2009-08-09 21:03:16

A few blogs ago (entitled THE INTERSECTION at www.strength-zone.com/blog.php?id=57 ) I wrote about identifying the intersection of your strengths to discover your Overall Strength Zone. But, what does this mean?
How can we really apply this in our day to day lives?
In the past I have stated my intersection or Overall Strength Zone® is Achievement and Learner/Creative. I also gave some examples of how I use this in my everyday life to become more productive and efficient.
But what is it that I do really well in everyday life….what am I passionate about and energized by and how do I leverage my Strength Zone to be even more productive?
To begin to answer these questions we need to repeat part of the exercise we did in THE INTERSECTION blog as you can only answer these questions through reflection and asking yourself tough questions.
Take a look at the different roles that you have in life both at work and at home and ask yourself the following questions;
1) Am I already applying my strengths in my roles?
2) How am I doing this?
3) Is it effective?
4) If I am not applying my strengths to my roles how can I start?
5) What new things do I need to learn to improve in my areas of strength?
6) What things should I stop doing because I am no good at them?
7) What activities am I involved with that energize me?
8) What activities am I involved with that seem to suck the life out of me?
9) How can I leverage my Strength Zone into each of my roles more effectively?
Now ask yourself two final questions;
1) I feel strong when ____________ (fill in the blank).
2) I feel weak when _____________ (fill in the blank – use this question to contrast the areas of strength)
The result of these questions should be a short list of activities that energize and motivate you to the point that you would love to do nothing other than these activities. In fact, it may seem like time is standing still while you are in the midst of these activities because you become so engrossed with them.
For me, the activities that make me feel strong, motivated and energized are;
1) Communication – written communication, small group settings and overall organizational communication
2) Business Processes – establishing processes for a business that allows the proper amount of control balanced with the right amount of freedom to create a productive and continuously improving work environment.
3) Business Strategy – Taking the corporate vision and mission and translating it into an executable business strategy
Understanding this, my ultimate goal is to leverage my Overall Strength Zone® (Achievement and Learner/Creative) into these activities to make them even more efficient and productive and to maximize the energy, motivation and feeling of strength.
This process is not an exact science and cannot be determined in five minutes. This takes time, introspection and reflection. It is critical to your success to spend this time and define your key strengths and then use your Strength Zone to build these key strengths.
Tags: strength, , talents, , strength, zone, , personality, , values, ,
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