Appreciate your Uniqueness
Begin to love your strengths and claim them.
The next step to developing your mental and emotional fitness is through “Claiming Your Strengths”. By taking ownership of how you think, feel and behave, you will develop an intentional understanding of your innate talents and how they present within a team. Here you will learn how to use your innate talents to achieve specific performance objectives. You will become aware of your innate yearnings, identify thoughts and emotions and be mindful and manage your self-talk.
Remember, up until now most of us have been taught to think, feel and act in similar ways so we can ‘fit in’ with society. And let’s face it, sometimes we don’t want to feel like we’re different. We want friends and we want to get along. So how do we do this if we are all different?
We embrace our uniqueness and accept our differences as being powerful and interesting.
Is it easy? No. But there are simple steps we can make to achieve this. As it has been said, “it may not happen overnight, but it will happen.”
Why: so we can excel at what we’re good at.
How: by appreciating ourselves for who we are and what we’re good at.
Utilising your talent themes:
Using your strengths helps build confidence by reinforcing your sense of competence and capability.
When faced with challenges, relying on your strengths provides a reliable foundation, fostering resilience and a positive mindset.
Focusing on strengths ensures that your efforts align with your natural abilities, making achievements more efficient and rewarding.
Aligning with your objectives helps you choose activities and careers that resonate with your talents, increasing satisfaction and engagement.
Focusing on strengths allows you to work smarter, not harder, by channeling energy into areas where you can have the greatest impact.
Enhancing productivity helps you eliminate frustration from trying to excel in areas of weakness, enabling better use of time and resources.
Acting on your strengths helps you contribute your best self in relationships, whether personal or professional.
Understanding and utilising strengths in collaboration with others improves teamwork and builds trust. Imagine what it would be like if you knew the thinking and feeling patterns of the people close to you, and they knew yours?
While focusing on strengths, you can also use them to manage and mitigate weaknesses, or lesser strengths.
Acting on strengths allows you to approach challenges from a place of competence, making weaknesses less of a barrier to success.
Strengths are not static; they grow stronger with intentional use. Acting on them helps you refine and expand your capabilities.
By claiming your strengths you support continuous learning, as you explore new ways to apply your strengths in different contexts.
You are naturally more engaged and motivated when you work in alignment with your strengths.
Acting on your strengths leads to greater enthusiasm, creativity, and fulfilment.
In team settings, acting on strengths enables you to provide unique value, complementing others’ abilities.
Teams thrive when individuals act on their individual strengths, and as a unit they become team strengths. This leads to better performance, innovation, and greater results.
Acting on strengths allows you to live in alignment with who you truly are, reducing stress and promoting well-being.
Focusing on your strengths helps you make decisions and take actions that reflect your values and talents, fostering authenticity. This focus also allows you to understand why you are thinking and feeling a particular way and whether they are moving toward or away from what you are trying to achieve.
To Do List...
- Reflective Questions
- Download Action Guide
- Activity: Appreciation
- Activity: Talent Guide
What was your first impression when you read your Insight Guide? Did anything surprise you?
How have your thoughts been since then? Have you begun to ‘catch yourself’ using your strengths?
Now that you are gaining a better understanding of your strengths, what specific outcome would you like to achieve? Is it the same as the one we spoke about in session 1?
To meet your expectations what do you want to achieve through coaching?
How can you begin to consciously apply your talents to drive toward this outcome? Can you name 2 or 3 specific actions?
Similar to your Insight guide, you will find your action planning guide on the Gallup website. Simply log in and download from the resources section.
Read through this guide and choose two or three specific actions to focus on for the week.
Let’s now look at each of your individual themes and answer similar questions more specifically. For example, answer each question five times relating to each theme using your workbook, or download the word or PDF version, or simply write your answers in a journal or diary. Remember, you will grow your knowledge and understanding by handwriting your answers. Answer as little or as much detail as you feel worthy.
Each question in this exercise relates to one of the four domains: executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking. The goal is to help you understand how you can use your strengths to support each domain. For example, you might use your relationship-building strengths to help with execution. This approach encourages you to lean into your strengths instead of relying on weaker areas from other domains. Does that make sense?
How does this theme help me get things done (executing)?
How do I inspire others using this theme (influencing)?
How does this theme help me develop stronger relationships (relationship building)?
How does this theme help me think and plan (strategic thinking)?
Appreciating your top five Signature themes imagine how they will drive your performance in the future? This may be applied to something you want to achieve or an everyday situation. Answer the following questions using your workbook, or download the word or PDF version (click on the link), or simply write your answers in a journal or diary. Remember, you will grow your knowledge and understanding by handwriting your answers. Answer as little or as much detail as you feel worthy.
1) How would you describe yourself?
2) How can I use my talents to achieve what I want to achieve?
3) How can I use my talents to communicate my ideas, hopes and dreams?
4) How can I use my talents to build, positive fulfilling relationships?
5) How can I be myself while belonging to a team?
And remember, now is the time to complete the Weekly Wellbeing Check.