In our ever-evolving world, even as we face innumerable challenges, a remarkable shift within individuals, teams, and organizations is happening. This is a shift in perspective from deficit-oriented and fixing what’s wrong to a strengths-based one that focuses on what works.
Each day, I contribute what I can to accelerating this shift with coaching and webinar clients, on teams and within organizations, and within my circle of family and friends.
When you engage your strengths, you increase the potential for excellence and goodness. Similarly, when you appreciate the strengths of others, you create a ripple effect of positivity that enriches lives with meaning, happiness, and success.
In other words, your strengths unlock a world of possibilities for yourself and those with whom you interact. They can become pathways to enhance your work, parenting, relationships, and even your health.
Where do you see yourself contributing to this positive shift?
Wherever you are on your strengths journey, I invite you to take a step to live into them even more. Once you’ve identified and explored your strengths, there are so many simple and effective ways to take another step or two. I highlighted a few below:
- Apply them in fresh ways and settings. Learn about balancing strengths, avoiding overuse or underuse, and using them optimally. Or experiment with your strengths in various relationships, at home, and at work. Discover where your strengths shine the brightest. If you’re interested in a structured practice, consider exploring my book “30 Days of Character Strengths: A Guided Practice to Ignite Your Best.”
- Develop your strengths fluency. Being able to notice, name, and appreciate strengths in action helps develop your “strengths fluency.” As with a foreign language, knowing and practicing the strengths language is key to communicating and navigating new terrain. As I outline in this blog post, strengths-spotting can be done at work, in relationships, and for personal growth. What if your family shared examples of each others’ strengths around the dinner table? What if you shared a strengths-spotting email with a colleague whom you respect or feel close to? Or better yet, with someone who frustrates you regularly?
- Integrate your strengths into daily activities. Consider your essential signature strengths and tap into them as you go about your daily to-do list. Notice what changes when you align your strengths with these activities. For example, if you hold a leadership role, create opportunities for those you serve to engage their top strengths. If you’re doing household chores, try amping up the fun factor with humor. As a parent, help your child express zest by engaging in vigorous physical activities after a day of sitting in class.
The possibilities are limitless. Try one or all of these actions, and observe how they cultivate excellence and goodness in your life. Share your newfound wisdom with others. Together, we will strengthen this remarkable shift from wrong to strong in our families, teams, organizations, and communities.