything that we are doing wrong, as opposed to our strengths. The other reasons you probably don’t focus on your strengths as much as you should is that Corporate America has rewarded people in the past for pointing out and working on weaknesses (or the PC term—“areas for improvement”).

Well, research shows it makes good business sense to focus on your strengths.

Developing people’s strengths has a much greater impact on a company’s bottom line than focusing on improving their weaknesses. The obvious exception is when a weakness is so glaring that it can’t be ignored. For example, a complete inability to get along with others. The other reason to focus on your strengths is that it increases your confidence level and your confidence image.

A great resource for focusing on strengths is Now, Discover your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton. Based on the Gallup study of over two million people, they focused on the concept of developing strengths and came up with definitions for areas of strengths. An example that stood out for me has to do with Tiger Woods (and I’m not even a golf fan). Apparently, while he excels in other areas of golf, his weakness is his ability to chip out of a sand trap. Instead of spending long hours trying to improve that, he spent a minimal amount of time working on it so that it would not ruin his overall game. Then, he spent much more time perfecting his greatest strength, his swing.

Another tool was developed by professors at the University of Michigan’s Ross Business School. The Reflected Best Self Feedback helps people discover their “best self” and determine ways they create value for other people. Finally, the book “Brag: The Art of Tooting your Own Horn without Blowing it” by Peggy Klaus shows you how to start telling people about your strengths.

I challenge you to find your strengths, focus on them and talk about them. You will see a tremendous difference in your confidence and your success at work!

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