What do you do well?
Most people don’t know, athough at first blush, they’ll tell you that they do. What they are really clear about, is what they aren’t doing well. That helps, but it’s the long way of getting where you need to be.
Knowing your strengths and the contributions that you make to an organization is more than useful information. It is essential to your long term success.
In the days that preceded warp speed change, human resource departments were apt to develop career paths for their management track employees. You asked personnel for next steps and they pointed the way, handed you a map, a sandwich and a flashlight.
Now, the clearing has disappeared along with a lot of managers. You’re on your own. Figure it out. If not at one job then somewhere else. Sound tough? It’s the sound of your company getting real with you.
If you want something, you better know what it is, where it is, how to get it, and what you’ll do with it once you get there. And if your results aren’t better than what came before you, you won’t be there long.
You are in charge of you.
Peter Drucker, author of
Managing Oneself (
Harvard Business Review, March-April 1999) states that “most of us, even those of us with modest endowments, will have to learn to manage ourselves. We will have to learn to develop ourselves. We will have to place ourselves where we can make the greatest contribution. And we will have to stay mentally alert and engaged during a 50 year working life, which means knowing how and when to change the work we do.”
So, what are you good at doing? What do you do well?
If you can’t say it in a way that is clear, concise, and operational, you need some assistance. The kind that comes with feedback. Feedback comes in a variety of forms:
- The to your face kind
- The behind your back kind
- The in your gut kind
It’s coming at you constantly. Your challenge is to become responsive to it, without being disempowered by it.
If you are like most folks, you have selective listening. You’re either paying too much attention to positive feedback and disregarding what is negative; or are paying too much attention to criticism and blocking when and how you are at your best.
If all you want to know is the good that you doing, find out how to do it better; how others can benefit more from your effort; and
how your can have even greater impact on product, process, and bottom line.
To avoid being blindsided by your detractors, elicit their constructive feedback. It’s telling you that others see your style or methodology differently than you had expected they would. Find out how and why, by listening to understand, rather than
preparing your response. For feedback to have value it must be understood as the speaker intends, not as you interpret their intention. If your tendency is to discount praise and focus on the negative, you are missing the point. The idea is to improve upon your strengths, not to replace them with someone else’s idea of what they ought to be.
Become proactive rather than reactive. Learn from what didn’t work and apply that to what you are trying to achieve. If in doubt, you can always ask: ”How would you prefer that I handle that?”
Asking a question does not commit you to doing it differently. Hearing another perspective enables you to think of a third way, a better way than either of you had earlier considered.
Ask the “stop, start, and continue” question:
- “What do you suggest that I stop doing, start doing, ” and
- “What should I continue doing?”
Hold steady. One person’s feedback provides you with one opinion. To determine how widespread that opinion is, you get more feedback. You may find that your strengths are working just fine, they just aren’t working where you’re working. For example, a tradition-bound company won’t take kindly to a pants–on- fire style of leadership. But that same high energy, do it now style, can jump start a company that needs a quick turn around.
Manage yourself . Know what you do best. Know where you can make the greatest contribution. If you believe it, you can say it, and you can do it. Work on it. Your career future depends on it.
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Yes! You may use this article by Executive and Career Coach, Joyce Richman, in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:
Joyce Richman (www.richmanresources.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce is a weekly guest on WFMY-TV and the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found atTheCoachingAssociation.com.
