Taking responsibility for your career starts with an accurate assessment of your current skills.
Write down your three greatest strengths and your three most significant weaknesses. This requires reflection and seeking the views of people who won't mind telling you the truth. It takes a willingness to confront your weaknesses, fears, and blind spots.
Figure out what you genuinely enjoy doing. Then ask how well it matches what you currently do. Loving what you do gives you the strength to weather personal setbacks, overcome adversity, face and address your weaknesses, and work long hours required to reach your full potential.
An oversimplified understanding of what it means to be transparent can prevent your growth and limit your influence. When we feel out of our comfort zone, we can often use authenti...
In trying to improve our game, a firm sense of self is a compass, but when we want to change our game, a too rigid self-concept can prevent us from moving forward.
In global business, we often work with people who don't share our cultural norms. They may have a different expectation for how we should behave than what feels authentic.
In today's world of connectivity, how we present ourselves is a critical aspect of leadership. We have to carefully curate a persona and that can clash with our private sense of self.
There are two ways in which leaders develop their personal styles:
High self-monitors are naturally able to try on different styles until they find a good fit for themselves. They adapt to the demands of a situation without feeling fake. They care about managing their public image and may mask their vulnerability.
True-to-selfers tend to express what they really think and feel, even when it is counter to situational demands. It may make people question their ability to do the job.
You have to pick one or a few skills and get started on them and over time start to see what strengths emerge. Since you can find your strength and reach your potential through multiple domains, it doesn't matter so much where you start, as long as you follow two heuristics.
The 80/20 method: You can get 80 % proficiency in a subject in about 6 - 12 months.
The 10,000-hour rule: You can become an expert at something if you spend 10,000 hours of deliberate practice on it.
To go from zero to 80% (good enough) requires a different approach than that needed to get from 80% - 99% (world-class). The last 20% also requires a different level of commitment. For instance, Stephen King spent 6 - 8 hours daily for ten years before he succeeded as a commercial writer.
Think of something you want to improve about yourself. How would you categorize the thing you chose: Is it a strength or a weakness?In all likelihood, you chose a weakness. A study from 2016 found that we tend to see weaknesses as more changeable than strengths-which means we're more...
Although we usually see our weaknesses as more changeable than our strengths, research shows that we should not focus on improving our weak parts, but to develop our strengths.