What are strengths and how can they benefit our career journey?

Submitting CV’s, writing applications and attending interviews are all designed to give us the chance to show our skillsets and suitability for new professional opportunities. It can be tempting to remain modest in the recruitment process but recognising our strengths within the interview process can help highlight our attributes.

“If the successful candidate, what could you bring to this role?”

This kind of question allows you to really drill down into your unique values and personal strengths that can make you the right person for the job. In this article, we are going to explore strengths-based approaches and how to maximise their impact when it comes to thinking about careers.

What are strengths?

Strengths are good or beneficial qualities or attribute of a person. They are actions we take that we can identify as finding easier to excel in or having a particular interest in. Strengths can be considered in many ways – some might be more personal than others. And sometimes strengths might relate to actions or skills we can be taught rather than something for which we have a natural predisposition. Your strengths might include:

• personality traits, such as honesty, loyalty or dedication
• practical skills, such as being able to drive or lift weights
• transferrable skills, such as organisation, time management and communication. 

We know that having a positive outlook can improve our career prospects because a can-do attitude allows us to think more creatively about solutions and engage with our colleagues on a mutually beneficial level.

Identifying our strengths is just one aspect of adopting a positive approach to the workplace by highlighting the things we are good at to face challenges that come our way with a clear and confident perspective. Whilst the first step is to identify the strengths we possess, it’s important to actually use them in order to share the benefits with everyone around us, including ourselves.

The strengths of our strengths

Strengths help us identify where we need to improve

Knowing what we are good at is also key for identifying areas in which we need to improve, enabling us to constantly develop and grow as professionals. It also shows employers that you are balanced and keen to develop experiences to constantly learn more.

For example, a strength might be that you are good at getting a wide range of tasks completed and meeting deadlines but, in doing so, you find it difficult to ‘switch off’ from work to avoid burnout. Your area of improvement, stemming from this strength, might be to build and maintain boundaries to achieve a healthy work-life balance.

Strengths allow us to make informed decisions about working life

Tools like skills assessments are a good starting point in allowing us to identify strengths and potential skills and rank our priorities when it comes to thinking about our interests and working culture. To fulfil a rewarding career, it is necessary to make sure our interests match the workplace, and we are put in a position that maximises our strengths.

For example, someone who identifies a strength in their organisational skills and thrives in a busy environment might be more suited to a role in a nursery setting than someone who feels their strengths lie in analytics. Equally, someone with a keen interest in sustainability might benefit from a setting with eco priorities.

Strengths create a positive culture

It feels good to know we are good at something and our strengths in the workplace are no different. Identifying our strengths and putting these skills in action help to sustain a ‘can do’ approach to our everyday tasks and the challenges we might experience too. It’s also shown to make us more productive!

Strengths allow us to grow!

There are many skills training programmes available for a wide range of employment opportunities that allow you to cultivate your strengths.

If you are aged between 11-30, Youth Employment UK offer a wide range of skills training to help you grow as an individual based on widening your strengths.

Key takeaways

Our strengths play a key role in our professional trajectory, allowing us to identify areas we excel in and help us improve in those we aren’t so good at…yet! Knowing what our strengths are and the potential they have for our working life can contribute to create a positive culture for ourselves and those around us, framed on respect for individuality and supporting each other to thrive.

Take a skills assessment today to think about your areas of strength and the ways you might develop moving forward!