CAREER: HOW KNOWING YOUR STRENGTHS COULD BE A GAME CHANGER

Where do we spend the most time in our adult life? Work. The average person spends 90,000 hours at their place of employment over a lifetime. Research shows that 80% of people are dissatisfied with their jobs. So bottom line is we spend most of our time and energy in the workplace and are pretty miserable while we’re there. Sounds pretty bleak but there is an answer to these depressing facts. That answer is knowing your Strengths and having an opportunity to use them consistently in the workplace.

What can you do if you are one of the 80% who spend the majority of your time daydreaming of when you are able to walk out the doors for the day or going broke buying lottery tickets? Before coming to the conclusion you are in the wrong job, ask yourself these questions:

1. What are your passions? What causes/activities/things get you energized?
2. What comes natural to you in your job (talking to people, solving problems, executing a plan, organizing, etc.)
3. Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?

Some people may be in the right job but are not leveraging their Strengths in order to get the job done efficiently. Let’s take Susan for example. She works as a data entry clerk and is a go-getter. She is the first one to get to the office and the last one to leave. She wants to do well but is having a hard time keeping up with her co-workers because she isn’t very organized by nature. When she left for the day she would feel useless and unmotivated because she felt like she wasn’t getting things done because her disorganization was distracting her from reaching her goals.

Upon taking the Clifton StrengthsFinder Assessment the results revealed her top Strength as Achiever. An Achiever has to feel like they are constantly accomplishing something everyday and work very well making lists that they can check off. Every morning she put all her detailed tasks on a white board which helped her measure out her day efficiently. She soon began to feel much more satisfied in seeing what she was accomplishing throughout the day and became more organized and better at her job as a result.  

Understanding your Strengths and coming up with strategies to use them in your job may be the injection of life you need to bring purpose and excitement back into the workplace! That is, until you win the lottery.

Want to understand your unique talents? Go to: www.gallupstrengthscenter.com 

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