CHAPTER FOUR
ALIGN YOUR STRENGTHS
Emma Herring left Colorado after graduating from law school and went to New York City to practice securities and business litigation for a global law firm.
“In my second year of law school, I decided I wanted to be a litigator. As an extern for a Colorado judge, I fell in love with the courtroom and the emotional highs and lows of a trial. So the opportunity to practice securities and business litigation for a global law firm in New York City was a dream come true for me,” Emma said as we sat at an outside table eating our Chopt salads.
The days were long. Through the fog of sleep deprivation one Friday night while she struggled to catch up on all the missed deadlines on her case, Emma figured out a process to hold the law firm’s team and the client’s legal team accountable to ensure that all the case’s deadlines were met. She immediately added project management to her legal responsibilities. “I’m very organized and proactive, and I like to get things done. Instead of writing the brief, I wanted to make sure that the brief was written. Over the next eight months, I took on the project manager role in addition to my legal tasks on all my assigned cases. I loved it.
“Of course, then the doubts set in. Did I go to law school to manage deadlines?
“I wrestled for months with my doubts. When the litigation team almost missed a federal filing deadline for the firm’s largest client, I saw that my project management strengths filled an essential need on our litigation team and that project management is a critical skill for practicing law. You need people like me to push people along to get things done. I learned to embrace it and not think of it as a lesser skill than the skill of the person that wrote the brief or deposed a witness. So I continued to do project management for my team in addition to my legal duties.
“However, after a year of working this way, I was still searching for a deeper purpose in my work. Deadlines were met. Our team won big, high-profile cases and made a lot of money. But I was not helping people in need. Then I met Susan, our law firm’s full-time director of pro bono work. She helped me identify pro bono projects and nonprofits where I could use my litigation skills to make a significant, meaningful difference in people’s lives. For example, I helped single moms expunge shoplifting from their criminal records so they could rent an apartment. Now I was using my legal skills in a way that mattered, had purpose, and truly changed people’s lives for the better.”
After five years in New York, Emma returned to Charlotte, North Carolina. The lifestyle of a litigator—all-nighters, Saturdays and Sundays spent at the office, and trials that could last months—did not align with how she wanted to raise her future family. It was time for her to pivot in her career. Emma highlighted her project administration experience and strengths in the interview process. She accepted a position leading a law firm’s legal project management program and its budget tracking. Under her leadership, Emma enhanced the firm’s ability to manage legal matters efficiently, predictably, and profitably.
Emma made a fraction of what she had made as a corporate litigator. However, the lifestyle trade-off was worth it. She was home every night for dinner with her children, did not miss their soccer games on Saturday mornings, and started practicing yoga. Her personal life was rewarding, but there was a lack of fulfillment in her professional life. She began, like she had in New York, to question the meaning and value of her work.
Emma’s law firm did not have a full-time pro bono director. She saw this as a tremendous opportunity not only for the firm, but for the community. She advocated to create the position at her law firm. Within a few months, she was named the firm’s first Pro Bono Director. In this role, Emma brought together over 20 different legal departments and law firms to create an intentional model for pro bono service in Charlotte.
“I had to rely on my interpersonal skills, my ability to listen and understand to bring together people that are competitors. And going forward, I must use my project management strengths to make sure that things are actually getting done not for appearance purposes, but we are working on substantive projects that address the legal areas needed by low-income individuals in our community,” she said.
Emma created her own path rather than follow those set before her to find both work-life balance and meaning in her work.
You are on a transformational journey to make your job align with your personal and professional needs and aspirations. To do this, don’t think your way forward; build your way forward. As Emma did in her own career, when you build something, you try things; you experiment; you take calculated, thoughtful risks to determine what will ultimately work for you. This journey is not an existential journey. To turn any job into your dream job requires action, courage, and commitment to your dreams. Keep going. You can do this.
Your next step is to align your strengths to support the accomplishment of the company’s goals so you can design your work in a way that meets both your professional and personal needs and goals.
STRENGTHS ARE YOUR PROFESSIONAL GOLD
How often have you heard from a speaker at a conference, heard on a podcast, or read on a blog, “Play to your strengths” or “Leverage your strengths”? Your “strengths” are are the core of persistent, perennial strategy to enhance employee engagement. However, we often describe our strengths in vague terms. For example, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve told someone, “I’m good at getting things done.” What does “good” mean? What exactly does “getting things done” look like? If you want to own, love, and make your job work for you, generic descriptions of your strengths will not work. It’s time to get specific about your strengths so you can use them to achieve your company’s goals and structure your work in a way that aligns with the life you want to live.
According to Marcus Buckingham, author of Go Put Your Strengths to Work, your strengths are the things you do consistently and near flawlessly. He asserts that there are four “SIGNs” of a strength—Success, Instinct, Growth, and Needs—and all four need to be considered when identifying a strength.1
Success indicates an activity that you have an ability in or how effective you feel at an activity.2 For example, I have an ability to edit. I can read a document, and typos jump out at me like a neon flashing light. It’s as if they scream at me, “Look at me; look at me.” However, if I edit documents for more than a few hours a week, it’s as though the life has been sucked out of me, and I want to crawl back in bed and hide under the covers. You will also have activities that are like this—all ability, but no desire. You can do these because you’ve got a natural gift for them, or because you’re smart, or responsible, or diligent, but they bore you, drain you, or frustrate you. The strengths you want to focus on to be fulfilled and satisfied at work are more than the activities you are good at performing. Which is why there is a second aspect of a strength that is vital to consider: instinct.
When it comes to instincts and your strengths, you will feel an “I can’t not do them” response to them.3 You are instinctively, repeatedly drawn to these types of activities. Even though you might be fearful or anxious to do them, you find yourself wanting to do them though there is no rational reason. For example, when there is an opportunity to speak in front of people, my hand shoots into the air, almost on its own volition. I’ve been doing this since I was in Mrs. Risher’s second grade class. However, as soon as my hand leaves my side and is above my head, sweat beads on my back, and my stomach clenches. What if I don’t know what to say? What if I make a fool of myself? Despite the nervousness that arises every time I raise my hand, I still leap at every opportunity to speak in front of people. I can’t help it. It’s an instinct.
The third sign of a strength is growth. Growth refers to those activities that you are interested in, that you want to read about, study, and continue to refine with practice and new techniques.4 Now these activities are not necessarily easy, but they challenge you in a way you want to be challenged. When you do these activities, you become immersed and you don’t notice time passing. Why is this important? Because growth activities entice you to concentrate. Research by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of the book Flow, has shown that concentration and happiness are closely linked.5 Happiness is a component of fulfillment, and fulfillment is one of your goals.
The final sign of a strength according to Buckingham is needs. “Whereas instinct refers to how you feel before you do the activity, and the growth signals to your feelings during the activity, the need sign points to how you feel after you have done it.”6 There are some activities that you do that fill innate needs of yours. You do them and may be tired, but you are not psychologically drained. You feel energized, joyful, powerful, engaged, and authentically yourself—the opposite of drained. It’s that feeling of “all is right with the world.”7 It’s a compelling feeling, and you need to feel it again. So, you seek out situations and opportunities where you can do this activity.
For example, my friend and colleague Gail is a trained coach. She will coach anyone, anywhere, at any time of day. At our favorite wine bar, she guided our regular waitress into her next career as a yoga instructor. Because she can’t say no to an opportunity to coach, her assistant screens all her requests. When I have watched her coach our waiter, or the barista, or the flight attendant, she comes alive. Her eyes light up, and she smiles more. She becomes her most authentic, vibrant self. When we finally finish our meal or get our coffee or the flight lands, her energy is contagious.
When I asked Gail if she thought she would ever retire, she looked at me and said, “I feel most like me when I coach. I’d never give it up.”
Your strengths are those activities that you are good at and you can’t not do them. You seek out opportunities to develop them, and you need to do them. Your strengths make you feel strong, gratified, and fulfilled.
EXCAVATE YOUR STRENGTHS
When Emma decided to relocate from New York City, she knew that the lifestyle of a litigator did not align with how she would want to raise her future children. She decided to leverage her project management strengths to find a position as a project manager in a law firm so she would have more flexibility in her schedule. Your strengths are enablers of the life you want to lead. Strengths magnify your performance and potential. They can and will create opportunities for you to design your work in a way that meets both your professional and personal goals. When you use your strengths, you are more productive, impactful, and ultimately more fulfilled and engaged. Your strengths benefit your company and you. It is essential to know your strengths.
It is an excavation process to identify your strengths. When you excavate, you remove rocks and soil in order to find precious minerals, like gold. To find your gold, or your strengths, you will have to look below the surface of your day-to-day tasks. You will need to strip away generic descriptions to uncover the essence of your strengths. Three processes I use in my executive coaching practice to help my clients excavate their strengths are reflection journaling, performance reviews/360 feedback reports, and a calendar and task list analysis—all of which I will take you through in the coming pages.
It is vital that you complete either the reflection journaling, performance/360 review, or calendar and task list analysis process to identify your strengths. Why? Your strengths list is your employer relationship currency. It is what you offer your employer in exchange for more choice and control over how you work and what you work on. To effectively use your currency, you must know what it is and the value it provides to your employer. That is the potency of your strengths list. If you skip this process, it will be difficult to ask for and receive the projects and jobs that energize and excite you. It will also be difficult to shape your work in a way that aligns with the life you want to live. Don’t give away your power, or your dreams. Invest the time and energy to excavate and identify your strengths.
Process #1: Reflection Journaling
Reflection journaling is a powerful tool for learning, growth, and change. It can help you identify important insights or key themes from experiences and events in your life. A reflection journal can provide a place for you to record and reflect upon your observations and responses to situations so you can analyze your patterns of thinking. It is also a place where you can get your ideas out of your head. I recommend reflection journaling to most of my coaching clients because of its effectiveness—and now, you are going to use it to identify your strengths.
Reflect on the following questions and record your answers on a piece of paper or in a document on your computer. Allot five to seven minutes a day for a week to answer these questions:
1. Think about your best day at work ever. What were you doing? (Hint: think about specific activities.)
2. When people praise you at work, what do they applaud?
3. What is the best compliment you’ve ever received at work? What made it the best?
4. I feel strong when . . .
5. I loved it today when I . . .
6. I can’t help but to . . .
7. How would you describe your strengths?
At the end of the week, review your notes for any themes and patterns that emerged and use them to identify your strengths.
For example, if Emma had completed this exercise, she might have written that her best day at work was when she coordinated a group of attorneys to help pro bono clients expunge their arrest records after serving their sentences so that their legal record of an arrest or criminal conviction was “sealed,” or erased in the eyes of the law. She would probably note that she receives frequent compliments on her project administration skills and her ability to unite people around a common goal. Emma might notice that she feels the strongest when she ensures that project deadlines are met for projects that support pro bono legal aid. Her notes might also reveal that she can’t help but to connect people around important legal aid projects. As you reviewed Emma’s answers, you likely saw a pattern: two of Emma’s strengths are project management and exceptional interpersonal skills.
Review your notes to search for themes and patterns until you have identified at least three strengths. If you have more than three, don’t worry. There is not a maximum number of strengths you can have.
Process #2: Performance Reviews/360 Feedback Reports
Performance reviews and 360 feedback reports provide data on instances when others observed consistent, near perfect performance from you, which is indicative of your strengths. However, it is important to remember that this is how others perceive your strengths, so you will still need to think about their feedback and then draft your own list of your strengths.
Use the steps below to identify your strengths based on others’ feedback.
Step 1. Collect as many of your prior performance reviews and/or 360 feedback reports as possible. I typically ask clients to collect at least four total, and one should be your most recent performance review or 360 feedback report.
Step 2. As you read through your reviews and/or reports highlight or write down any statements that are made by at least four people. These statements indicate a pattern of consistent performance and illuminate a strength.
Step 3. Read through what you highlighted or wrote down and group the themes that emerged.
Step 4. Review the themes you grouped in the prior step and list what others observed as your strengths.
Step 5. Reflect on this list of strengths and modify or add any additional strengths that were not stated in your performance reviews or 360s.
If Emma were to review her 360s, she would probably note the following statements:
• “Emma is a very effective leader and team player. She delivers exemplary results and is caring, transparent, and ethical.”
• “Emma executes plans with ease and holds people accountable. She has high integrity and is a trusted team player.”
• “Emma expertly defines and plans projects and initiatives that support the firm’s pro bono strategy.”
• “Emma communicates clearly and inspires others to achieve goals. She deftly identifies the stakeholders, decision makers, and influencers required to achieve her goals and unites them to achieve her goals.”
Emma would review the list of statements and identify her core theme as results oriented with strong execution, communication, and interpersonal expertise. She would then list her strengths as project administration and interpersonal abilities.
Process #3: Calendar and Task List Analysis
I might be biased; however, the calendar and task list analysis is my favorite method for my clients to identify their strengths. Why? Because this shows you, in black and white, how you spend your time and energy each day. As you examine your calendar and task list, you will be able to identify your strengths. And with this information, you will find opportunities to shift how you use your time so you can spend more time leveraging your strengths.
To identify your strengths, complete Steps 1 and 2 below at the end of each day for one workweek, which will take about 15 to 25 minutes. At the end of the workweek, complete the final three steps, which will take you between 20 and 45 minutes total.
Step 1. Review each meeting, appointment, and task you completed for the workday. Next to each meeting, appointment, and task, place a smiley face, plus sign, check mark, or up arrow next to anything you did that made you feel powerful, confident, natural, smooth, on fire, authentic, or awesome and/or made you say “That was easy” or “When do I get to do this again?” This step will help you identify the activities you love doing.
Step 2. Now, go back to the meetings, appointments, and tasks that you did not put a mark next to. If a task made you feel drained, bored, frustrated, irritated, or forced or made you think “Time is going so slowly” or “How much longer?,” put a frowny face, minus sign, or down arrow. Your goal is to identify the activities you loathe doing. (We will come back to these when we explore how to design your work to meet your professional and personal goals.)
There will be some meetings, appointments, and tasks that are neutral because you neither love nor hate them. Leave them unmarked.
Step 3. At the end of the week, create a list of all the meetings, appointments, and tasks you loved doing. Then, rank them in order of what made you feel the most alive, engaged, authentic, and powerful.
Step 4. Take your list of ranked activities and select the top three activities. Then, ask yourself the questions below from Marcus Buckingham for each:
1. Does it matter why I do this activity?
2. Does it matter whom I do this activity with/to/for?
3. Does it matter when I do this activity?
4. Does it matter what this activity is about?8
When you ask yourself each of these four questions, you will discover exactly which aspects of this activity must be present for you to generate positive emotion. If you want to be engaged and fulfilled, you need to spend more time and energy on tasks that generate positive emotion. And you also want to design your work in a way that aligns with the way you want to live your life. Don’t skip this vital step. Don’t undermine your ability to ask for and work on the projects that invigorate you. Don’t give away your power to ignorance of your strengths.
Now, let’s look at an example of Step 4 in action. When I did my calendar and task list analysis, I put a smiley face next to the content analytics meeting with my team to decide on the next quarter’s content marketing strategy.
1. Does it matter why I do this activity?
Yes. I don’t like reviewing analytics just to evaluate data. Analysis without a purpose feels like a waste of time to me. For this activity to produce positive emotions for me, it must be aligned to decision-making about our strategy or about prioritizing time, energy, and talent on the team.
2. Does it matter whom I do this activity with/to/for?
No. I feel just as energized reviewing data with my team as I do when I review training and ROI data with my clients.
3. Does it matter when I do this activity?
Yes and no. I’m a morning person and do my best thinking early in the day. My energy drops midafternoon, and I’m not as effective, nor am I as efficient, with cognitively demanding tasks or with decision-making.
4. Does it matter what this activity is about?
Yes. I’m demotivated and drained when I prepare and analyze data that is not connected to a broader strategy, goal, or purpose.
These questions also help you write a description of your strengths that is specific enough that you can clearly articulate to yourself, your manager, and your organization how your strengths enable the organization to achieve its goals. It is imperative that you demonstrate how your strengths add value to the organization so you can spend more time using them.
Step 5. Narrow down your list to your top three strengths, and for each, fill in the following strengths statement: “My strength is ____________.”
After reviewing my own answers in Step 4, I wrote the description of my strength as “Analyze data to make decisions about strategic goals and internal resource allocations and priorities.”
Remember, your goal is identify exactly which aspects of the activity are critical for you to be able generate the same positive emotions each and every time you perform it. Specificity is essential.
Congratulations! You have identified your strengths! How do you feel? When my clients identify their strengths, their eyes light up, the tension in their shoulders abates, and I can feel a shift in their energy. They feel more powerful, energized, and confident. These are just some of the emotions you experience when you are engaged, fulfilled, and happy at work—which is what you want more of in your professional life. So, let’s put your strengths to work for your organization so you can spend more time energized, impactful, and engaged.
LEVERAGE YOUR STRENGTHS FOR MORE CHOICE AND CONTROL OVER YOUR WORK
In order to put your strengths to work for your organization, it is first important to remember that the employer-employee relationship is a social contract based on give-and-take. When you can use your strengths to enable your company to achieve its strategic goals, generate revenue, and/or serve clients, you provide value and give to the relationship. This puts you in a powerful and mutually beneficial place to then receive from the relationship or make an ask of your employer.
Emma asked her New York law firm to pay for her to get her project management professional certification and to put her on the highest-profile cases with the largest global clients. When she moved to Charlotte, she asked her firm for flexible work hours and now works from home on Fridays. Emma also leveraged her strengths to create a position for herself as her firm’s pro bono administrator.
Do not underestimate your value and your power when you choose to employ your strengths in your relationship with your employer. Use the four steps below to align your strengths to your company’s and team’s goals so you can have more choice and control over what you work on and how you work.
Align Your Strengths to Your Organization’s Goals
It will take you approximately 30 minutes to complete the following four steps:
Step 1: Ensure that you are clear on your company’s and team’s current goals. Review the company’s strategic plan and your team’s goals.
Step 2: For each of your company’s and team’s goals, identify how your top three strengths support the attainment of any, all, or some of the goals. Your objective is to draw a distinct and clear line between your strengths and the successful attainment of your company’s and team’s goals. Be specific and use the following questions to help connect your strengths to your company’s and team’s success:
1. How can your company and/or team achieve its goals faster when you leverage your strengths?
2. How can your company and/or team achieve its goals more profitably when you use your strengths?
3. How can your company and/or team be more productive when you leverage your strengths?
4. How do your strengths contribute to innovation or new product development?
5. How do your strengths enable your company to more effectively serve its customers ? This could be through automation, higher customer satisfaction scores, or faster problem or complaint resolution.
6. How do your strengths enable the company to differentiate itself from its competitors?
Step 3: Review your past projects. For each project, explore how you leveraged your strengths to effectively achieve the project goal. Review the questions above to help you draw a distinct and clear line between your strengths and the successful accomplishment of the company’s and team’s goals. The objectives in this step are to demonstrate a track record of efficacious alignment between your strengths and the company’s and team’s goals and to catalog your goals achieved.
Step 4: Brainstorm additional ways you can deploy your strengths to support your company’s and team’s goals. When you use your strengths, can the goal be achieved faster? More effectively? Less expensively? Or more profitably? Again, identify the specific projects and tasks that you can do more of so you can work from your strengths more often. Your goal is to demonstrate that when you work from your strengths, your company and team benefit.
You now have a clear picture of how your strengths have enabled your team and company to achieve their goals. But what about those tasks and activities that aren’t your strengths, or that you detest doing? You want to be engaged and fulfilled at work, and time spent on activities that you despise will not help make that a reality. So how can you spend less time on those activities? Use the three steps below to stop, reduce, partner, or reframe the activities you loathe doing. It will take you approximately 20 minutes to complete these steps, and your goal is to do less of these activities you loathe and do more of those activities you love.
Stop, Reduce, Partner, or Reframe Activities You Loathe Doing
Step 1: Review the items you marked with a frowny face, a minus sign, or a down arrow in your calendar and task list analysis. These are the appointments, meetings, and tasks that you loathe doing. If you did not select this option to identify your strengths, go back and complete Step 2 in the calendar and task list analysis so you can identify the activities you loathe doing.
Step 2: Put the activities that you loathe doing on one of four lists—stop, reduce, partner, reframe.
• Stop. Write down on the “stop” list all the activities that are not critical to your success in your job and/or that no one would notice if you no longer completed. Beside each one, identify whom you need to talk to in your company to make this a reality. There may be activities that you don’t need to talk to anyone about—you can just stop doing them.
• Reduce. Write down on your “reduce list” all the activities that you can’t stop doing but that you could reduce the time you spend on them. For each activity on the reduce list, ask yourself if there is a way to automate it. If you can’t automate it, then time yourself to see how long it takes and then try to beat your time.
• Partner. Write down all the activities that you could partner with someone to either trade with a colleague or make the activity faster or more fun. For example, you would do an activity that a colleague does not like, and your colleague would do one you don’t like. If you can’t think of anyone to swap the activity with, think about who might be able to teach you a new technique or strategy to do it faster. Or consider who in your office would make doing this activity more fun and beneficial if you did it together.
• Reframe. The reality is that there are going to be some activities that you can’t stop doing, that you can’t reduce the amount of time you spend on them, and that don’t match up with a colleague’s strengths. For these activities you need to reframe.
To reframe and reduce the negative impact of this activity, consider alternating a strength activity with an activity that drains you, or change the time when you complete the activity. If you normally complete this task in the afternoon or on a specific day, maybe try doing it in the morning or on a different day when your energy is higher. Also consider how you can shift your perspective so that you can see this activity as just one step of many that lead to the successful accomplishment of your goal.
Step 3: Once you have your four lists completed, act on each one. If you need to talk to someone to stop doing an activity, schedule the meeting now. If you don’t need to talk to someone, stop doing that activity today. If you need to explore your options for how to automate and reduce the time you spend on activities that drain you, start the process. See whom you can partner up with to swap tasks, learn how to complete the activity faster, or just make completing it more fun. And don’t forget, you can always reframe and shift your perspective so you can see how this activity moves you one step closer to your goal.
Don’t Let Fear Undermine Your Power
Strengths enable you to have more control over what you work on and how you work. In exchange for using your strengths to help your company and team achieve their goals, what do you want from the relationship with your employer? If you are not clear on what you want and need from your employer, how could your employer ever provide it? Now at this point, I imagine a few doubts have crept in. You might be thinking, “You don’t know my boss. She would never agree to pay for additional training or allow me to work from home on Fridays. You want me to create a role in the company that does not exist? She wouldn’t even consider that.” I understand your reservations. However, when I have doubts and fears about my ability to ask for what I need, I hear David Clay, my former sales manager at Bristol-Myers Squibb, saying, “If you don’t ask, you will not receive.” You have to ask. Otherwise you operate from assumptions and remain unclear about the real possibilities that may exist for you.
Fear undermines your power. Focus on what you want more of in your professional life, how this will catapult your career, and how this ask will benefit your family, your partner, and/or your community. You will not know what is possible if you do not ask. You can do this. Feel the fear and do it anyway.
Be Bold and Ask for What You Want
At this point, you have now identified how your strengths support and enable your company to achieve its goals, and you’ve learned how to stop, reduce, reframe, or partner on the activities you loathe so you can spend more time working from your strengths. Now that you have all this information, you need to meet with your manager and specifically ask for what you want and need to meet your professional and personal goals.
Remember that your strengths are your contributions to the employer-employee relationship and the value you provide. Your strengths are your professional gold. If you need to discuss an activity that you want to stop doing, include it on your agenda for your manager. Be bold and ask for the changes you want so you have more control and choice over what you work on and how you work.
“I want to go work every day and not question the sacrifice I’m making as a working mom. My job matters. I am doing something I believe in and using my strengths. My life has purpose,” Emma told me. Her clarity around her strengths enabled her to hone them and then leverage them to build a career and a life so she could achieve both her professional and personal goals. Emma consistently aligned her strengths to the needs and goals of the organization and used this alignment to ultimately create a position that did not exist in her law firm in Charlotte.
Again, strengths amplify performance. In 2018 Emma received the 2018 Distinguished Pro Bono Service Award, a lifetime achievement honor presented by the Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy, the Council for Children’s Rights, and Legal Aid of North Carolina. Strengths enable the life you want to lead. Emma currently cochairs Parent Education at her children’s school, and, fortunately for me, she frequently joins me for girls’ night out. Strengths are your professional gold.