What are your strengths? Do you know? What would you say if someone asked you “what are your strengths”? Why are they important to you? Do you use your strengths everyday at home? at work?

According to Marcus Buckingham, in Trombone Player Wanted videos, less than 2 out of 10 people play to strengths at work every day. He also says it’s not our organizations that hold us back, but rather we hold ourselves back by holding onto to thoughts that keep us from playing to those strengths. Buckingham, who worked for over 20 years for the Gallup Organization, says the data tells us we have three myths we believe that hold us back.

Myth #1 – We change as we grow older. We don’t really change at all – we may make adjustments to our environment, but we don’t really change. If you loved music as a child, you probably still love music. If you had a keen sense of order when you were younger, you probably crave organization in both your home and work environment. We don’t change all that much. So the strengths you demonstrated as a child are most likely still your strengths!

Myth #2 – We need to give our weaknesses the most attention! We need to improve ourselves in areas that we aren’t as capable. You certainly shouldn’t ignore those areas, but you will gain more traction if you put the same amount of effort and time into taking your strengths to the next level and you’ll enjoy doing it more!

Myth #3 – We need to do whatever our team needs us to do! Although it is likely that some part of our workday will be filled by necessary tasks that might not utilize our strengths, we must take individual responsibility to find additional work that does play to our strengths. According to Buckingham, we need to step forward and volunteer our strengths for our team, for the benefit of the team and the organization! It’s only when everyone volunteers their strengths do we have a team functioning in the “performing” mode and making a significant contribution to the organization.

If you are interested in learning more about your personal strengths you can take a Strengths Finder assessment either through the book Strengthsfinders 2.0 by Tom Rath or Now Play to Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham.

Thanks to Karla Barry, one of our Corporate Learning and Development Specialists for sharing some of what she teaches our employees through her classes on Strength Finders!