Love what you do #3: Maximise your strengths

I’ve always found that making the most of what I’m good at ensures I enjoy my job more. Knowing what I’m good at comes from different areas:

- I get feedback from others when I coach or train them

- I feel it; I come away feeling on a high; I have that sense of self-satisfaction that comes from just knowing I’ve done a good job

- I can measure the results against success criteria I’ve set myself (or others have set)

But sometimes we lose sight of what we’re good at. We get caught up in the day-to-day stuff, and take our strengths for granted.

Key questions

• When was the last time you carried out a SWOT analysis on yourself? If it’s been a while, try it again and focus mainly on your Strengths.

*Here’s a SWOT grid I use when working with clients. In each section I’ve included some prompts; things to consider when completing the grid.

• When was the last time you asked others what you’re good at? Sometimes it’s easier to do it this way. My experience in carrying out SWOT analyses with people is that they find it hard to think about their own strengths, and easier to think of other peoples’. A common reaction to others telling you what you’re good at is: “but that’s just my job, that’s what I do.” As you’re carrying out your daily duties, you are building up your skill set, developing your capabilities and growing these into your strengths.

Once you’ve got your strengths list, look for opportunities to use these more often. You’ll probably find that some activities relating to your strengths give you more enjoyment than others. For example, one of my strengths is organisation, but I don’t get as much enjoyment from being organised with my quarterly accounts as I do being organised in preparing for work with my clients!

What are your strengths, and how do you maximise them?

(Photo credit: Idea go)

Love What You Do #2: Stretch Yourself

… Not quite what I meant! (I’d certainly do myself an injury if I attempted this.) Although there are definitely health benefits to regular exercise, and getting up and moving about regularly if you have a desk-based/sitting down job.

In this second post in the Love what you do series, I’m talking about stretching yourself mentally … encouraging you to venture out of your comfort zone now and again to help you grow and develop!

Tip 2: Stretch yourself!

Some people love to constantly live in their stretch zone, spending much of their time trying new things, new experiences, pushing themselves physically or mentally to do or be better. I’m not suggesting that in order to love what you do more – you should be a constant stretch-zone occupant! But if you don’t step into this area now and again you’re in danger of being too comfortable …. too ‘stale’.

By stretching yourself occasionally, and learning from these new ventures, your skills and competencies will increase, leading to you feeling refreshed, re-energised, more confident and boosting your enjoyment of what you do!

Key questions

• Which of your current activities are in your comfort zone?
• Which are in your stretch or panic zones? (See activity here, to help with these 2 questions, if needed)
• What’s the balance of activities in each zone? I tend to have about 70% in my comfort zone and 30% in my stretch zone, avoiding the panic zone as far as possible! But you may be different.
• What percentages will work for you, to ensure you love what you do more?

Interested to hear your experiences on this topic.

(Photo credits: stretch, creative mind)

Love What You Do #1: Get Clarity

To celebrate International Coaching Week I’ve put together a series of tips to help maximise what you do at work. This Love What You Do series starts today with Tip 1: Get Clarity!

[NB I write this series of tips in the context of the workplace, but you could apply most, if not all, the ideas to other areas of your life.]

One of the key factors in enjoying any job I’ve done is being really clear about my role. If I don’t have that clarity, it impacts on my motivation levels and my ability to apply myself successfully to the job at hand.

Key questions

• So, how clear are you about the expectations of your line manager/colleagues?
• How clear are you about your job description, and how this affects your day-to-day routine?
• How do you know when you’ve achieved your targets? Have success criteria been set? What feedback do you get, or do you just know it inside?
• What about when changes are brought in – are you given (or do you seek out) the clarity you need on how these changes impact on you (day-to-day as well as longer-term)?
• What are all the different ways you could get clarity about your role?

Use these questions as a starting point to work on getting that clarity now to make 2012 your most successful yet!

(Photo credit: Jeroen van Oostrom)

Motivate me! (Part 2)

So … how do you know that you’ve done a good job? In Part 1 I posed this question and encouraged you to answer it as fully as possible, and in relation to a particular work-based target. If you’ve not read Part 1, or answered the question yet, I suggest you take a moment to do so now – before you read on!

So how did you answer it? Were your answers along the lines of ‘Style A’ …

• I just know!
• I feel it
• I achieve my targets
• I achieve what I set out to do
• I measure my progress against my success criteria

Or were they more like ‘Style B’ …

• People tell me
• I get great results / earn more money
• I get good feedback from colleagues / clients
• I find out during my performance management / appraisal meetings
• I can see my team members are happy / succeeding / achieving great results

Or perhaps your answers were a bit of both!

There is no right or wrong here. Your preferred motivation style just is what it is. Take a look at the language you used to answer the question. Did you use more ‘I’ or ‘me’ language, or did you refer to others / external sources of feedback?

Results! ….

Style A = Internal motivation

If you’re internally motivated – you don’t need external praise and will tend to make your own decisions about the quality of your work, rather than asking other people what they think.

Your motivation is self-generated, and you rely on your own judgment when deciding what to do.

You also have a tendency to resist others telling you what to do. As you don’t generally need praise from others – you tend not to give feedback, which can be difficult if you’re a team leader or manager, and your team are more externally motivated (see below).

Style B = External motivation

You rely on recognition / feedback from others and rewards.

You’re more motivated when someone else makes the decision (e.g. on how to move forward with a team project).

You generally make reference to external sources (other people / information from elsewhere) to make the judgment on how well you’re doing.

If you don’t get sufficient feedback you won’t know how well you’re doing, and this will have a negative impact on your motivation levels. Feedback from others can also come from non-verbal / body language sources.

Using these results to motivate your team

These results will help you to identify your own preferred style (for internal/external). The next step is to use the information from both of these posts to identify your team members’ styles.

1. Pay attention to how they respond to feedback and / or how often they come to you / others seeking approval for their actions.

2. If unsure, or you can’t find sufficient evidence, ask them the question I posed in Part 1, or ask who they involve when making a decision. If they mainly refer to others, they will be more externally motivated. If they mainly talk about being able to make the decision on their own, they are more likely to be internally motivated.

3. Motivate ‘internal’ staff with phrases such as:

- “This is the target we’re aiming for. I could make some suggestions to achieve it, but at the end of the day, only you can decide the best way forward.”

- “What do you think are the steps we could take to achieve _______?”

4. Motivate ‘external’ staff with phrases such as:

- “When you complete this project on time, others will notice / you’ll get good feedback.”

- “I would strongly recommend that you (make the changes we discussed at the last staff meeting, by Friday … etc.)”

- “Think of the results you’ll get if you do ______ !”

About 40% of people are largely internally or externally motivated; and 20% are equally both. However, in a particular job sector, you may get a higher percentage of one type, due to the nature of the job.

So how did you fair … and what steps are you going to take regarding motivating your team? In my experience, leaders tend to be more internally motivated. They need to have that internal driver and a strong sense of knowing what they want and how to get there.

Would love to hear your comments on this!

(Picture credit: David Castillo Dominici)

Motivate me! (Part 1)

Leaders beware … your staff may appear enthusiastic, driven and motivated, but is it just for show? Do your staff say what they think you want to hear, or are their responses an honest reflection of how motivated they are?

As a leader or manager it’s important to know how to motivate your team. A mistake some leaders can make is to assume, often subconsciously, that their staff will be motivated in the same way they are. After all, they all work for the same organisation and have a common goal, right? … Wrong. Having a common goal doesn’t mean each person’s motivation style will be the same.

In Staying Motivated I briefly introduced some of the different motivational styles, and discussed the towards and away from characteristics in some detail. For this blog (and Part 2) I’ll introduce a different style. But first ….. a question:

How do you know that you’ve done a good job?

It’s best to answer this question when thinking about a specific target you’ve set yourself at work, and how you’ve faired so far in your achievement of it.

Write down all your thoughts when considering your answer. Give as full and detailed an answer as you can.

In Part 2, I’ll discuss the outcomes of this little task, and the style of motivation it corresponds to.

In the meantime, feel free to share your responses to the question, in the comments section below!

(Photo: jscreationzs)

Getting the balance right at work

Thinking about some of the Christmas presents I have enjoyed most in the past couple of weeks, I’ve noticed a pattern. I’ve loved listening to new CDs, using my new phone to listen to music during down-time, and playing the piano (I got the sheet music for the theme tune to Downton Abbey and I’m aiming to be as proficient as the pianist in this link!)

The common theme is obviously music; I hadn’t realised how much I’d been missing it in my life.

Getting the balance right in our personal lives is a very individual thing. What one person needs to feel in balance is probably quite different to the next person, and even the people you live with. This applies to our working lives too.

The Wheel of Life is a common coaching tool used to measure your satisfaction with different areas of your life, seeing where there’s an imbalance, and identify potential areas for development. Looking at the typical Wheel of Life – Career is only one part of the big picture, and it’s important that we get an appropriate balance for ourselves in this big picture.

But if you were to create a Wheel of Work for yourself, to ensure there’s suitable balance in your working life, what would it look like?

Here’s a version of the Wheel of Work which I’ve adapted and used with Team leaders. They can adapt it as they see fit, changing headings to reflect their priorities and role.

So, if you were to examine your balance at work, which headings would you use?

On a scale of 1-10, how would you score yourself for each area?

(Photo credit: renjith krishnan)

How often do you set exciting challenges for yourself?

During a recent walk through a nearby forest, which took in a Trim Trail, I came across this climbing wall. When I was young, I used to love climbing trees .. proper ‘tomboy’! As soon as I saw this I thought, “Now there’s a challenge! I’d love to have a go at that!”

Bearing in mind my tree-climbing days are well in the distant past, I think it’s fair to say I overestimated my ability to scale this wall. I think the idea is to get up to the top then down the other side …

… I managed to traverse across it from one side to the other! Nevertheless, the Outdoor Education lecturer at the Teacher Training college I attended would have been impressed … 3 points of contact on the wall at all times!

Even though I didn’t manage to achieve the full and proper use of this piece of equipment, I was very satisfied with my efforts With a little practice (probably while no-one is looking!) I can see me getting over the top one day.

This was an exciting challenge rather than a daunting one. I was up for it and felt a great sense of achievement afterwards. Getting over the top will happen, it’s all about taking it one step (no pun intended!) at a time.

What kind of exciting challenges have you faced recently (both in your personal and working life)?

With these types of challenges, the excitement provides the added adrenalin which gets you through. For me, the motivation for doing this challenge came from the feeling I would get during and after it. Exciting challenges are perhaps those ones which are short-term, and ones where you’ll get a quick buzz from completing them.

Setting yourself exciting challenges on a regular basis does wonders for confidence and an overall sense of wellbeing. Daunting challenges have a different feel as you approach them. More on that topic in a different blog.

Reflecting back and moving forward

When I coach Head Teachers, the most common benefit they say they gain from coaching is “time and space to reflect”. As we come to the end of the school holidays and begin a new term, it’s time to start anew, a time for planning and moving forward. But how do you move forward without looking at what you’re moving forward from?

Reflecting back promotes healthy questionning:

• What has gone well that needs to be maintained?
• What could I / we do more of?
• What needs to change?
• How could I / we use our resources more effectively?

What other questions do you ask yourself? Perhaps you’ve already done your reflecting back. If so, what format did this take? Was it something you did sub-consciously, or with a more structured format (e.g. Performance Management / appraisal meetings)?

So, September is just around the corner; a time for setting new goals or targets, for new beginnings. Thorough and honest self-reflection will provide you with more relevant targets.

What new targets are you setting yourself for this autumn, and how do you know they’re the best ones?

Top 3 tips

1. Make sure there’s a solid reason for the target you set. Don’t just have a target for target’s sake. Ensure it has the capacity to move you / your team / your school forward.

2. Carefully consider the benefits from achieving the target.  Make a list of these and keep them in mind as you progress; they can keep you motivated and on track!

3. Establish an ongoing reflection strategy. Spend a few minutes each week to reflect on how you’re progressing towards your target. Adjust deadlines, resource requirements, expectations, depending on what your reflections tell you.

(Photo credit: sheelamohan)

Are you making the most of who you are? (Part 2)

In Part 1 we set the scene for making lists of your skills, strengths and personal qualities. I also introduced an exercise to provide you with external feedback.

So what did you find?

• Were there common strengths that crossed over different areas of your life?
• Were there strengths, skills or qualities that others recognised in you, which you had on your list too?
• Were there any surprises?
• Has this boosted your confidence in any areas?

Interpreting the results from the ‘Ask 6 People …’ exercise

So, hopefully you gained a range of responses from this. Here’s what to do with them …

1. Look for common trends / themes – perhaps more than one person said the same thing, or there were different comments but around a common theme. How can you use this to enhance or support your own list of skills / strengths?

For example, sometimes this exercise can highlight a skill others notice in you, which you don’t see as a strength … “It’s just the norm; it’s what I usually do” … are examples of how people have responded to this outcome. Changing your perception of this area as a strength can be a good confidence booster. It can also provide you with a further area to make the most of!

2. Be aware that the odd negative comment by a family member might be more about their agenda than yours. For example, a parent / sibling may say you don’t visit often enough.

3. Look at areas where you can stretch yourself. Perhaps, for example, there’s a comment that you are good at leading meetings at work, and could be even better if you just had a bit more confidence.

4. Where people have suggested what you could do less of (question 4), is this something you can delegate?

As Ellen Degeneres once said, “sometimes you can’t see yourself clearly until you see yourself through the eyes of others.” This exercise is good for highlighting this, but needs to be acknowledged alongside your own observations. So let’s turn to these.

Interpreting your list of strengths, from different areas of your life

For each item on your list, ask yourself how often you get the opportunity to show / use this. Are you satisfied with this, or could you find more opportunities?

Example 1: If your time management at work is good, could you transfer this skill-set to your home-life (or vice versa) ?

Example 2: If you’re good at writing or being creative, how often do you have time to do this? Is it enough? How else could you maximise it? Could you offer to do some writing for someone else in return for them providing something you need (skills-swap) ?

There may be some strengths, skills or qualities you have which you don’t want to do more of, as these would be more about meeting others’ needs and ignoring your own. Be mindful of these.

Philosopher Bertrand Russell said, “anything you’re good at contributes to happiness“. So what other benefits do we find when we make the most of what we’re good at? When I apply this exercise to myself the outcomes for me are:

• I feel more confident
• I have a more positive outlook
• I am more motivated / more productive
• I have more energy

For me, maximising my potential is also about developing myself, as well as others. It’s about a level of self-awareness about my personal strengths and knowing what my emerging strengths are that I could further develop. I then use this knowledge to set appropriate goals.

What are the benefits you’ve found from this exercise, or maximising your potential in other ways?

Would love to hear your thoughts / experiences. Feel free to comment below.

(Photo credit: Kongsky)

Are you making the most of who you are? (Part 1)

I often hear, and have used, the phrase “maximising your potential” in the context of personal and professional development.

But what does it mean in practice?

From your perspective …

In order to make the most of who you are, you need to recognise what you have; your skills, strengths, qualities, etc.

How often do we do this? During training events and coaching sessions, when I ask people to list their strengths, they often find this difficult. Lack of practice? Lack of awareness? The concern about not wanting to appear big-headed? Once you get started though, it’s surprising how your list grows! And there’s nothing wrong with celebrating your talents, successes and achievements. In fact it’s very healthy!

When building your list of skills / strengths, it helps to break it down into different areas of your life:

Work – e.g. reliable, organised, time-keeping, leading meetings

Family – e.g. ability to juggle many tasks, decision-making, organisation, creativity

Friends – e.g. trustworthy, honest, reliable, spending time with them

Hobbies & interests – e.g. running, cooking, playing a musical instrument

Some skills / strengths may cross over into more than one area, as you can see from the examples above.

Have fun making up your lists! We’ll come back to these in Part 2.

From others’ perspectives …

Other people often see us in a different light to how we see ourselves; they recognise positive qualities and strengths that we don’t necessarily see.

Finding out our strengths from others is a good way to top up our own list. You could also ask yourself, “What would (my close friend) say I’m good at?”; which could elicit a few more items for your list!

A useful task I’ve used before to gain feedback from others is “Ask 6 People 6 Questions”. Here’s how it works …

1. Make a list of at least* 6 people from different areas of your life (work, family, friends, clubs, associations, etc). The more varied the better; it will give you a good cross-section of responses and potentially more strengths / qualities / skills. Make sure they are people you believe will give you an honest response to your questions, and not just say what they think you want to hear.

*Thinking of more than 6 helps if some people you ask don’t have time.

2. Provide them with a list of the following questions:

• What am I good at?
• When have you seen me at my best?
• What should I do more of?
• What should I do less of?
• What can you rely on me for?
• Where do you think I can stretch myself?

They are suitably vague and non-leading. Encourage your responders to answer the questions as fully as they can.

3. If they (or you) want the responses to be anonymous, you could ask a trusted friend / colleague if the responses could be emailed (or posted) to them. The friend will then collate the responses and send you them, with names omitted. I usually find people don’t want / need to do this, but it’s entirely up to you. Do what works best.

Some of these questions may give you responses that highlight areas that you see as ‘weaknesses’. We’ll come back to this in Part 2, when I will look at interpreting the results from this exercise, as well as what to do with the lists you have devised for yourself.

In the meantime, make a note of the things you do well over the coming week, and make sure these things are somewhere on your lists. Also listen out for positive feedback from others. Does this reflect a skill / strength you’ve so far omitted?

(Photo credit: Danilo Rizzuti)