Leveraging Your Strengths for a Powerful Personal Brand

What are your strengths?

We all have strengths, and I would even argue that what you may call a weakness is a strength. It is just a strength that is not as strong as your other strengths.

When it comes to leadership in business, do you play to your strengths? People and workplaces are positive and productive when everyone plays to their strengths, enhancing results.

Awareness of your strengths is important as they will support you in achieving your goals, experiencing the success you want and contributing to life satisfaction and well-being. Research by the Berkeley Well-Being Institute has shown that strengths such as gratitude, hope, and love are most likely to contribute to life satisfaction.

When you leverage your strengths and lean into them, your reputation will be influenced by how you stand out in your workplace and community. This is because your reputation is influenced by how others perceive you based on their impressions, relationships, and communication. 

When you can leverage your strengths and use them to be clear about how you want people to see you, this is more about your brand , which is more intention-based on how you represent yourself. Who you are and what you stand for significantly impacts how you show up as a leader and your level of impact. This relates to your character, which is made up of your integrity and your intent, according to Stephen M.R. Covey’s book 'The Speed of Trust'. The other key component of trust is competence, which relates to your capability and results. Your strengths are key in how you show up with integrity and intent to leverage your capability and get results. This is what business is all about, and your brand reflects how you want to be perceived as a leader and in business. As Marcus Buckingham reminds us, “You will excel only by maximising your strengths, never by fixing your weaknesses.”

According to the VIA Institute on Character, six virtues encapsulate character strengths, which are:

Wisdom and Knowledge

This virtue is about curiosity and creativity to gain perspective and wisdom and love what we learn. The strengths that accompany this virtue involve acquiring and using knowledge - creativity, curiosity, judgment, and love of learning.

Courage

This virtue relates to how persistent and brave we are and that the more we are, the more our integrity is enhanced because it results in feeling more courageous. Strengths that come with this virtue involve accomplishing goals in the face of things that oppose it - bravery, perseverance, honesty, and zest.

Humanity 

We are attracted to people who treat others with appreciation, respect, and kindness. Strengths accompanying this virtue include caring about others - love, kindness, and social intelligence.  

Justice 

This virtue has been demonstrated by many; a great example is Gandhi. Strengths accompanying this virtue include building a healthy and stable community - teamwork, fairness, and leadership.

Temperance 

The virtue of temperance is expressed by the absence of arrogance, excess or being out of balance. It is demonstrated through forgiveness, mercy, humility and being in control of our behaviour. Strengths included in this virtue are those that protect against excess - forgiveness, humility, prudence, and self-regulation. 

Transcendence 

This virtue is demonstrated by appreciating human potential, the universe, and all within it. Strengths accompanying this virtue include those that forge connections to the larger universe and provide meaning - appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humour, and spirituality.

Much research is available on why knowing your character strengths will influence you to be a better leader - if you wish to be. According to an article by Macquarie Advisors, “When we think of our strengths in the workplace, we often think about our skills and overlook our character.” This is particularly true for business leaders, who rely heavily on their skills to build trust with their teams and peers. According to The VIA Institute on Character, character strengths, like creativity, perseverance, fairness, and teamwork, represent our positive personality. In other words, our core capacities for thinking, feeling, and behaving in ways that benefit others and us. The characteristics that come most naturally to us are our signature strengths. Signature strengths make us feel authentic, alive, and engaged, leading to better business performance.

When we can tap into our strengths, there are definite benefits:

 Here are three easy steps to help you leverage your strengths:

What is the thing that lights you up when you are doing it? Would you be happy to do that all day, nearly every day? What is the thing you are either good at or want to get good at and want to do more of? Identify that and give this your focus.

Reflect on yourself as you are doing activities. What you can give attention to that does not require a lot of energy because you enjoy it so much, versus the activities that drain you. Ask others for feedback. This is a powerful way to understand how you are perceived, influencing your reputation. With this clarity, you can leverage your captain strengths to affect your brand - how you want people to see you.

Bring conscious awareness to what you focus on and where you are using your energy. Where energy flows, the focus goes, and actions show. What you focus on is what you will get, to the exclusion of everything else.

When was the last time you explored how you can leverage your strengths to support everything and everyone around you, including yourself? Use these three simple steps to lean into understanding your strengths and what is most important to you. Continue to explore as they may change over time and move around depending on what you or others demand. Be patient and flexible with your thinking, and know that your strengths will serve you well.

If you want help exploring your strengths and personal brand, contact us   at Leaders Network, and we will connect.