How do you know if a role plays to your strengths?
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Having a role that plays to your strengths is a huge bonus for your career. Being successful in such a role becomes almost effortless for you, and is a lot of fun! That said, it can sometimes be difficult to spot the right role for your strengths. Many people find it hard to match roles to their strengths – for most it’s an iterative process that can take years of trial and error – but there are ways to get there faster!
Firstly, do you honestly know what your strengths are?
You can’t find a role that plays to your strengths if you don’t know what they are in the first place! If you are not 100% sure about your strengths, there are two strategies you can employ.
Once you have a clearer idea of your strengths and weaknesses, talk to people about roles they think would be a good fit for you. This is often a lot quicker and less frustrating than poring over internal adverts! Talk to HR, senior managers, contacts in other departments. If you then investigate roles that are suggested to you, you will be sending out strong signals about your interest – and opportunities may emerge with or without a role being advertised.
Investigate the strengths required in a role
Talk to the manager of a role you are interested in. What strengths are really useful in the role? What weaknesses make someone unsuitable for the job? You can also shadow and talk to jobholders – but it’s important to realise that jobholders will usually tell you ‘to be successful you need to be like me’ – so you should ideally shadow and question several jobholders. Make sure that you get a recommendation on who to shadow – you want to be shadowing the best! What do they all have in common? What can you tell about whether the job fits you, just from seeing them carry out the role? This may refine your view of your strengths.
Remember that no role is “one size fits all”
One of my first-ever roles was working in a call centre. Our call-centre had at least a couple of dozen team leaders who were all ostensibly doing the same role. All were very different people – and yet all were good at what they did and were successful. Are there many different ways to do a job well? How much scope is there to shape the job in your own image?
Compare your strengths to those required
Start to make a comparison between your own strengths and those you think would be useful for the job – just remember that the answer won’t be black and white. You won’t either have all of the strengths for the job or none of them – it’s a continuum. Your fit might be 50%, or 75% or 98% (clearly the higher the fit the better!). The question you need to ask yourself is what level of fit do you need, to have the confidence to apply and do the job?
Sometimes you should take your weaknesses into account
Sometimes it’s simpler to look at yourself and think about what you’re less good at, and exclude roles based on your weaknesses as well as moving towards roles because of your strengths. Think about two things – what do you tend to procrastinate, and what do you hate doing? If you’re applying for a role, and there are lots of things that you either hate or which make you procrastinate, a warning bell should be ringing.
TAKE AWAY
It’s hard to find ‘the perfect job’ that matches all of your strengths and exposes none of your weaknesses. Think more in terms of “where do I have the highest level of fit?” – and in terms of “how can I shape this job to capitalise on my strengths?”
Firstly, do you honestly know what your strengths are?
You can’t find a role that plays to your strengths if you don’t know what they are in the first place! If you are not 100% sure about your strengths, there are two strategies you can employ.
- You can buy and use a strengths tool.
Either one like ours – which is a reusable pack of strengths cards (forgive the plug) – or access an online tool that will ask you a series of questions and provide an automated report and suggestions. - Do a simple 360-degree feedback exercise.
Ask your peers (your team, your manager and any others you think might be interesting) and ask them to tell you they think your 3-5 best strengths are and your 2-3 most challenging weaknesses. Pull the information together for some helpful insights. You’re going to want to find roles where success depends on your strengths, and where your weaknesses are not all that important.
Once you have a clearer idea of your strengths and weaknesses, talk to people about roles they think would be a good fit for you. This is often a lot quicker and less frustrating than poring over internal adverts! Talk to HR, senior managers, contacts in other departments. If you then investigate roles that are suggested to you, you will be sending out strong signals about your interest – and opportunities may emerge with or without a role being advertised.
Investigate the strengths required in a role
Talk to the manager of a role you are interested in. What strengths are really useful in the role? What weaknesses make someone unsuitable for the job? You can also shadow and talk to jobholders – but it’s important to realise that jobholders will usually tell you ‘to be successful you need to be like me’ – so you should ideally shadow and question several jobholders. Make sure that you get a recommendation on who to shadow – you want to be shadowing the best! What do they all have in common? What can you tell about whether the job fits you, just from seeing them carry out the role? This may refine your view of your strengths.
Remember that no role is “one size fits all”
One of my first-ever roles was working in a call centre. Our call-centre had at least a couple of dozen team leaders who were all ostensibly doing the same role. All were very different people – and yet all were good at what they did and were successful. Are there many different ways to do a job well? How much scope is there to shape the job in your own image?
Compare your strengths to those required
Start to make a comparison between your own strengths and those you think would be useful for the job – just remember that the answer won’t be black and white. You won’t either have all of the strengths for the job or none of them – it’s a continuum. Your fit might be 50%, or 75% or 98% (clearly the higher the fit the better!). The question you need to ask yourself is what level of fit do you need, to have the confidence to apply and do the job?
Sometimes you should take your weaknesses into account
Sometimes it’s simpler to look at yourself and think about what you’re less good at, and exclude roles based on your weaknesses as well as moving towards roles because of your strengths. Think about two things – what do you tend to procrastinate, and what do you hate doing? If you’re applying for a role, and there are lots of things that you either hate or which make you procrastinate, a warning bell should be ringing.
TAKE AWAY
It’s hard to find ‘the perfect job’ that matches all of your strengths and exposes none of your weaknesses. Think more in terms of “where do I have the highest level of fit?” – and in terms of “how can I shape this job to capitalise on my strengths?”