If you are seeking to make a career pivot, and cross over industry borders, like me, it’s important to know inside info. By inside info, I mean your strengths and traits, and how your strengths (power skills) combine with your unique background, with the goal of productively aligning your strengths with your future role, colleagues, and organizational culture. You have probably heard the term “working in your zone”, meaning at your fullest and best capacity… well, strengths finder guides you to “your zone” without years of guesswork. It also guides you on how to discuss and align your strengths with future roles and organizations. It’s like a personal coach in a book!
I had planned on writing this post last week but decided to “simmer” in my strength finders results for a week or so. As an amateur food science nerd and cook creating new healthy, plant-based food options, along with an eventual cookbook, I know “simmering” can be good for the development of food flavors and textures (food strengths!). Food helps develop a healthy body and mind, and a healthy food supply chain is aligned with health strength.
Following up from my previous post, I completed reading the Strengths finder book and took the test. My 5 Strengths (traits, power skills, transferrable skills) are Strategic, Command, Achiever, Deliberative and Analytical. In that order and in combination together. Like a recipe for success! Food for thought… What does this mean? The results of the Gallup Strengths finder review produce a lot of information and delves in to how to understand and maximize your strengths, which can also be considered innate traits and skills. The results lay out how to contribute to your role and organization in alignment with what gives you your unique edge or offering.
Are these strengths transferrable skills? They could be. They are part of what I bring with me to the “table”, and don’t need to be developed or unfolded with training… they are already at the starting line, revving their engine, ready to be applied to new pursuits, which for me is crossing over industry borders to the healthcare sector.
With a leading strength of Strategy, I create alternative ways to proceed, and faced with any given scenario, can quickly spot relevant patterns and issues. Command? The short version is ability to take control of a situation and make decisions. Achiever? A strong inner drive — an innate source of intensity, energy and power that motivates to work hard to get things done. Deliberative? Thorough and conscientious, through natural anticipation and careful thought process, knowing how to reduce risks and prevent problems from arising. Analytical? A natural ability to investigate, diagnose and identify patterns resulting in valuable insights that are logical and well-thought-out. How about you?
Combine the 5 strengths together with experience? Well, that is a story I could tell for hours. My career story isn’t the point here though. The point is once you or I or we identify our true strengths, our innate powers, the process of aligning to roles and organizations becomes much less of a guessing game or hunt, and more of a calibrated next step into working to our fullest. It’s about evaluating what was, and what can be in our next steps. It’s about focusing on what power skills you bring with you and aligning those to your current or next role and organization. It’s about having a better conversation with yourself and your teams about how to position everyone for success. As I go through the process of next steps, I can conduct much more focused dialogues on roles and how my background aligns to other industries and organizations.
If you are going to make a change, make it a well aligned and great one… make it one that provides fulfillment. Fulfillment unfolds itself when you are working to your strengths. We all have many other quantifiable skills that are transferrable. Simmer in your strengths and bring it all together in a powerful package to align to whatever may be your next steps personally or professionally!