Know thyself

Welcome to this week’s Discuss HR, the HR blog written by members of Human Resources UK.

There are many and diverse disciplines of HR, yet one aspect that is common in most is the requirement to identify strengths and weaknesses in others in order to develop employees and drive performance.  However, as is common with such practices it can be very difficult to turn the tables on yourself.  Today, Jill Hart-Sanderson explores a recent experience which illustrated her strengths and led her to make a major decision. (Ed Scrivener)

Know thyself

Finding your strengths

What is the secret to success? Now there’s something to ponder! What makes some people so successful at what they do, whilst others strive for something, but never quite get there? Do you recognise your talents or are you concentrating on the things you are not good at, and need to improve?

By switching our efforts to our natural talents rather than focussing our weaknesses we may just find the success we crave. By using skills, knowledge and practice it is possible to improve, but when this is used in an area in which you have natural talent the improvement is much more dramatic. This can be summed up in the following formula*:

talent (a natural way of thinking, feeling or behaving)

 X 

investment (time spent practicing, developing your skills, and building your knowledge base)

 = 

strength (the ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance)

It can be very difficult to look at yourself objectively and ask ‘what are my natural talents’? In the quest to find this out for myself, I recently did the StrengthsFinder online assessment. There are countless assessments and tests out there, and no - I’m not working on commission, but I found the results impressive. By replying to some obscure questions I discovered my talents which included:

• Loving the challenge of meeting new people and winning them over; deriving satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection with another person 
• Being intrigued with the unique qualities of each person 
• Having the ability to think about all the factors that might affect a situation 
• A gift for figuring out how people who are different can work together productively

All very flattering, but I was amazed at the detail, and how much could be uncovered by asking the right questions. Armed with this information I’m now able to look at my natural tendencies and understand what works for me and what doesn’t.

Is this what is meant by SWOT analysis?

By finding out others’ talents we’re also able to select the best people for the task or understand the best way of working with them. It may just be that I’m ‘intrigued with the unique qualities of each person’, but I truly believe that by recognising that everyone is different and by knowing and sharing our natural strengths we can improve the way we work.

I wonder how many of us take the time to get to know ourselves or our colleagues. By knowing who we are and what is really important to us we can make choices about how we work, where we work and who we spend time with.

Interestingly, as a result of all my navel gazing I’ve even decided to leave full time employment and to focus on my natural talents to drive me to my personal long-term goals. Do you know your strengths? Do you know the strengths of your team and how to make the most of their natural talent? What are your thoughts?

* StrengthsFinder 2.0, Tom Rath

About the author

Jill loves working with the team at Rambutan helping people to think, lead and communicate brilliantly in order to achieve business, team and personal goals.  Her previous management experience in both the public and private sector means she has seen how great HR can make a real difference to individual managers and organisations as a whole.

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*****

Discuss HR is the blog for Human Resources UK, the leading LinkedIn group for those involved with HR in the UK.  Next week’s Discuss HR will be published on Thursday 29th September and we are delighted to welcome our next guest writer, career coach Paul Goring.

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