Career Tip 7: Find Your Peak – Build on Your Strengths
Build on Your Strengths.
Many people focus energy and attention on strengthening weaknesses. They think making their weaknesses stronger will provide the missing key to success. This is one of life’s biggest fallacies. The Job Dog’s experience, from decades of coaching knowledge, is that a successful career transition relies primarily on your attention to your strengths.
You create progress and success in your career and your life by remaining within your strengths.
You create progress and success in your career and your life by remaining within your strengths.
Resumes, cover letters, and networking messages depend upon identifying and showcasing your strengths. Our experience is that a person achieves greater success when he/she builds a career based upon a comprehensive understanding of his/her strengths.
We use the acronym SAINT (Strengths, Abilities, Interests and Natural Talents) to define a deeper understanding of strengths. Our definition of SAINT is a person of virtue (i.e., merit or distinction) who operates with an advantage or edge. Our comprehensive definition of SAINT would include:
Strengths
An asset of special value
A capability
Abilities
Possession of mental qualities required to get something done
The quality of being able to perform
Interests
A sense of concern with and curiosity about someone or something
A reason for wanting something of importance or consequence completed
Natural
Inherited gifts or inherent qualities found in your DNA
Relates to you, specifically
Talent
A proficiency or special expertise
Recommended Reading or Listening
Packed with insights about how to build upon your natural talents.
–The Job Dog
Bonus: Looking at Weaknesses and Strengths
Checkpoint
If someone were to ask you to identify your most saleable strengths, what would you say? Use the information below to devise your response. Memorize it so that you are ready when you need to be.
- Use each SAINT factor to generate thoughts that lead to deeper self-awareness. Don’t be concerned whether your responses fall into a particular category (Strength, Ability, etc). It is the entire SAINT list that is essential to your career progress.
- Next, spend five minutes considering each of the SAINT categories. Literally, say to yourself, “I have strength at… I am able to… I am interested in… I am a natural at… I have a talent at…”
- Also, ask others to answer these same questions, “You have strength in… You are naturally good at… etc.”
- ALWAYS a Winning Tip: Numerous clients attest to the significant value of adding a visual management tool to their career transition process. Once you have a list, post it on flip chart paper in your work area. Creating a visual dashboard helps manage both your daily activities and long-term strategy.
