The key to career success? Concentrate on your strengths.

From when we’re children we’re told to build on our weaknesses. If you struggled with science the focus was on extra revision, maybe a tutor and committing more time to getting better. The message drilled into us was we needed to be good at everything and working on our weaknesses was the key to success.

That’s what I always focused on in my career. Identifying my weaknesses and trying to improve them. That is until I had an executive coach who asked me what I was good at. That one small question made me pause. It’s far harder to say what you’re great at than what you struggle with. By changing the focus away from my weaknesses and looking at my strengths and how I could use those to guide my career and progression my career took off.

Maybe it’s time you stopped looking for your weak spots and instead aligned your career with what you’re brilliant at.

Strengths are your superpower

We don’t enjoy doing things we struggle with. Whether that’s in your personal or professional life, we’re happier when we’re within our zone of genius. That’s why when I hear someone say that they hate their job I ask them to dig into what about it they dislike. It usually comes to a misalignment between what they’re good at and what they’re being asked to do.

No job is going to be perfect, but if you’re spending the majority of your time on tasks that you struggle with, you’re going to feel frustrated.

When it comes to career success your strengths really are your superpower. Through understanding what you excel at, you’ll probably find the tasks you enjoy and as a result, your job satisfaction, performance and engagement will increase.

Prioritise building strengths over perfecting weaknesses

Professional development usually focuses on building your weaknesses. We have appraisals that identify our weaker areas and these are addressed with courses or learning opportunities. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t try to improve our weaker areas, but by always focusing on the negative we’re ignoring the positives.

Research has shown that teams that focus on strengths have 12.5% greater productivity than those who don’t. Not only that but they have 14.9% lower employee turnover. In short, they work harder and they stay longer. For any business that impact would be game-changing.

That’s why it’s perplexing that still, the focus when it comes to professional development and reviews is to focus on the negative, the weaknesses, and the areas to improve. We need to flip that on its head and start to focus on what makes that individual amazing, what can they do better than anyone else in the business. When we start to dig into that detail, not only will the individual feel more empowered and inspired but the business and the people around them will benefit considerably.

Our strengths are our superpowers, they’re our areas of brilliance, and they’re what make us stand out from everyone else.

It’s only by focusing on your strengths that you will become a true performer. Take your best salesperson. They know they’re great at selling, but they aren’t spending time improving their copywriting skills or their excel abilities. What makes them great is they’re utilising their biggest strength for their career and as a result, they’re excelling.

Identify your strengths

It’s always tricky trying to identify your strengths, we naturally play down what we’re great at. If you’re sitting there now thinking ‘I really don’t know what I’m good at’ then it’s worth finding someone to help you through the process. For me, it was my executive coach but it could be a colleague, your friend, or even your manager.

If you’re struggling to identify your strengths then change tack. Instead think about what you love, what tasks make your heart sing, and your pulse quicken. Often the tasks we love are the ones that we excel at. In your normal working week when you come to a project that you fly through, make a note of what it is and what you enjoyed. Over time you’ll start to see a pattern and from that you can pull out your strengths.

Once you’re aware of what your strengths are you can take a strength-based approach to your career - looking for ways to utilise what you’re great at and selecting future roles and promotions on that basis.

Matchmake your job to your strengths

For those who are focused on building a career there can be roles that we take because we think we should. They tick a box, they’re part of the usual career path, and they’re expected. That doesn’t make it right.

What if instead of taking a linear career path we took a strength-based approach? Inspecting each opportunity as it arises for whether it suits our skills. Jobs that don’t meet your skillset, or don’t provide you with the opportunity to thrive are passed over, and ones that tick every box you accept.

This approach feels scarier somehow, but it’s the one I took. When I started looking at opportunities for skills and strength suitability my career progressed faster than I could have imagined. As a result, I thrived. That’s because when we’re doing what we love and what we’re good at we will always perform at a higher level than when we’re forcing ourselves to do a role.

It isn’t always easy to do this as a candidate, but it’s where the interview process comes into play. Interviews should be a 2-way conversation with you assessing them for suitability just as much as they’re assessing you. This is your opportunity to really delve into the reality of the job, what’s expected, what’s the day-to-day reality, and what skills are essential. You need to find out as much as you can about the culture, the role and the responsibilities so you can be confident that it will allow you the opportunity to live in your zone of genius as much as possible.

 Focusing on your strengths doesn’t mean ignoring your weaknesses. As a leader, you need to be aware of your weaknesses and how they might impact your performance or others. But that doesn’t mean we should obsess over them. We’re all human, we all have things that we’re good at and things that we’re not so good at.

Instead it’s about celebrating what we’re great at, and finding ways to deal with the tasks we don’t enjoy or we are weaker at. It’s about pushing your strengths as far as you can, utilising them every single day and building your career around your areas of brilliance.

When we do that we’ll find that our path to success is easier, and more importantly, far more enjoyable. Nobody wants to spend their life in a job they don’t feel confident in. By focusing on our strengths we can build careers where we thrive and have a positive impact on the business and those around us. ​