8 Helpful tips to find strengths at work

@CakeHR

Prepping up for professional success by discovering and leveraging your strengths

Landscape that makes youthink about Strength

We question and evaluate our strengths whenever:

Others feel our work is subpar?

Landscape that makes youthink about Strength

We question and evaluate our strengths whenever:

Others feel our work is subpar

There is a business setback

?

Landscape that makes youthink about Strength

We question and evaluate our strengths whenever:

Others feel our work is subpar

There is a business setback

There are unexpected work outcomes

?

Landscape that makes youthink about Strength

We question and evaluate our strengths whenever:

Others feel our work is subpar

There is a business setback

There are unexpected work outcomes

There are too many roadblocks in execution

??

?

Landscape that makes youthink about Strength

We question and evaluate our strengths whenever:

Others feel our work is subpar

There is a business setback

There are unexpected work outcomes

There are too many roadblocks in execution

There is a feeling of negativity and dissatisfaction

??

?

‘Playing on Strengths is easy. The difficult part is unearthing them’

A study shows that only 34% of the managers can name their employees strength. Which still leaves 2/3rd of the employees unattended

(Source: Strengths @ Work Survey, 2015)

34%

Do tools like Strength FinderAssessment Help?

This is hugely debatable. Many a times it turns out to be a quick fix entertainment option rather than

a real actionable tool

To uncover your real strengths requires some hard work and deep soul searching

Top 8 Ways to find strengths at Work

They help you with real answers

1 Find your energy

This method is all about self observation. Notice the time or events when you feel excited and energized to perform a task with passion and e�ort

Insights into this phenomena will direct towards your core strengths

Symptoms to look out for when you are energized for some task or situation

Your pupils dilate

You speak at a faster pace

Your body language is more open than closed

You don’t feel drudgery in performing the activity

2 Put yourself in the Spotlight

In the process of improvement, it is ok to act bit selfish. It is about you!

Stop bothering about other people and their strengths. This will delay the process.

Aping others’ strengths and copying their behaviors will not add value. Your strengths are as

unique as you.

Read interesting stories on succeeding at work by visiting our blog at

CAKE.HR/BLOG

3 ask around

While it is not advisable to copy, it is foolish not to consult.

People around you can give a non-biased view and can surprise you with their astute insights

Don’t be afraid to ask. People are more willing to share things than

you may assume or expect!

Even those who don’t interact with you on daily basis, can recognize your strengths better than

yourself

4 Find out what makes you special

Each one of us have our exclusivity. To explore what makes you stand out, you need to spend more time with yourself

Working alone on a project or taking some time-o� from work can help to see yourself in new light. It gives you chance to reflect on what you miss the most.

A major part of disengagement at work comes when employees don’t

know what is expected of them

Sharing the exclusivity or special trait of the employee can help managers to align performance goals with

employee strengths

Task‘A’

Employee‘X’

5 Describe yourself withPersonality “Tags”

This requires some authentic and out-of-the-box thinking to come up with novel terms to describe you as a person

Avoid clichés like hard-working, loyal, achiever etc.. and try to come up with words that truly depict your way of living and working

Analytic

Opinionated

Perfectionist

Jubilant

Free spirit

A clear and concise description using personality tags helps you to

achieve goals more effectively

It shifts focus from over-analysis of employee weaknesses and ways to fix them

6 Read and Explore

Expand your horizons by breaking away from the familiar.

Try new things and read new things to see if something interests or challenges you

Newspaper articles, blogs, publications, magazines, interview articles, case

studies are great to get your blinkers off and soak new experiences

Even old emails and intra-o�ce memos may hold surprising clues to finding your strengths

7 Test your “Alleged” Strength

Putting your recently discovered or realized strength through a test is the best way to get the proof of the pudding

Get in teams, projects or work set ups that let you do this pressure test

The sooner you find out if something is actually a strength or not, the better. It saves you a

lot of heart burn and efforts!

8 Don’t be afraid of failure

When you set out to test your potential strengths, you can’t be afraid of failing at it and adding one more thing to your weakness bucket

The try outs will only bring you closer to your real strengths by eliminating the wrong ones

People who use their strengths everyday are six times more likely to be

engaged on the job

(Source: Gallup Survey, 2016)

Make sure you join the club of these

professionals who enjoy

6X happiness, better

performance and balance by discovering your strengths at work

WANT SOME TIME OFF TO EXPLORE YOUR STRENGTHS?

Introduce your organization to the power of self-serviced and simplified leave

management by exploring our software at

CAKE.HR

@CakeHR