19 Jan Leadership: Enjoy Your Work! (Strengths)
This is Part Two of “Enjoy Your Work” series.
We wake, move through the tempo of grooming, burnt toast, strong coffee and rush off to work! In traffic, we listen to phone messages, news, music and foresee the day loaded with problems to solve. At times, this can be overwhelming. We anticipate what the boss may demand, become apprehensive with production quotas for the month, and of course, there is a time-sensitive project needing immediate attention.
Many would like to turn the car around, head back and hide under the covers.
My last posting, the focus was on “purpose”; helping you stay motivated during the hard and easy times. Everyday you live with your purpose; intentional living with a passionate mission to contribute what you do best. Purpose plays a weighty part in planting and growing a fruitful harvest at work. It powerfully stirs and shapes the emotional, mental, and physical center of your “being” and the work you do.
Purpose can be centrally integrated with your strengths. Together, they can yield enjoyment in work.
If purpose is the inspiring point, strengths encircle and naturally guide you. Your innate strengths can be integrated with the core influence of purpose (see diagram below). Strengths are the natural instinctive talents that are special to you. They define your thinking, feeling and behavior.
Harnessing your strengths is quite telling; bringing individuality and significance to your role and your company. You have valued treasures to offer to your leadership peers and teammates. Accomplishments are grounded in your strength DNA. It’s what is unique, remarkable and instinctive about you.
Consider your strengths like the power of the Colorado River; sculpting steep canyon walls. It’s the primary reason why the grandeur of the Grand Canyon exists. The vigorous watercourse is vital to the canyon, carving majestic canyons, and adding life to the desolate chasm. Water speed, currents, and temperatures, work with weather and geology to form the most incredible canyon in the world. The water mightily flows. In the same way, let your strengths flow – shaping the lives of others.
Fully operating with your strengths sparks higher engagement. When you are able to infuse your strengths, productivity and service to customers improves immensely. Strengths add a dimension to your leadership labor; helping others get things done and helping your company prosper. The strength zone is where you want to mentally and physically operate.
An important reconsideration: stop spending time trying to change a weakness. Manage them – don’t try to make them a strength. Don’t try to be someone you are not. Not everyone is a Steph Curry, an Albert Einstein, Richard Branson, or Steve Jobs. Utilizing their distinct strengths, they have made a powerful impact upon the world. Your prompt is to find out what you do naturally well.
When you enjoy your work, you bring enjoyment to others.
It’s empowering bringing purpose and strengths to leadership, management and your team. It’s energizing to serve people through your strengths (and the strengths of others), and finding the right roles for your people to thrive. Hire right, expect right, motivate and develop right – using strengths.
Work enjoyment happens when you employ strengths that mature for the betterment of others. Sure, there will be good and difficult days. Yet, through it all, leading with purpose and integrating your strengths helps you move enthusiastically forward – having fun and finding fulfillment in your work endeavors.
If you need help discovering your 34 talent themes (through the Gallup Clifton On Line assessment) and learning how to effectively apply as strengths for peak performance at work, please give me a call. It’s an exciting and enjoyable journey.
Don’t turn the car around…it’s time to let your strengths flow.