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"Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade" Benjamin Franklin
This quote appears in a thought provoking book I read recently, asking the question, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?
The quote appeared in the inside jacket of Strengths Finder 2.0. The premise of the book is that most of us spend more time attempting to fix our shortcomings than capitalising on and developing our strengths. And all too often it's true...
Thinking back to my childhood tennis lessons, I can recall spending what seemed like an inordinate amount of time on my double-handed backhanded rather than focusing on "the money shot" - my left hand cross-court forehand return.
Have you ever come out of a performance appraisal feeling completely beaten up? Often we don't even hear the positive feedback that's given to us. It gets drowned out by the weight of the "constructive feedback" that will make us a "better contributor" or a "stronger leader".
The corporate environment demands a program of continuous self-improvement to pave the path to glory. So, how practical is this idea that we should focus on our strengths? And how does it work?
StrengthsFinder 2.0 uses an online diagnostic tool to allow you to identify and prioritise your strengths - and by exclusion, your weaknesses. It uses 34 themes to isolate your talent and proposes specific action plans for capitalising on your strengths. I took the test myself and was impressed with the results and the recommended actions that accompany them.
That said, I suspect the most practical answer is somewhere in between our current organisational (actually societal) norms and the approach suggested in the book. It's probably not enough to focus exclusively on strengths or weaknesses. But StrengthsFinder 2.0 does provide a useful perspective -especially for those people considering a new career path.
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