Each person possesses a certain number of strengths, talents, and skills that determine the way one approaches work, handles problems and how they relate with others. Nevertheless, it is common to see people go through school, up to training, and even years of employment without necessarily knowing what they are really good at. Such poor awareness can complicate career choices, and it might deny people a chance to do what they might excel in doing.
The true appreciation of strengths and skills is one of the first steps in creating a successful and rewarding career. If you are well aware of your strengths, you will be in a better position to decide on matters concerning education, career choices as well as professional advancement. It also helps you tell your worth better to the employers and take a risk in availing the opportunities that will suit your skills.
Strengths refer to what you do so well, it is a quality or behavior that you are naturally good at. Such skills come almost naturally since they are consistent with your personality, interests and talents that are inborn. Skills on the other hand are skills, which can be taught and enhanced in terms of education, practice and experience.
Combined, strengths and skills are the basis of your professional identity. They determine your approach to work, your interaction with others as well as the performance in various working conditions.
In the modern competitive job market, employers do not just seek academic qualification. They seek people who know their personal capabilities and can provide explanation on the same with regard to their success at the work place. It is a great opportunity to be able to share out your strengths and give examples of your good skills which will hugely help you in making yourself stand out in the process of applying to seek employment and during the interviews.
This guide would assist you in becoming familiar with what strengths and skills are, why they are important in your career and how you can recognize them and develop them. With a better sense of your strengths, you will be able to better control your professional destiny, and work in something that matters and brings rewards.
What Are Strengths?
A strength is something of which you seem to do comfortably, and something you may often enjoy doing. Strengths can be either natural or due to personality traits or knowledge or acquired by doing it over a long period of time.
A lot of individuals are aware of their strengths based on the positive feedbacks given to them by others. As an illustration, one may always be told that they excel at the explanation of the complex issues, arranging projects, or assisting others in difficult circumstances.
Some of the qualities that are covered as strengths might be:
- Good communication skills
- Creativity and innovation
- Analytical thinking
- Leadership and motivation
- Problem-solving skills
- Notice and emotional intelligence.
Among the major qualities of strengths is that they are what are natural to you. Tasks that leverage on your abilities tend to be interesting as opposed to tiresome. Whenever individuals perform tasks that they are better at, they are likely to achieve higher results and enjoy their jobs.
Each person also has strengths of his own. Although some individuals could be having similar skills, how each individual uses his/her skills differs in most cases. It is this difference that assists people to emerge with a professional identity of their own.
Knowing what you are good at will enable you to concentrate on those opportunities where you will be able to do what you do best and provide value to it.
What Are Skills?
Although strengths are followed by the natural gifts, skills are performed as those gained after a certain time period of education. Skill can be defined as the ability to execute a certain activity well.
The skills are acquired by people in different activities which may be school, training schemes, working profession or through hobbies and personal projects.
As an example, an individual can get to know how to:
- Write professional reports
- Analyze financial data
- Design graphics or websites
- Organize projects and deadlines
- Application of special software.
Skills also can be enhanced through regular practice and consultation, unlike more natural weaknesses. This implies that one does not have to be born winning in certain fields but with practice and commitment he/she can become very competent.
Career development requires acquisition of good skills since most jobs demand certain technical or practical skills.
Nevertheless, the best professionals tend to integrate good skill set with their natural advantages. An individual will perform and have a high level of job satisfaction when they apply their best capabilities in their area of strength..
Types of Skills
Essentially, skills are categorized into a number of groups depending on how they are applied in the workplace. The knowledge of these types would allow you to see how the different talents you have might exist.
Transferable Skills
Transferable skills are those skills that can be practicable across numerous industries and even job roles. These skills are useful as they can be applied even when one changes work or career and turns to a new sphere of profession.
Examples of transferable skills are:
- Organization and time management
- Effective communication
- Problem-solving abilities
- Leadership and teamwork
- Critical thinking
- Decision-making
As an illustration, an individual who builds an excellent organizational talent when handling school work might at future utilize the same talent in the project management, planning of an event, and the field of administration.
The transferable skills are widely applicable and, as such, the employers believe that they are fundamental in the judgment of job applicants.
Soft Skills
Soft skills represent individual traits that contribute to the way people deal with others and their attitude to work.
These skills closely tie in with emotional intelligence, personality and interpersonal communication.
Soft skills include (among others):
- Patience and empathy
- Adaptability and flexibility
- Conflict resolution
- Active listening
- Team collaboration
- Positive attitude
The importance of soft skills in workplace contexts is very high due to their ability to establish effective and respectful working contexts.
As an illustration, clarity of employees in terms of communication, the ability to hear others, and effective collaboration makes them to create stronger relations with their colleagues and clients.
The employers have a common perception that soft skills are as essential as technical skills since they lead to long term success at the workplace.
Knowledge-Based Skills
Specialized skills are those skills particular to knowledge based, and developed by people through formal instruction, special training, or by work experience.
Such skills can be technical and can be certified or be academically awarded.
Examples include:
- Accounting and financial analysis
- Computer programming
- Data analysis and statistics
- Graphic design
- Engineering principles
- Project management techniques
These skills are regularly enumerated in the job description since they are the technical knowledge of carrying out specific jobs.
The skill in knowledge can be measured in most cases by examinations, certification exams or portfolios of professionals which show knowledge.
How can this affect me?
Career choices and the development of the profession as a whole can be affected greatly by the identification of strengths and skills.
Once people are aware of their strengths, they are able to make a well-informed decision on which industries, work, and even work environments suit them.
An example is that a person who is a good communicator can be a good teacher, marketer, counselor or PR practitioner. The individual who is a highly analytical human being might be attracted to work as a researcher, engineer, a financial expert, or even a technological expert.
Knowing your strengths can also make you clarify your worth to the prospective employers.
In the course of employment applications, interviews, and reviews, employers frequently require the candidates to present their strengths and give them examples of how they have applied the skills they have to bring about results.
When one has already contemplated his or her strengths, he or she can respond to these questions with a lot of confidence and offer helpful examples based on personal experience.
The other advantage of knowing your strengths is that you can get to know what kind of working environment you will suit best.
There are those who are best achievers in an organized manner with well laid procedures and rules whilst others are well suited to a creative environment where one can experiment and become innovative.
Identifying your preferences and capability, you have an opportunity to follow what you should do best, which is your natural way of working.
How to Identify Your Strengths and Skills
The process of knowing your strengths and skills is not always automatic. Most individuals do not believe in their capabilities as they do not take time and think of what they excel at. These qualities can only be identified with the conscious effort of one to observe them, give honest self-reflection, and long to have others reflect on this.
The positive side is that, you can discover your strengths and skills by a number of practical techniques. With help of a combination of these methods, you will be able to create clearer and more precise vision of your capabilities.
The following are some of the best practices of determining your strengths and skills.
Pay Attention to Feedback from Others
Listening to other people talking about you, in particular, is one of the surest ways of understanding your strengths.
Skills or talents that you may miss can be observed by your friends, family, teachers, colleagues and supervisors. When others keep praising you because of a certain attribute or ability, then it would normally show that there is some kind of strong ability.
An example is that a person can often hear such comments as:
- “You explain things really clearly.”
- “You’re very organized.”
- “You’re great at solving problems.”
- “You stay calm under pressure.”
- “You’re very creative.”
These observations give good indications on what others consider as your strengths.
To optimize on such feedback, attempt to observe trends. In case a number of individuals talk about the same positive traits over a period of time, then they will probably be regarded as the important strengths.
You may also put yourself effective questions like:
- What kinds of tasks do people often ask me to help with?
- What do others usually thank me for?
- When do people seek my advice?
As an illustration, when friends keep on requesting you to troubleshoot their computer issues, it is possible that you are a competent technical troubleshooter. In case peers frequently request your assistance in editing or revising their assignments, you can be characterized as paying attention to detail.
Being taught to see these trends can give you great knowledge of your innate abilities.
Reflect on Activities You Enjoy
Strengths tend to relate well with enjoyment. When you have a genuine liking to an activity, then you would put effort and time to master your skills in that field.
Consider what you are inclined to do by your own feelings to get you excited or feel very active. These may be the hobbies, academic subjects or the activity that you do regularly at work.
For example:
- An individual, who likes writing, can acquire good communication skills.
- An individual with a love of solving puzzles might possess high qualifications in the ability to analyze.
- An organizer can also have quality planning capabilities.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Which kind if activities cause me to lose track of time? What are the activities I am looking forward to?
- Which topics or activities did I always like as being a young person?
False confessions to your natural inclinations and strengths can be developed through your answers.
When people choose to match their career activities with things that they enjoy doing, they tend to feel more driven and more satisfied with it in the long term.
Observe When You Feel Most Productive
The next practical method of finding the strengths is by noting the most productive period you have during your day.
Some tasks might be less challenging to you compared to others. You are usually concentrated, revitalized, and productive where you are working in your fitnesses.
You might find that time runs so fast since you are so much occupied with the activity.
As an illustration, a person who has a very strong level of programming might feel very productive creating a code, or troubleshooting. An individual who possesses good interpersonal skills can be revitalized when communicating with a client or a colleague.
Learning to think Thinking Keeping a basic journal of your activity throughout every day or week is in consideration. Pay attention to:
- Which tasks feel easy or natural
- Which tasks require less effort
- Which tasks produce strong results
You can start observing trends that would show your best capabilities.
These productivity patterns can be identified to assist you in making career choices that are in line with your natural talents.
Ask others directly
Although informal feedback is useful, you can get even further insights by simply inquiring the people about your strengths.
Select a few people that you are close to and whose input you can trust. This may be friends, colleagues, mentors, instructors or managers.
Describe that you are attempting to realize your strengths so that you can make an improved career choice.
You may ask her question like:
I want to understand my strengths so I can use them to find the right job for me. I value your opinion. Could you share your perception of my top 5 strengths and skills?
Thank you for your time and help .
Make them speak frankly and to the point. Depending on how different people come across you, they might pick out different qualities.
For example:
- You may be brought into the limelight of your teamwork and leadership capabilities by a colleague.
- Your research or analysis capabilities may be brought to the attention of a teacher.
- Your friend may tell of the empathy or communication style.
It will be beneficial to get feedbacks of a number of people to uncover thematic areas. As the same advantages are pointed at by a group of people, they become most probably the real aspects of your working identity.
Take Strength and Skill Assessments
Online tests may also shed some positive light on how good and competent you are.
The numerous tests that are well constructed are founded on psychological studies and they may provide the trends within your personality, thinking patterns and inherent gifts.
There are those assessments that are personality based and others that are judgmental in strengths and abilities.
The examples of areas that these tests could assess are:
- Leadership potential
- Problem-solving style
- Creativity
- Communication preferences
- Decision-making patterns
Although they are not supposed to be definitive, such tests can be helpful as a means of reflection.
Having completed a number of tests, compare and contrast the results and watch out for similarity in themes. When similar strengths can be detected by several tests, it can be a sign of real elements of your personality.
These findings can be used to inform career exploration and self-growth.
Try New Experiences
There are those instances where an individual cannot realize that he or she possesses strengths just because he or she has never been given a chance to exercise it.
Experimenting will help determine that you are capable of something you have not even thought of doing.
To illustrate, a person who decides to arrange an event in the community functions will find out that leaders are powerful, and they are also good at organizing events. When a student opts to join a debate club he can notice that he/she possesses good skills in speaking before an audience.
New experience exploration can involve:
- Volunteering for community organizations
- Participating in clubs or group activities
- Learning a new hobby or creative skill
- Taking online courses
- Joining collaborative projects
With every new experience, you can notice how you can deal with challenges and responsibilities.
You might also find out things that were your strengths and would not have been discovered without trying something new.
Review Job Descriptions Carefully
Job descriptions are also very useful to learn the skills that are the most appreciated by the employers.
In searching out the career opportunities, allow yourself time to read job descriptions in your fields of interest.
Note the competencies and attributes that emerge most in these definitions. Such keywords are usually the skills that the employers believe to be critical.
As an illustration, a project manager job description can focus on:
- Leadership
- Communication
- Time management
- Problem-solving
- Strategic planning
After you outline these important skills, you should be able to consider instances where you have already exhibited them.
For example:
- When did you organize a group project?
- When did you solve a challenging problem?
- When did you help a team achieve a shared goal?
Record these experiences in a comprehensive manner, their circumstances, what you did during those experiences and the outcomes you accomplished.
They can be utilized later in the job application and interview as a way of showcasing your skills.
Look for Patterns in Your Successes
The second helpful trick is to look at the time in your life when you felt like a success or you were very proud of what you managed to accomplish.
These experiences tend to tell about the strengths with which you have previously achieved those results.
You might think about such questions as:
- When have I received recognition for my work?
- What achievements am I most proud of?
- What challenges have I overcome successfully?
Then examine what successes have enabled you to accomplish those results.
To give an example, leadership, organization, and communication can be among your strengths in case you managed to lead a student project successfully.
In case you have conducted a complicated research task, such strengths may be critical thought, perseverance, and a keen eye.
Looking at your successes, you would be able to ascertain the strengths that have brought you to that success each time.
Aligning Your Strengths with Career Choices
Knowing your strengths will enable you to pursue careers that are something that you are good at and that is of interest to you. When individuals follow their strengths in career, they are in a higher chance of getting satisfaction, motivation, and success in long term.
As an example, an individual who likes solving complicated cases and analyzing data might be satisfied to work in the areas of engineering, research, finance, or technology. Conversely, a person who likes assisting others and sharing ideas can be more at ease in the field of teaching, counseling, customer service, or management.
Majoring on what you are good at will also enable you to do your duties more efficiently. Bad jobs when you are capable of accomplishing them can be a very less stressful and more satisfying experience.
Contrastingly, people that are in jobs that do not suit them might fail to remain motivated. They can experience their work tiresome and can not be completely involved in their work.
This is the reason why it is important to know your strengths in career planning. It will assist you in assessing various opportunities and finding positions where you will apply your skills with the highest possible degree.
Whenever facing career-related decisions, one should make an attempt to investigate industries and careers that demand the skills that you already have. This conformity increases the chances of you doing well and loving what you do.
Using Your Strengths in Job Applications and Interviews
Employers are in most cases interested in knowing how the candidates will help their organization. Among the most frequent questions posed during the interview is the question about the strengths and skills of a candidate.
The willingness to share your skills in an easy and convincing way can go a long way in enhancing your probability of success in the recruitment process.
It is, however, useful to be able to give more specific examples of how you have exercised those abilities in the real world when lying about your strengths. Rather than telling us that you are organized or hardworking, you should say how these attributes assisted you to do a certain thing or solve an issue.
Man does not drive the woman into the field; Tra la la, Hurrah!
“I am good at teamwork.”
You could explain:
In one of the group projects at the university, I facilitated interaction among members of the team and made sure that all the members fulfilled their duties in time. This enabled our group to deliver the project on time and complete it successfully.
Being specific on the examples also makes the employers know how your strengths can be applied into a practical outcome.
Another trick that would help is writing short stories that describe your successes. These narratives are supposed to tell about the scenario, things you did, and what outcomes you have obtained.
This is one way in which interviewers would have a clear picture of how your skills can help their organization.
Continuing to Build New Skills
Although it is essential to examine the strength you have at present, it is necessary to keep on acquiring new skills in your entire life.
The current workplace is dynamic with technological advancement, emerging industries and competition at the global scale. When professionals never stop learning and change, they will be able to be successful in the long run.
New skills allow making your career opportunities broader and, thus, staying competitive in your profession.
The following are some of the effective means of building new skills:
Acquiring new technologies applicable to your field Learning professional training programs Reading business publications and research finding a mentor among the professionals in your field of work or acquiring new roles at work.
New skills will add to the value of your professional lineage, and enhance your capacities as you play various roles.
The presence of good character strengths and the ability to acquire new skills every day provides a very strong set of perspectives of the long-term success in the career.
Overcoming Self-Doubt When Identifying Strengths
Most individuals find it difficult to identify their personal strengths since they find it easy to underrate their dependency or lay too much emphasis on their in competencies.
Self-doubt may lead to someone feeling insecure of their talents, despite it obvious to other people what they tend to be, and capable of doing.
The solution to this challenge is to make an effort to concentrate on facts instead of suppositions. See your previous success, the response you got as a feedback of other people and the output you have generated with your efforts.
Such actual experiences help give solid evidence of what you are capable of.
The second technique that can help is that about strengths, it is not necessary that they should be extraordinary in order to be valuable. Other daily skills like reliability, communication and organization are of great importance when interacting in professional settings.
Having little strengths can be of great impact when used regularly at the workplace.
With recognizing your talents and being able to nurture them, you can slowly develop more in confidence towards who you are as a professional.
The Role of Personal Preferences and Work Environment
Learning about who you are as a person also entails knowing your own personal preferences and where you can perform most.
There are those who like regulated environments in which operations are well laid out and procedures well laid. Others are successful in creative conditions that promote experimentation and innovation.
On the same note, others prefer working alone, whereas others like working in groups and as a team.
Becoming aware of these preferences allows you to make workplaces in which your strengths can be used most.
As an illustration, a person, who likes to work alone and is inclined to concentrate on complicated questions and issues, can succeed in research or technical work. Also, a person who likes to deal with people might be good doing customer service, leadership, or in the field of consulting.
In case your work environment and strengths match each other, then your productivity and satisfaction will probably go up.
Creating a Personal Development Plan
Once you have been able to determine your strengths and competencies, you can draw a personal development plan that would indicate how you will proceed with developing and enhancing your skills.
One does not need to make a development plan complex. It is as easy as having an ambition and defining where you are going to take you there.
Begin by enumerating the strengths that you wish to grow more on. At that point, pick particular behaviors that can assist you in expanding those skills.
As an illustration, in case you need to enhance your communication skills, you could:
Practice public speaking
Participate in discussion
groups or workshops
Be active in writing in order to get clarity.
You may, should you desire, to bring about technical skills:
Enroll in special courses online
Work on practical projects
Learn new software tools
By having attainable goals and monitoring your progress it will keep you motivated and focused on growth.
In the long run, all these little refinements can make one achieve a lot of personal and professional growth.
Final Thoughts
Knowing what your strengths and capabilities are is one of the best things you can do to have successful and rewarding career.
Your strengths are the things which enable you to do what is right and add value to people and institutions surrounding you. Your skills are your knowledge and practice acquired by learning and practice.
With the determination of these qualities, you have a better knowledge of how you work, what you are driven by and where you can make the most difference.
Being self-aware enables you to make wiser career choices, take up opportunities that suit you and sell yourself to employers.
Discovering your strengths is an aspect that presents questions to be reflected, input from others, experiment and constant learning. It also involves listening to what you love doing, hearing what you are getting feedback, and seeing the arena in which you are most suited.
When you are aware of your strong sides, then you can target to improve them through education, practice and real life experience.
It is important to understand that having the opportunity to grow personally is a lifelong process. Your strengths will keep on changing as you acquire new experiences and train more skills.
Being inquisitive, open-minded, and ready to stand the challenge, you will have an opportunity to develop your career in the manner that it will represent you in terms of your potential, and will enable you to make a difference in the surrounding world.
By recognizing and accepting their areas of strength, people are in a better position to cope with the challenges that come about in their profession, to take chances and succeed in their respective careers.
