Nic Jackson’s Personal Strengths

This blog Nic Jackson’s Personal Strengths, tells you about my personal strengths. Strengthscope states each individual has seven significant strengths, these are the seven of their twenty-four strengths which energise you the most. Along with strengths which are bubbling under (almost as energising as their significant seven) these can be dialled up when you need them to achieve your goal. I thought it might be interesting for you to hear about my significant seven strengths, what energises me and how I use them to achieve my goals.

Common sense

This is one of Strengthscope’s Thinking strengths, I get energy from making pragmatic judgements based practical thinking and previous experiences. When faced with a challenge I love to reflect and think about what’s worked for me before in a similar situation. I often rely on the more obvious solutions and it takes a bit of energy for me to be creative and to think outside of the box. I often seek feedback from others in terms of what has worked for them from my process and what improvements I can make. I have to make sure I build in time to consciously consider new ideas or solutions as I wont naturally do this, I put time in my diary and clear my desk – sit with a sharpie and blank page to push myself to generate those new ideas.

Compassion

This is one of Strengthscope’s Relational strengths, I naturally have a deep and genuine concern for the well-being and welfare of others. I get energy from putting others needs ahead of my own, I check in with people I’m working with to see if they need any support particularly during times I know will be stressful for them. In my corporate days I got a lot of energy from designing and supporting new starters through the induction process. Sometimes I have to be aware of the time that goes into this, and make an assertive effort to put time in to focus on my own goals. Through my coaching sessions I have the ability to be able to ask powerful questions to allow my coachees to come up with their own solutions, rather than taking their challenges on myself which stops this strength going into overdrive.

Developing Others

This is another Relational strength, I get so much energy from supporting others development to help them achieve their goals and fulfil their potential. I am so fortunate that I get to use this strength every day in all my sessions, I get energy from each session I deliver! I really believe people should look for oppourtunities to grow and develop. Some people come to me as a business owner almost looking for a performance management tool, coaching is not that. Coaching is a way to help individuals reflect and really step up in using their strengths in reaching their goals. Fortunately for me those with strength in developing others, naturally find it easy to identify individual’s strengths and help them develop them.

Efficiency

This is one of Strengthscope’s Execution strengths, I take a well-ordered and methodological approach to tasks to achieve planned outcomes. I very naturally make and follow a plan – why wouldn’t you?! It comes so naturally I have formed a plan before I’ve even consciously tried. This is something to bear in mind with strengths, remember the team. Just because something comes naturally to you because its your strength, we all have different strengths so when people are doing things in a more random way I have to dial down my strength. I take real steps to appreciate and see the value in that. When I start working on something new, I love putting in a process to make sure things run smoothly. Getting things organised gives me real energy, so organising an teams event is great for my energy levels. When my plan to achieve my business goal needs to change, this can be tough for me. I have to make sure I can see the reasons or value to deviating from the plan, and often my result focus strength in combination with my efficiency strength motivates me in reaching the goal through flexing the plan.

Empathy

This is another one of the Relational strengths, I naturally identify with other people’s situations and can see things clearly from their perspective. Putting myself in someone else’s shoes isn’t an issue for me. I love to really actively listen, to ask questions to understand peoples underlying concerns and feelings, rather than just what they are initially saying. I get energy from understanding others individual experiences, perspectives and ideas. During coaching sessions this is a great starting point to then move on to ask powerful questions to challenge individual’s thought processes and assumptions to problem solve. I have to be careful to ensure I don’t make assumptions on other’s viewpoints, I make a point of building in time to question assumptions and seek facts on other’s perspectives. I often use this strength to encourage others to look at from their colleague’s perspectives in my coaching sessions as this can be so valuable. 

Enthusiasm

This is one of Strengthscope’s Emotional strengths, I naturally demonstrate passion and energy when communicating goals, beliefs or ideas I feel strongly about. I can’t help but talk with emotion and passion about people and things that really excite me. Whether it is my idea or something I’ve researched if I believe in it, I can’t help but share the message and recommend it to others. I have to make sure I focus the energy and the enthusiasm I have on achieving my goals, it can be easy to lose focus with too much enthusiasm. I also have to make sure my enthusiasm doesn’t rail road others and I give others the opportunity to share their views, thankfully my empathy and Compassion tend to stop this being an issue as I get energy from getting those views and opinions.

Results FocuS

This is another one of my Execution strengths, it means my focus is always on the end result, driving tasks and projects to completion. I get real energy in driving what I’m on to completion, as a part of doing this I love to problem solve and remove blockers that arise. For me goal setting is something which comes very naturally, I do it for myself without thinking. I also help my coachees to generate a goal for themselves before the session so we are focussed on what we are discussing and also ensure they come out of their session with actions to take to move things forward. Having results focus as a strength means I am fast moving in achieving my goals, this can mean I move on to my next goal very quickly – making sure I build in time to reflect on what’s gone well and lessons learnt from experiences helps me to learn from tasks not just complete them and move on to the next.
 
So that’s a bit about what makes me, me and what drives me and Personal Strengths Coaching towards it’s goals. I hope you’ve found Nic Jackson’s Personal Strengths interesting.
 
If you want to learn more about your significant seven strengths, please get in touch.