Building A Strength-Based Career

A strength-based career is a career based on who you are. This raises questions like, “Who am I?” “Am I working at a career that matches who I am?” “Is this a career that will bring me success and give me a sense of purpose?” “How do I know that my career is the best one for me?”

Looking at your life will give you some subjective feedback. The following questions will add to your awareness:

Do you look forward to going to work?
Do you find it easy to engage, i.e. losing yourself and your sense of time?
Do you find it easy to learn and accomplish needed tasks?
Do you gain a deep sense of fulfillment?

If your answers are primarily “yes,” you know that your career is on track, yet having some objective feedback is desirable.

Strengths
A strength is developed when acquired knowledge and skill development are combined with raw talent. This strength may develop quickly, such as with Houston Rockets basketball star Yao Ming, or it may need to be nurtured for years, such as with Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan.

Strength Assessments
I will be discussing two strengths assessment tools, 1) the StrengthsFinder 2.0, developed by the Gallup organization. It has 34 talent areas and is focused on a career application; 2) the VIA Signature Strengths, developed by Chris Peterson from the University of Michigan and Martin Seligman from the University of Pennsylvania. This assessment tool has six virtues groups and twenty-four strengths. It offers a general focus and can be applied to all aspects of life.

The StrengthsFinder 2.0 is a second-generation assessment. It has been developed over 30+ years by studying the top performers in almost every career. This in-depth tool is the cutting edge of strength-based assessments for career development. This assessment costs under $20.

The VIA Signature Strengths was only recently developed—in the beginning years of this new millennium—but its content has been valued by all significant societies for centuries. The focus, rather than being on what is wrong with people, which has historically been the primary focus of the field of psychology, is on what is right. It is the foundation of the new field of Positive Psychology. This assessment is free.

After completion, each assessment will describe your top 5 strengths. It is possible that your strengths from each will match, such as “Learner (SF)” and “Love of Learning (VIA)” or “Empathy (SF)” and “Social Intelligence (VIA).” It is also possible that they could be quite different. You will want to focus on your top one or two strengths for now because fully developing your top 5 could take years.

From either strength list, you could likely pick out two or three of your top strengths. It will be much more productive to focus on using and building your top strengths, rather than trying to raise up the skill level of your lowest ones.

Engagement
Research reveals that 70% of U.S. employees are not engaged at work. Current approaches only seem to be making matters worse. Also, the longer an employee stays with an organization, the more he/she disengages. There is a direct relationship between your level of engagement in your work, your productivity, your success, and commitment to your customers and your company.

Ask yourself, “What can I do to raise my level of engagement and to maintain it?” To begin answering this question, identify your strongest areas of talent and then use your talents regularly, increase your self-awareness, learn new skills, and increase knowledge.

Neuroscience
Recent advances in neuroscience show that a person's brain organizes itself by strengthening the synaptic connections that are repeatedly used. After your mid-teens, your neuro-network changes only limitedly, i.e., your recurring patterns of thought, feeling and behavior change only slightly. These recurring patterns of thought, feeling or behavior can be called traits, qualities, characteristics or talents.

You will learn to improve the most in those areas of your brain where you already have the strongest synaptic connections. JOSEPH LEDOUX, professor of neuroscience at New York University, notes: “New [synaptic] connections formed by activity [practice, training, and experience] are not created as entirely new entities, but rather are added to … pre-existing connections. Added connections are therefore more like new buds on a branch rather than new branches. Activity thus does not produce wholesale rewiring of the brain.”

Your Career Field and Role
In addition to focusing on areas of talent, there are two aspects to look at in your career: your field of choice and your role therein. The field of choice that interests you can be explored through interest assessments and general review of career areas that interest you, such as education, medicine, engineering, or professional sports. Look at what your day-to-day activities will involve.

The role that you are best suited for can be discovered by strengths assessment. In your career, the StrengthsFinder 2.0 will be invaluable in helping you find the role that you want to play. The VIA Signature Strength assessment will be helpful in clarifying both your career field and role.

Because your talents are unique, you must pick the roles that best fit you. You must hold yourself accountable for capitalizing on your unique talents to improve your performance. Then find partners that have the unique talents to fill the other roles.

Workplace
Unless you work alone, you will want to share this knowledge. You will want to be aware of the strengths of your peers and the employees that you manage. These people may not respond with your level of enthusiasm. Take it slowly; let them see your improvements.

As you learn about your strengths and your peers, take a look at:
where you can increase the use of your strengths, where you can use the strengths of peers to help you where you have weaknesses,
and how you can help your peers in areas of their weaknesses.

If you are in a leadership position in your company, you will want to introduce a strengths-based approach in hiring and other personnel decisions. The approach of trying to push employees to minimize their weaknesses is often futile and counterproductive. It is much more effective to help employees use and increase their strengths and manage their weaknesses. It may be necessary to change the duties of some employees so that they so that they can limit the effect of their weaknesses. This will be a paradigm shift for most managers.

Taking Action
I encourage you to make a decision to set yourself up to develop a strength-based career. So, right now decide to do something, i.e., take the strength-based assessments and increase the use of a top strength, hire a coach, or even just write yourself a note acknowledging what you want to do. Do something that will cause you to move forward. You have the right to choose. If you choose to keep doing what you are doing, you may not be giving yourself the best opportunity for professional success.

Choose to engage in your strengths-based career and you will have a career based on who you are. You will look forward to going to work. You will more easily learn and accomplish new tasks. Your professional relationships will be more functional and have less conflict. You will have a more engaged, fulfilling and purposeful career.

For more information on the StrengthsFinder, VIA Signature Strengths and other assessments CLICK HERE.

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