Women...Use Those Strengths

Women...Use Those 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 (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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Kerrie Halmi of Halmi Performance Consulting specializes in
increasing women's success in business through speaking,
coaching and facilitation. Kerrie has over fifteen years
of experience in the Human Resources field with such
clients as eBay, Wells Fargo and Kaiser. She received her
MBA from the University of Michigan and is certified in
coaching with Corporate Coach University International.
See
http://www.halmiperformance.com