Using Your Top Skills
Lesson from a 9 year old no. 1386
Hello YOU,
How has April started for you?
It’s half term here at Quest Quarters and the start of a VERY busy month (well, few months) of client work, which means that my mini people are in holiday club for most of the 2 week break. Being self-employed definitely means more time with my family in general, but I can’t coach people or really get my head stuck into writing training with mini people demanding entertainment and snacks every 3.5 minutes and so holiday clubs are a God-send for us.
My daughter had a football trial on the first morning of the club which meant it was closer to lunchtime when I dropped her off. As we got out of the car she said to me “I wonder if there will be anyone I know there?”
“Hmm, other than your brother I’m not sure who else is there. Does it matter?”
“Oh no” she said, “Making friends is one of my top skills. And if I only went to places where I already knew people I wouldn't have chance to use that skill!”
Huh.
I’m frequently amazed at the little pearls of wisdom that come from the mouths of my mini people. ‘Cos she’s not wrong, is she?
Recognising Your Top Skills
I pondered on this some more on my drive home. We’ve often talked with our minis about their top skills, and about the importance of practicing them, but what were MY top skills?
Growing up I would often be worried about saying I was good at something for fear of being branded a show-off, or cocky. It’s only in recent years that I’ve managed to change my mindset on that. But have I spent much time actively thinking about what my top skills are? No, I don’t think I have.
And so I wonder if the same applies to you? If you and I were stood across from each other right now and I asked you what your top skills are, would you be able to tell me? With confidence?
It’s Not All About the Weaknesses
Very often when it comes to leadership development we spend a great deal of time exploring a leader’s weaknesses and thinking about ways that they can improve them to take them from where they are, to where they want to be. I’m a big fan of this! But improving our weaknesses isn’t the only thing that’s going to help us grow, learn and improve as leaders; we need to harness our strengths too.
Think of your strengths like a muscle. Muscles grow when you use them, and if you stop using them so much they lose their strength (and as someone who used to take strength training pretty seriously and even had a brief flirt with Strong Woman competitions but who now struggles to pick up a suitcase for a girls weekend away, boy can I relate to that deterioration). It makes sense then that we continue to use, grow and develop our strengths as well as our weaknesses if we want to be better leaders.
Perhaps it’s your strengths that could actually help you improve your weaknesses? For example, building relationships is probably my biggest strength. I’ve yet to meet someone that I can’t find some kind of common ground with. This has always meant that if I’m struggling with something there’s a good chance I can find someone who could help me, and build the kind of relationship with them where they are happy to do so.
3 Questions to Ask Yourself
As we wrap up today, I want to leave you with 3 questions to help you get on track with finding and using your top skills.
What am I good at?
Where could I use my strengths more?
How could my strengths help me improve my weaknesses?
I’d love to know what you come up with! Let me know in the comments.