Start Building Your Strengths Instead of Focusing on Your Weaknesses.

It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to expend a huge amount of effort to work at becoming strong at something for which we have no natural affinity or talent, does it? Of course not, we should first work on and develop, not our weaknesses, but rather our strengths. We will gain more ground in less time and will find the effort much less taxing along the path. Read StrengthsFinder 2.0, an excellent text written by Tom Rath. The StrengthsFinder 2.0 online tool provides you with a very accurate report that will help you take your game to another level as you develop your self-awareness around your greatest strengths and talents and figure out how to leverage them to better effect.

1. Start by taking the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment online. You can find it online at gallupstrengthsfcenter.com.
2. While this may seem sophomoric to you, I highly recommend printing your top five strengths onto a 3 X 5 card and keeping it in your briefcase or in a top desk drawer so you will be forced to come across it frequently. You may also want to post it somewhere where you’ll see it, such as a bulletin board, or post it on your mirror at home.
3. One of the best sections in the StrengthsFinder 2.0 report is the application section where it provides you with ideas for actions you can take to help you to apply your five greatest strengths to greater advantage and achievement.
4. Often, people place entirely too much emphasis on correcting their weaknesses and quickly feel like a complete failure when they learn how difficult this is to accomplish. At the same time, we don’t normally focus enough attention on developing our best skills to take full advantage of them.
5. Managers! When you’re leading your people, encourage them. Focus your associates on making the most of their talents by emphasizing their strengths and spending 80% of their time and energy on leveraging their strengths, not toiling to overcome their inadequacies.