on knowing your strengths

“Strategic, strong leader, empathetic, extremely thoughtful.”

That’s how former colleagues describe Camille.

What words do people use to describe you at work? Do you know? Or are you just guessing?

Knowing how people perceive you puts you way ahead of the game. You know where you stand. And that knowledge can easily lead you to your next job.

When you know where you are, you can make a plan for where you want to be. Don’t know where you are? Well, it’s going to be a little rough, then.

When you think about it, so many of our career decisions are made without having factual data or honest feedback.

You never really know where you stand on a job interview or promotion. You don’t even know how your co-workers perceive you. Probably because you never asked.

Camille was facing some big career decisions when she got laid off and came to me. The layoff hit her hard and brought up some serious questions about her abilities (layoffs have a way of doing that, right?).

She questioned everything - even whether or not she belonged in her long-time industry, which she loved (Public Relations). She worried that she wasn’t good at her job and that the gaps in her abilities might not even be closeable. Would she need to pivot and do something completely different that better utilized her strengths? What would that even be? It seemed like everything was up for grabs. She needed help finding her way. She also needed some focus and support.

Camille joined The Career Launchpad, the success group for driven job seekers that I run with my friend Amy. We worked together to map out her job search strategy. It helped her realized that she wasn’t a victim in this scenario. She could build up from here.

Camille took the bull by the horns. Instead of jumping aimlessly into the job search, being anxious about her chances and then, if landing the job, worrying about whether she was making the right decision, Camille decided to get some data-based information about her work performance and innate strengths.

She took the Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0 test - a renowned test for professionals (find it here), to get a deep understanding of where her talents lie. Then she went the extra mile and got feedback directly from her former bosses and co-workers. 

Yep. She did. Brave, right? But so worth it.

Together we crafted an online survey that we sent to a handful of former colleagues, managers and clients, and then I followed up with a 15 minute phone interview with a few select folks that she felt would be able to give me honest, direct feedback, which they gladly did.

now she knows what her strengths are and there is no more guesswork!

She also knows what she needs to work on (the feedback was that she struggled with her own confidence, which was holding her back…something that she can change in a matter of months). And she doesn’t need to leave the PR world that she loves!

Way to move on up, Camille! Congratulations!

For more information about The Career Launchpad, tips to get honest feedback from your peers, or how you can have fierce work confidence like Camille*, reach out and schedule a chat with me.

*we’re keeping her anonymous :)