Some of my favourite coaching sessions recently have been to identify a person’s strengths - the particular contributions they naturally make, the qualities and skills they bring with them wherever they go.
It’s a fun process, using feedback they’ve received and responses to how they’ve shown up and what they’ve done. It’s a brilliant way of gathering the threads from real life experience.
What’s fascinating is that most of these people have only had the information to work with because they’re about to leave - either temporarily or permanently.
Knowing this has been a catalyst for those around them to open up about what they’ve most appreciated, what they’ll miss, and what they’re worried won’t happen when they’ve left - such useful data!
So often we can have no idea what we bring to a team, a role, an organisation, or the people around us. We’re simply being us, and it’s hard to see ourselves through the eyes of others.
Leaving is one way of finding this out, but wouldn’t it be brilliant to know it before then?
The good news is that we can! We just need to take a little time to reflect on our experience and ask the right questions.
We can ask ourselves:
What do people tend to come to me for help with?
What do I get asked for advice about?
What do I find easy that others find hard?
What do people tell me I’m good at?
What am I most often praised for?
We can ask others:
What do you think I’m really good at?
What are 3 things you appreciate about how I approach things?
What would the team miss if I wasn’t in it?
Knowing what others appreciate about us - about what we do and how we do it - helps us understand so much. It gives us a clear insight into our natural strengths, and a brilliant foundation to build on.
It’s nice to be appreciated, and very useful to understand why.
Do you know what people appreciate about you?
And how could you find out now, rather than when you’re about to leave?
Wishing you a wonderful week,
