Lean Hard Into Your Strengths

Have you andor your team done a bunch of profiles but haven't really figured out what they all mean? Stay tuned to learn how to connect the dots and why that is so rewarding and so much fun. Hi, Shannon Waller here and welcome to team success. I had been having so much fun lately coaching people on their strengths and helping them connect the dots between their different profiles. There are a lot of profiles. Fun story. My friend asked me, I've known this friend for 30 plus years, maybe close to 40, and he and I are both like profile junkies. We've done a ton. He goes, "Oh, send me your favorite profiles that you think are useful. " I sent him 17. And then that week I did two more which are also excellent which I also then now need to send him. Holy mackerel that's a lot of profiles. Truly I am a profile junkie. But it's important to connect the dots. And so what we're going to talk about today is really understanding yourself at a very deep level and leaning hard into your strengths. They are your differentiator. This is what sets you apart. These are the things that you find easy to do. If you want to put a spiritual spin on it, it's kind of why you're here. You were put here to contribute these strengths. You can look at them as gifts. They're your contribution. And so you knowing yourself, know thyself, one of my most important ways to live, but connecting the dots between them is so insightful and so much fun. And I have been having, as I said, a blast helping people see things and experience their behavior through these lenses and they go, "Oh, that's why I do things. " I'm like, "Ah. " So, your profile, whatever one you're talking about, Clifton Strengths, Print, Colby, Working Genius, those are my go-to four. If you're talking about them and you start to look through the lens, you're like, "Oh, for me that's my maximizer or that's my individualization or strategic or my nine quick start or my three factf finder or my true followthrough or my invention discernment and working genius. " Like when you start to have the language, you can be so much more intentional. So, I want to take your awareness from that level of kind of subconscious, I don't want to say unconscious, but sort of like occasional peripheral awareness into a little bit more front and center because when you play to your strengths, oh my gosh, it is your superpower. I have so many examples of when people have leaned hard into their strengths where all of a sudden they were trying to be somebody they kind of weren't or they were modeling themselves after a leader or someone that they respected and then I'm coaching them on actually here's how you're put together. This other person's put together this way. You have some of their capabilities and some of their strengths but not all of them. You have your own. Here's what your success strategy is. and they start to actually take that seriously. Oh my gosh, I see people go from okay or mediocre performance into the top tier. One of my favorite examples of this is a financial adviser, great guy, you know, great family man, lots of kids, very, very caring individual, not a risk taker, not a quick start on Colby. I coached him and all of the other adviserss as well on their Clifton strengths and their Colby. Those are the two main ones that we focused on. And when he really understood his Clifton strengths and he really thought, "Oh, I don't think he actually thought he had strengths to be perfectly honest. I think he was very much in the gap about who he was. " But when he recognized his strengths and started to lean into them, he went from basically in the rank order, okay, the leaderboard, he went from like 2/3 of the way down, so not really winning to being number one, holy mackerel. And this is a guy that I would say was not super charismatic, a little more on the timid side. He got so much confidence about his strengths, it became his winning strategy. again. He leaned into it and took off. So much fun to see. Oh my gosh, that still makes my day as you can tell. Coaching another one of our salespeople. You know, tons of thinking strengths and it's like, you know what? If you say you feel like someone is right for the program, strategic coach program, it's not really going to come across as being authentic. If you say, "I think you're a right fit for the program. " Oh my gosh, there's just so much integrity and so much authenticity in that statement. You can feel it. It feels completely different. Feel. He's an analytical guy. He's motivated by thinking capabilities in terms of his print. So feeling, he could use the words, but thinking is much more congruent with who he is. Again, all of a sudden becomes a superpower. And I

just coached someone this morning. same thing. Amazing set of talents that this woman has. And when she can lean into her communication and positivity and maximizer and strategic ooh so good and it's what she has to contribute and she's going to bring in the most brilliant right fit people into the strategic coach program and encouraging people. So if you're a leader, please know your own strengths and then please, please bring them out in the people with whom you work because this is their winning strategy. And I want to give you a definition of strengths that I find very sexy and very appealing. And this comes from Tom Wrath from Clifton Strengths and Strengthfinder 2. 0, the book. And so here's what it is. So this is Strengthfinder 2. 0 by Tom Wrath. talent, which is a natural way of thinking, feeling, or behaving, times investment, which is the time spent practicing, developing your skills, and building your knowledge base equals a strength. Wait till you hear this definition of a strength. strength is the ability to consistently provide nearperfect performance. Let me say that again. Strength is the ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance. I find that incredibly appealing. I will absolutely lean into anything that promises me near-perfect performance. So, you take your talent, which is really what you know your top five Clifton Strengths words are. Then you invest in them and then all of a sudden that turns into a strength. So, it's just kind of raw talent at the beginning and then you develop it and it turns into a strength. I've actually told this story before, but I have maximizer number one and strategic number two. And when I read the definition of strategic, I was like, really? I don't really see that. And then I looked at the name of the organization with whom I work. Strategic coach might have been my first clue. I was like, okay, dhuh. And then I started to lean into it. It's like, oh, I actually am really good at strategy. In fact, my brain soaks them up and I have maximizer strategic and individualization or relationship strengths. So, guess what? I am super attuned to strategies that maximize people, which is what profiles do, which is why I love a lot. Not all of the profiles, but I love a lot of them. So, it makes so much sense when you look at it from that perspective. And I want to maximize people. I want to put them in the right place. Same with my arranger. I can see how things and teamwork should be organized. It's my only executing strength. Thank goodness cuz I'm a short follow through. I need something that's going to help me get stuff done. So, it all kind of fits together. And it's fun when you get some facility with it. When you actually start to know, like I'm obviously rhyming them off, but I'm also been doing this for 30 years. And it's fun when you can talk about yourself that way. When you can recognize the lens through which you are looking. And that's how I coached it to this fabulous team in Dubai last week. It's like I want you to start recognizing bringing this language to the surface, these strengths to the surface and go oh I'm maximizing right now or that's my strategic or oh I'm really personalizing this result that's using my individualization or whatever it is and when you are able to have that kind of again facility is the word that comes to mind with it a you start to feel like you really know yourself and you also get to place yourself there are a few things frankly that I am suited to do a lot more things that I am not. So, I can say, "Here's where I can be really useful for you. Here's where I will not be useful. " I've had actually people tell me I was organized. Do you know how hard I laughed at that point? I'm sure Katrina, who's listening, is cracking up right now. I have people and tools to help me be organized. I have, well, not zero, but almost zero mental energy to do that for myself. I operate in a very organized way, at least in my workday. That's because I am set up for success. And you know why? Because I don't do any of that myself. I would fail very quickly and I do. I'm too squirrel. But I am incredibly effective because I recognize that I'm not the person to do that. I want to be organized. I've got commitments. I'm productive. I'm very committed to my end results. And my part of it is if someone sets up a time schedule or a calendar or a plan, I don't mess with it. I don't screw it up. That's my contribution. I follow the thing because it's all set up for me to get what it is that I said I wanted to do. I'm not going to fight. I actually want it and I don't have to spend any mental energy at all setting up that system. It's set up for me and my job is to do it and to do it really, really well, which I endeavor to do. So the other freeing thing about this when you really lean hard into your talents is you lose that guilty feeling of thinking that you should be someone different than you are. If only you did this you

could be somebody else. If I would have done it this way eh could would all gap words all measuring yourself against some weird unrealistic ideal. It's not why you're here. Why you're here is the talents that you have that you are developing. And so when you actually let yourself be you and not try and be somebody else and just try and live your very best self and use your talents for good. That is one of my success criteria. And also be aware that taken to an extreme, any strength will become a weakness. I learned this from print training. And we'll put the links to all of the profiles in the show notes so you can know what the heck I'm talking about. But any strength taken to an extreme becomes a weakness. So I will occasionally have to rein in my maximizer. I will even my quick start because a little quick start goes a long way and there's other things I could apply that to as well. So, it's actually knowing what your sweet spot is. But it's I have to tell you, you get exponential results when you do this. And just to tie in some knowledge from strategic coach, one of the things I found when people are doing what are their non strengths, it has a minus10 impact. You actually put in the time and effort, you do not get the result. We call that incompetent at coach. Then if you're doing something you're merely adequate or okay at competent again not a strength just barely making the grade. It's like a 1x. You put in the energy you get the result. But I have to tell you if you're living just doing what you're competent at. People talk about life being really fun. You're like I don't see it. It's kind of a drag. You know it's just not fun. I'm not getting any extra wins here. I'm not getting ahead. So people stuck in jobs that bring in nothing of what is unique about them. my real it's like ooh it's painful now when you're doing what you are excellent at this is where you have superior skill frankly but no passion so your head's engaged you're very capable but you don't love it your heart's not there that's excellent you will get a 2x return put in time and effort not bad I'd rather choose that than incompetent or competent but when you can really lean into your strengths and you're doing it for something that you're passionate about or whoever you want to be a hero to then that invest ment of time and effort gets a 10x return. That's what we call unique ability. And it is so rewarding. It's so fun. It feels like play. It gives you energy. Doesn't cost you any energy. So again, why I want you to lean hard, fourth or fifth time I've said that now into your strengths. So I want you to do that for you. I want you to lean hard into it. I want you to enjoy use your powers for good. I don't want you to waste mental or emotional energy feeling guilty that you should be doing it a different way. Just own it. Enjoy it. Tell people, "Here's how I can be useful. Here's how I'm not. " And as a colleague, as a team member, as a team leader, please, please help other people do this, too. It is so gratifying. And the more you learn about the profiles and how they work and you get curious about it, the more you can bring that out in other people. Like I got to meet someone who has five strategic thinking strengths out of the top five in Clifton strengths. And what's fascinating is what motivates him is actually peace and harmony and to be needed and appreciated. All feeling motivations. How cool is that? So you think this guy could be all head, right? No heartmy's entire motivation for all of this strategy is, you know, how that has him feel special and, you know, find meaning in life and to be needed and appreciated. He's very tuned in to what other people need and appreciate. Huge, huge heart with this incredible strategic mind if you think about it that way. So don't assume that just because you see one thing in one dimension, it's the same in all the other dimensions. We are interesting, complex, fascinating compositions of strengths and motivations and capabilities. It's like finding the most interesting kaleidoscopes. That's really how I think about it. They're not even puzzles. Puzzles are kind of solvable and then they get boring. People are never boring, but it's kaleidoscope of strengths. And just be curious. be curious about what colors and what shapes and what fractals are emerging with each person and see oh how's this complement mine you know do we need to divide and conquer however it is that you can put it together but that's what becomes really fun and that's what I love about teamwork is we get to put ourselves together in a way that frees me up to do what I'm great at and frees you up to do what you're great at and together we can make magic and it doesn't feel hard not saying it's effortless but it's so rewarding. We know we worked hard. We might be tired at the end of the day, but we are also enlivened. You know, the sparks been lit. Our eyes are a light. It's joyful. It's fun. It's creative. It's productive, which is important to me. It's just very again joyful. I think

that's my best word. So, my bottom line here is please, please connect the dots. Connect the dots for yourself. Help do it for other people. Certainly do it with the people with whom you work. It is so rewarding and it will free you up. up from doing things you don't love. You'll find someone else who would love to do that if you just do a trade and you're like, "Really? That was way easier than I thought. " Don't be an island, right? Join the land masses together and be curious. You know, have some fun playing around with this. So, when you do it for yourself and you help other people do it, I think teamwork becomes so much more fun, so much more rewarding, and endlessly fascinating, as you can tell. All right, that's the end of today's team success podcast. So, if you have any questions or comments or observations actually, please let me know at questions at strategiccoach. com. Thank you so much for listening and as always, here's to your team success.