I primarily focus on teaching that skills are translatable and transferrable. But knowledge and experience are also very important as we transition to the world of entrepreneurship. In addition to skills, knowledge and experience, each of our strengths play a vital role in how each of us brings our unique selves into the world of entrepreneurship.
Quiz on strengths
I love taking online quizzes, assessments. They could almost be about anything. I love to see if the results come out the way I guessed they would. Recently I tool a strengths assessment. And per this particular assessment, these are my top 5 which are right on I believe:
- Creativity – Thinking of novel and productive ways to conceptualize and do things; includes artistic achievement but is not limited to it
- Judgment – Thinking things through and examining them from all sides; not jumping to conclusions; being able to change one’s mind in light of evidence; weighing all evidence fairly.
- Forgiveness – Forgiving those who have done wrong; accepting others’ shortcomings; giving people a second chance; not being vengeful.
- Honesty – Speaking the truth but more broadly presenting oneself in a genuine way and acting in a sincere way; being without pretense; taking responsibility for one’s feelings and actions.
- Gratitude – Being aware of and thankful for the good things that happen; taking time to express thanks.
Use your strengths
As my business coach and I discussed my results last week, I had a little bit of a challenge. She was asking questions and I just wasn’t able to give confident answers. I was asked how I could use my strengths to accomplish my business goals. She was kind, very patient, and rephrased the questions until I was able to answer the core question for each of my strengths.
I knew right off the bat that creativity helps with problem solving and there are a lot of problems when trying to obtain any worthwhile goal. Check. And honesty and judgment are always good, not matter what. Check.
But the other two: forgiveness and gratitude. These seem such a natural part of me, I wasn’t sure how to apply them specifically to the business me. Then it hit me. I knew why I was getting stuck. Coincidently I had heard earlier in the day about how some folks focus on getting better and don’t really think about what they are already good at. That’s pretty much me: process improvement all the way.
That coaching call reminded me that it’s great to focus on getting better but it’s also important to use my strengths to help me get better. As my business coach put it: “Use my strengths to make this happen”…with “this” being anything.
In the comments below: please share what strengths you will leverage as you transition into entrepreneurship.
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