Recognising Your Strengths

Finding Your Unique Self to Flourish.

Key Points

• “For people to lean into their strengths … it goes with the grain of how people are designed and made, but I think also in the public space, you owe the public your best. And the public good is best serviced by people leaning into their strengths.”
• Good business happens in places where both personal and professional strengths are recognised and given the opportunity to flourish.
• Your strengths are truly amazing because they are uniquely yours – no one has the skills that you have in the same way, in the same make up with the same life experiences.

Max Jeganathan is a former advisor to the Federal Government. He is joined in this Helping Hands panel discussion by Joce Goto, Chief Operations Officer at Charitabl.; and Mark Jones, Chief Storyteller at the Impact Institute, to discuss how and why it’s important for us to recognise our strengths.

While Max’s words are true for us all, he’s referring specifically to how important it is for those serving in politics and public policy to know their strengths and be prepared to use them in the roles they have the privilege of holding.

“For people to lean into their strengths … it goes with the grain of how people are designed and made, but I think also in the public space, you owe the public your best. And the public good is best serviced by people leaning into their strengths.”

The same philosophy applies to the workplace, Mark adds. He advocates asking staff to complete a “strengths finder” because good business happens in places where both personal and professional strengths are recognised and given the opportunity to flourish. In his experience, every person has unique abilities to be found and embraced in the workplace.

“When you get clarity around what that (unique) thing is, and you connect it to this personal strength … it gives you the energy, strength and commitment to pursue something … the more you learn about your teammates, the more cohesive the environment becomes and the more fun you have.”

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Joce also emphasises the important point that no one strength is any better than another. Becoming comfortable with the strengths you have, no matter what they are, is the key to finding purpose and contentment both within yourself and among the relationships you maintain personally and professionally.

“There is no hierarchy in strengths. It was a really important realisation for me to become comfortable with the fact that empathy was my strongest thing because I had given it my own hierarchy … what you’ve got is actually amazing because it’s you … no one has the skills that you have in the same way, in the same make up with the same life experiences.”

What you’ve got is actually amazing because it’s you … no one has the skills that you have in the same way, in the same make up with the same life experiences.

If we don’t have confidence in our strengths or their usefulness, what can we do?

Mark says there are two simple steps to embracing the strengths you have to find your best self:

• Get comfortable with yourself. There is no one strength that is better than another. Being able to flourish means first accepting the strengths that make you uniquely you.
• Believe that the unique strengths you bring to the world can and will make a difference.

“Know yourself so that you can then help others,” Mark concludes. “We need more people doing that, because the world will be a much better place.”

Article written with thanks to Helping Hands TV.

Image: Supplied