When trying to convince someone that you are the person that they should recruit, you have to be aware of your strengths and your weaknesses. “What are your strengths”? is a frequently asked interview question. Yet why is it that we find it so easy to list our weaknesses but often struggle to come up with our strengths?
I bet if I was to give you 2 pieces of paper, one headed ‘Strengths’ and the other ‘Weaknesses’ and asked you to fill them in, you would soon have a page full of what you believe to be your weaknesses while there would still be a lot of white space on the ‘Strengths’ page.
You might then expect me to walk you through your list of weaknesses and help you to come up with ways of turning them into strengths. However, while it is good to be aware of your weaknesses, the first thing I would want to work with you on is your strengths. Why? Because it has been proven that people who focus on their strengths are 6 times more likely to be engaged in their jobs and 3 times more likely to believe that they have an excellent quality of life in general – and isn’t that something we’d all like?
Identifying your strengths is just the one small step in showing that you are the right candidate for the job. Anyone can say that one of their strengths is that they are a great team player but in order to stand out, you need to provide examples of when you worked in a team that produced some outstanding results. Then be able to talk confidently about the contribution you made and how it lead to the team’s success.
So in the lead up to this busy holiday period, take some time out to consider your strengths, enlist a friend to help or get hold of a copy of Strengths Finder. Come up with a couple of examples where these strengths have helped you succeed in the past so that you kick start 2012 by putting them to even better use to ensure that you have the job and quality of life you want and deserve.
If you’d like help in identifying your strengths and how to use them to make you stand out above the competition, just drop me an email, anne@power-to-change.eu
