Follow Your Strengths

You can change your habits but you can’t change your personality! Even changing your habits requires significant motivation and time investment. If you have ever tried to lose weight, which to a large extent requires changing your habits, you know how difficult that can be. Personality is a harder nut to crack because it is in some sense who you are. There are some innate characteristics and some acquired traits that make you a unique individual.

Therein lays the dilemma. Success at work may require you to excel at something that you are not. We pursue success anyway and when it eludes us – it can become frustrating. To achieve growth and happiness at work you need to consider the following points -

Understand who you are: Various personality tests and assessments can help highlight your personality type. Understanding who you are, what makes you tick, what you like and what you dislike is the first step toward understanding who you are.

Focus on your strengths: You strengths will lead you to the next level. Once you identify your strengths and start to leverage them is when you will see results. Invest in your strengths and make them the centerpiece of your career growth strategy. You can invest in your weaknesses but that is fighting against the tide and will eventually be a frustrating experience.

Define your own path: Once you know who you are and what makes you tick – then it’s a question of charting the right career path. Don’t be distracted by what you are presented as the only viable options for growth or what everyone else seems to be pursuing. If technology is your thing then you have to invest in technology and leverage your technology skills to give you an edge. If public speaking, people interaction and sales is your forte then you should purse a career path that is sales oriented.

Don’t pursue an illusion, rather focus on what you are best at doing and leverage those strengths to grow and succeed.

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