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Taking this month’s theme to heart, our girl Frankie called in Oprah for a little help to find her career G spot! This month she talks us through how you too can utilize your individual strengths to shine in all facets of your life, including your career!
.jpg) What’s the deal?
I, like many young women, am searching for a meaningful career where I enjoy getting up in the morning. I want to contribute to society, earn good money and be happy. When I heard about the free online eight part workshop I thought, ‘This is it! A way to pinpoint my strengths and work towards my perfect job, now!’ Each session runs for approximately 20 minutes and helps you identify your individual strengths and weaknesses. It then teaches you how to utilize them to love your job. Each session can be listened to via iTunes or streamed as a webcast. Oprah’s involved? Of course! We know I love Oprah and now I love her friend Marcus Buckingham, a well known career expert too! As well as being a gorgeous English graduate from Cambridge, he has revolutionized the world of employee productivity and leadership; spending two decades helping people find their own strengths and long-lasting personal success. .jpg) What’s in it for me? Most workers spend 90% of their day on things they don’t like doing! Buckingham aims at reducing that to only the essential 25%, and then tries to make those things fun too! His biggest catch cry is, ‘Stop trying to improve your weaknesses!’, as most people do not change; they simply become more intense versions of themselves. Buckingham looks at making sure we work at intensifying our strengths! What should I tell my boss so she’ll help me? Managers should be rejoicing your interest in identifying your strengths, so tell your boss “Buckingham says, ‘companies that focus on cultivating employees' strengths rather than simply improving their weaknesses stand to dramatically increase efficiency while allowing for maximum personal growth and success.” She will definitely be impressed!
.jpg) Sounds great! How do I get started?1: Click here to visit Oprah's site and download the homework sheets. Yes, there are questions to be answered between sessions.
2: The first session asks you to keep a list of things throughout a week that you love (feel strong doing) and loath (feel weak doing) e.g. ‘I felt strong when I was being spontaneous and taking a risk’ and ‘I felt weak when I was wasting time’.
3: Watch the classes in order and listen to Buckingham’s great ideas and activities. He discussed, ‘strength statements’, the Peter principle, goal setting, myth busting and much much more.
What are my favourite lessons? I learnt a lot from this course which I have been able to use straight away in my work and home life. The idea that, ‘just because you are good at something does not mean it’s a strength!’ opened my eyes to the guilt I felt from not enjoying things others think I am good at. Use the table below to find out if the activities you undertake are hobbies, strengths or weaknesses. We are aiming for all yes. ACTIVITY |
BEFORE
You actively look forward to doing it
| DURING You are focused on it and time flies by | AFTER
You feel stronger and revitalized | SKILLS
You are very good at it | Hobby | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Strength | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Weakness | No | No | No | Yes | Weakness | No | No | No | No |
Then, once we have understood what a strength is we can use these strategies to improve it.
Strength Strategy – ‘FREE’
Focus: Identify your strengths in your current job, how can we do more of these? Release: Identify missed strength opportunities and deliberately try to incorporate them in your daily role Educate: Is there a skill you could learn to improve a strength? Expand: Push your job towards your strengths, highly successful people don’t ‘find’ their perfect jobs, they build them
 I’ve found my G spot, now I’m hungry for more job satisfaction…The Oprah website has lots of information on Buckingham and his work, but if you decide to buy the most recent Gallup book, ‘Strength Finder 2.0’ you can use the code from there and log onto StrengthsFinder.com to take the ‘strength finder quiz’. Oprah has interviewed lots of interesting business people and employment specialists. Click here to visit Oprah's site to get career advice from 'The Donald' (Donald Trump, including his controversial answers to ‘Should women use sex appeal to get ahead?’ and ‘Do you think it's a sign of weakness if a woman cries at the workplace?’ Whatever you do, do it regularly and do it with conviction. The only person who can best assess opportunities for you, is you! I found taking the course helped me believe I have individual strengths and that these strengths should be maximized in my work for the greatest results. Once you know who you are, shine. Love Frankie xxx
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