Play to your strengths
A few years ago I watched a bizarre experiment which pitched a team of semi-professional football players against a well-known “amateur” rugby team.
The experiment kicked off with a football match between the two teams. It was a pretty close affair, with the football team winning by a slim margin. The rematch was different. It was a rugby game and the football team got creamed. They kept getting penalised for breaching obscure rules. They weren’t used to handling a ball and kept dropping it. They didn’t have the upper body strength to compete in tackles or the scrum. It was a massacre.
What that illustrates is the importance of playing to your strengths. In work there may be many times when you are asked to play ‘out of position’ – filling in for someone, taking on a temporary contract – but real success comes when you play a game you’re good at.
So how do you play to your strengths?
1) Be honest with yourself. Are you good at what you’re trying to do? It’s a simple question, but often we can be afraid of saying ‘yes’. Sometimes I worry that I’ll come across as arrogant to say I’m good at certain things, and occasionally that has held me back. But knowing what I can do well is the key to me finding fulfilment in my career.
2) Don’t give in to other people’s expectations. As a kid I wanted to follow in my dad’s footsteps and become a doctor. If I had I would probably have been very unhappy. Trying to live up to someone else’s expectations – whether that’s a parent, a partner, or even your boss – is not a recipe for personal fulfilment. Dodge that bullet if you can.
3) Stay focussed. The ‘jack of all trades’ is the master of none. I learned this lesson from a friend who is a graphic designer. He found himself being asked by his clients about other areas of expertise, like writing or web design. He has a list of people he refers clients to, which allows him to concentrate on what he does best – design.
4) Ask whether ‘promotion’ will promote your happiness. One way people move out of the area they excel in and into an area they don’t is by accepting a ‘promotion’. Becoming the manager of the department may look good on the CV, but it may end up robbing you of the parts of the job you love, and replacing them with work you find dull and uninspiring.
5) Discover something you love and do well - and try to do it for a living. I have a good friend who loves writing computer code, with the occasional break for a cup of tea. He runs his own websites which he builds from scratch. He’s playing to his strengths and he is making money from it, but most of all, he’s happy.
We all have strengths. It may be in an overlooked area, like the ability to make someone feel welcome, or a good phone manner. But whatever your strengths may be, when you start to use them you will discover that work can be enjoyable and success can be achievable.
Not sure where your strengths lie? Why not take a Birkman test to find out?
Written by Jon Matthias.
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