Find Your Voice. Tap Your Strengths.

It was 1977 and I was in the sixth grade. I joined the Boy’s Choir. I really didn’t like singing in choirs, but I joined anyway. All my friends had signed up, so I did too.

I can still remember our two performances. I stood in the back row of the choir and mumbled my way through most of the songs. Why? I didn’t know all the words. So I sang the choruses and smiled a lot.

How many of us mumble and stumble through life? We just go through the motions. We’re not happy with our performance, but we continue anyway. Will we ever be good at what we’re doing? More importantly, will we ever be happy if we stick with the things we’re not passionate about?

Martin Seligman, Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania and Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D., of Claremont Graduate University – the co-founders of Positive Psychology – wrote that people do their best when they focus on “identifying and nurturing their strongest qualities, what they own and are best at, and…find niches in which they can best live out these strengths.” Success will come to us when we discover what we enjoy doing, what natural strengths we have, and what activities we find meaningful.

Positive Psychology researcher Christopher Peterson, Ph.D., of the University of Michigan, and Dr. Seligman conducted extensive research on strengths. They developed a scientifically validated and widely used assessment tool to help people discover and learn about their strengths. The assessment is called the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths Survey (VIA-IS). The VIA-IS helps people identify what strengths are most natural to them – the strengths they use most often in their lives. Over 600,000 people throughout the world have taken the assessment. You can complete the VIA-IS Survey here.  And if you are a member of AIESEC or an alumnus of AIESEC, please click here to participate in our ongoing International Leadership Strengths research project.

When you complete the VIA-IS, you will walk away with a greater awareness of your top five strengths. You should then ask yourself two powerful questions:

1. First, how do you use your top five strengths in some way every day, and how have you used them in the past? You’ll find out that you express your strengths in many areas of your life.
2. Second, when you look back at your most significant accomplishments in your life, which of your top strengths helped you achieve those successes? You’ll begin to see a pattern in your life: You will discover that many of your greatest achievements were made possible by engaging your top strengths.

Now that we’ve talked about your strengths, what about your weaknesses? Can you forget them? The answer is “no, but.” The “but” is that you no longer should focus your energies on trying to fix your weaknesses. There’s a better answer: Look for the people who have the strengths you lack and partner with them. Focus on what you do best, and then let others do the same.

So, let other people sing in the Boy’s Choir if that’s what they love to do. As for you, find your own voice in life and express it in your own unique way.

Comments

[David J. Pollay]

Hi Lil,

Great to hear from you! I'm so glad you are getting so much out of my blog. I sure appreciate the support!

Congratulations on using your strengths as you do! Keep it up!

Best to you,

David

[David J. Pollay]

Hi Cris,

Good question! Thanks for the post.

The Gallup organization has a great strengths-based selection instrument called the Clifton StrengthsFinder (email me if you want to know more about this tool and how they apply it to their client companies). And the VIA can be used as a tool for exploring candidate’s strengths, but it cannot be used alone as a selection instrument.

The most cost-efficient way of including a strengths-based approach to your selection process is to ask questions that get at what people do naturally well and what they are passionate about. Most people gravitate in their roles to what they do well.

It is relatively easy to assess if someone has knowledge, skills, and experience. This is mostly about what people know. This is also what you can train someone to do.

The challenge is to assess someone’s natural strengths. This is mostly about who they are. This is what will not change a lot.

Email me if you are interested in interview questions that can help you get at people’s natural strengths.

Thanks again for the post!

Best to you,

David

[Lil]

David, I get so much good stuff from your blogs. I know what my 5 top strengths are and I try to use them in my daily activities. I try to have compassion and patience with myself and others: harmony is very important to me. Thanks for steering me in the right direction. Lil

[David J. Pollay]

Hi Brenda!

Great post! That’s exactly the idea: Transform your natural interests and strengths into something you can work on every day!

Best to you!

David

[Cris Arens]

Companies different people with different strengths in order to be successful. What tests are best for companies to find the best people and fit them into the right jobs?

[brenda515]

It's taken me years, but I believe I've found the two strengths I can build on and prosper. One is my ability to express humor. The other is my knack for editing text. Sometimes it's a relief to see the funny side of bad grammar.
But seriously, I'm looking for a way to combine these attributes in a major activity or project.