How to Identify Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Author: Robert Simon
Date Of Creation: 18 June 2021
Update Date: 1 July 2024
Anonim
7 Ways to Discover Your STRENGTHS and WEAKNESSES - #7Ways
Video: 7 Ways to Discover Your STRENGTHS and WEAKNESSES - #7Ways

Content

Knowing when you can be strong and when you need help can help you settle into your personal life and nurture your professional interactions. Self-knowledge is a powerful tool that many people take lightly because it is difficult or inconvenient, or perhaps because it makes them feel uncomfortable. Additionally, what appears to be one person's strengths may not be helpful to another, and this can lead to the process of determining whether a particular quality is a particular quality. Are you strengths or weaknesses becoming confused or frustrated. Although this process does require you to explore on your own, there are exercises that you can do to identify your strengths and weaknesses for a job or personal reason. And there's plenty of advice to help you use these methods in the real world where you'll need it most, which is a job interview.

Steps

Part 1 of 6: Understand Yourself


  1. Appreciate your efforts. Because you're willing to scrutinize your inherent strengths as well as the things you need to improve on, you are already a strong person. It takes a lot of courage to sit down and do this job. Give yourself some encouragement and remember that you are a great person.

  2. Write down what you did. To be able to identify your strengths and weaknesses, think about an activity that you normally engage in or enjoy. You can spend about a week rewriting all the activities you do on a given day, sorting them on a scale of 1 to 5, depending on how much you enjoy doing or participating. that activity.
    • Many studies have shown that journaling is a great way to increase your self-esteem and think about your strengths and desires. This can range from as simple as listing all of your most memorable moments from a given day to writing a detailed account of your deepest thoughts and desires. . The more you understand yourself, the easier it is for you to determine your own strengths.

  3. Reflect on your values. Sometimes it can be difficult to identify your strengths and weaknesses because we haven't taken the time to define our core values. They are beliefs that help shape how you think about yourself, others, and the world around you. They are the foundation of your approach to life. Taking the time to define your own values ​​will help you decide which aspects of your life are your strengths or weaknesses, regardless of how others feel about them.
    • Think about a few people you respect. What do you admire about them? What qualities do you value them? How do you see them in your life?
    • Imagine that you could change something in your community. What would you like to change? Why? What do you think will help you identify what is most important to you?
    • You can remember a moment in your life when you felt extremely satisfied or fulfilled. What moment is that? What happened? Who do you live with? Why do you feel that way?
    • Imagine your house is on fire (but everyone and all your pets are safe) and you can only save 3 objects. What objects do you want to save, and why?
  4. Examine your responses to topics and patterns. Once you have looked back at your values, you can consider how you react to things that can be repeated. For example, maybe you admire Bill Gates and Richard Branson for their entrepreneurial spirit and creativity. This means you can also value Ambition, Competition, and Dexterity. Perhaps you will want to change the poverty in your community so that everyone has a place to live and food to eat. This shows that you can value Community, Helping Society, or Making a Difference. You can have a ton of core values.
    • You can search online for lists of core values ​​if you need help forming your own words.
  5. Determine if your life is consistent with your values. We may sometimes feel that we are weak in a particular area when our lives do not match our core values, for whatever reason. Living a life that fits your values ​​is called a life of "value harmony," and it can bring you more emotional satisfaction and success.
    • For example, perhaps you value Ambition and Competition, but you feel stuck with deadlocked work where you never compete with others or have the opportunity to assert yourself. You may feel that you are weak in this area because your current life doesn't match what you feel is important to you.
    • Or perhaps you are just starting out as a mother and you would love to get back into teaching because you value your State of Knowledge. You may feel that "being a good mother" is a weakness because your values ​​(in achieving the State of Knowledge) seem to conflict with your other values ​​(Responsibility to Gia family). In this case, you can find a way to balance them so you can do both of these. The desire to return to work does not mean that you do not want to spend time with your new baby.
  6. Consider the meaning of the situation. Think about what constitutes strengths and weaknesses related to the customs and habits of the place where you live. Social custom is a set of rules governing interpersonal interactions established as functional in a particular geographic area or culture, in order to maintain social boundaries. healthy association. Realizing that these differ depending on the region in which you live can help you to identify what might be considered strengths or weaknesses in particular geographic locations.
    • For example, if you live in a rural area where people often do manual labor, members of this community will value the attribute related to physical labor over long periods of the day. However, if you live in a big city, these attributes will probably no longer matter unless you do some manual labor.
    • Find out if the environment in which you live is related to your strengths and personal attributes. If not, think about a method you can take to change the situation or move to another setting where your personal strengths will be more important.
    advertisement

Part 2 of 6: Doing the Self-Reflection Exercise

  1. Find people you can consult. In order to identify your strengths and weaknesses, you can do a Self-Reflection exercise (RBS). This will help you learn what others think about you so you can find your own strength. For starters, think about all the people who have appeared in all aspects of your life. Include people you meet in your current job, in your past job, former professors or teachers, as well as your family and friends.
    • Finding people from different fields will help you judge your personality on many levels and in many different situations.
  2. Please respond. Once you have selected the candidate, you can email them to ask about your strengths. Ask them to give specific examples of when they noticed you using your strengths. Remind them that your strengths can be based on your skills or personality. Both types of feedback are equally important.
    • E-mail is often the best way to do this because it doesn't feel as pressured as you would be when you face someone face to face, and you can give people time to think. answer, and allow them to answer honestly. In addition, it will also help you save all information in writing for easy analysis later.
  3. Looking for similarities. Once you have received all the results, you need to look for their similarities. Reread each response and think about its meaning. Try to draw out the trait each person is trying to address, and go through the specific example to determine if any other point arises. After you've explained all the responses, you should compare them to find the same qualities that many people mention.
    • It's better if you tabulate and write the name of the feature in one column, write your response in one column, and your interpretation in another.
    • For example, many people in your life tell you that you are good at handling stress, are good at acting during a crisis, and can help others manage stressful situations. This means you can stay calm under pressure, and you are likely to be a natural leader and a strong person. You can also paraphrase them in the way that you are someone who sympathizes with others and is always for everyone.
  4. Self-portrait of yourself. Once you have all the results, you can create your own strength analysis. Be sure to incorporate all the different aspects that others highlight in their discussion of you and any qualities you add to the analysis.
    • This doesn't mean you need to have a complete psychological profile of yourself, but it's a good idea to set up the deepest portrayal of yourself. It will remind you of your best traits and can help you focus on using them more in the future.
    advertisement

Part 3 of 6: List Your Actions

  1. Write about your actions. Consider how you respond to specific situations that require action, thought, and insight. Before you do anything, monitor your spontaneous responses to the experiences you have received in life. Buy or use a journal to write down your thoughts.
    • The reason for doing this is that a spontaneous reaction will tell you a lot about your response to normal and stressful situations. You can write about them so you can decipher your own actions and abilities.
  2. Think about a difficult situation in which something bad happened. It could be in a traffic accident or a child suddenly rushing towards the front of your vehicle while you are on the brake pedal. How would you react when faced with a spontaneous situation? Do you pull back and retreat or do you face the challenge face-to-face, gathering the tools and resources to tackle the situation?
    • If you gain control and act like a leader, you will likely feel that courage and be able to deal with these situations boldly. If you respond by crying constantly, feeling helpless, or venting anger on others, maintaining self-control in difficult situations may be your weakness.
    • You need to consider things from a variety of perspectives. For example, feeling helpless in a traffic accident is a perfectly normal response to the stress of the situation. But if you seek help from others, this shows that asking for help (cooperation) can be your strong point. You don't have to do everything yourself to be strong.
  3. Find a less challenging situation. Think about times when you were faced with a tough decision, but not so much as "one for one". For example, what is your reaction when entering a crowded room? Do you want to get the attention of everyone you meet there or do you want to find a quiet corner of the room where you can stay away from the noise and only connect with someone?
    • The person who makes the connection with others is quite strong in social and extroverted, while the quieter person has the strength in connecting with individuals and is a good listener. Both of these powers can be used as someone's natural advantage.
  4. Consider times when you faced a difficult personal situation. Think about a time when you were forced to face a challenging situation face-to-face and react immediately. How fast can you learn and adapt to your situation? Are you the one to absorb, think, and then react to the situation?
    • Remember, whatever strength you develop will sometimes require compromise. For example, if you spend most of your life on your own, you won't be as good at socializing as many others, but you will be gifted with plot finding. of a book and discussing certain topics with others in depth. Maybe you grow up with your siblings, which means that you will be sympathetic, patient, and good at defusing the situation.
    • The important thing to remember is that the world needs many different types of people with different strengths and preferences in order to maintain its inherent diversity. You don't have to be good at everything, you just need to be good at something that you think is quite important to yourself.
    • People who can chatter intelligently or who can quickly solve problems have a strong point of intelligence, and perhaps their weak point is their focus on detail. The strength of the person taking the time to think may be planning and their weakness will be limited in agility.
    advertisement

Part 4 of 6: List Your Desires

  1. Ask yourself what you want. Desires and desires tell a lot about you, even if you've spent a lot of time denying them. Consider why you want to accomplish certain activities or goals and what are necessary for you to achieve them. They can be your passions and dreams in life, and often this is the factor that creates great strength for you. Many people get caught up in doing what their families want and becoming doctors or lawyers instead of being a ballet dancer or a mountain climber like they dreamed of. In another part of your journal, write about your wishes or desires in life.
    • Ask yourself, "What is my desire in life?". Whether you are applying for a job for your first company or just entering retirement, you should set your goals and desires in life. Determine what drives you and makes you happy.
  2. Decide what you like. Start asking yourself questions about the things you love most about life. Write down your answers to the question "What kind of activities do I find gratifying or engaging?". For some people, sitting in front of a fireplace with a Labrador Retriever next to them can be quite satisfying. For some people, they like to climb or go "hiking".
    • Make a list of activities or things that make you happy and make you happy. Often the area that you are interested in is your strong point.
  3. Consider what motivates you. Along with your desires, you need to decide what keeps you motivated in life. In your journal, you can write down your answers to the question "When do I feel most energized and motivated?". Consider times when you feel ready to take control of the world or be inspired to take the next level. The field that inspires and motivates you will often be the one in which you are best.
    • It is important to remember that many people feel a desire very early, which implies a childhood self-esteem that many people lose when they lose loved ones, friends, when they originally wanted. They are buried by social expectations as well as financial pressures.
    advertisement

Part 5 of 6: Assessing Your Strengths and Weaknesses

  1. Think about your weaknesses. "Weakness" is not the most helpful way to think about areas where improvement is needed. In fact, humans are not weak, even when we often think or feel that way. However, most people feel that they can become stronger in certain areas of their life, in their skills, and in other areas. Since they feel that they are not good in these areas, they will often contradict their current situation when they feel that they need to improve in an area to become strong and successful. more fluent. Instead of focusing on the "weaknesses" that bring negative feelings, think of them as areas where you can develop or improve - this will help you focus on the future and on what you can do to make it better.
    • You can see your weakness as something about yourself that you have the right to improve on, as long as it relates to your desires, or simply something that has nothing to do with your desires or goals, or any other thing. Be aware that either of these is acceptable.Weaknesses don't last forever, but instead, they are something that can change through the way we do things to become better and better every day.
  2. Identify the areas where development is needed. Areas in which you are likely to develop may be related to anything, including a specific career or social skill or a lack of restraint with food. It can also be simply an inability to catch baseball or quickly give answers to math equations. Often, areas for development are framed as "learn from life" and don't repeat mistakes. In addition, it also revolves around working to overcome a lack of skills that you feel in yourself.
    • However, a specific "weakness" may simply be a sign that the activity is not right for you, and this can be quite important to admit to yourself. If everyone is good at, or even loves, the same activity, the world becomes a pretty boring place.
  3. Focus on your strengths. Some people may think that focusing on your weaknesses is a waste of time, or even looking at the problem incorrectly. Instead, focus primarily on your strengths and try to cultivate them whenever possible. This may be a better approach to identify your own weaknesses. Because what others see as weaknesses are often only related to a lack of deep interest or a desire to improve, it may be better to focus on your strengths and desires and start from there. Be a bit generous when you look at your strengths, because you can have a lot of strengths, even in areas where you feel "weak". Then focus on areas where you feel you can be productive.
    • For example, if you want to try to be more assertive, you might first start with some assertiveness skill that you feel you are working on. It may be difficult to say no, but instead, you have the ability to state your intent in a way that others can understand and that you may not be emotionally hurting your partner. Phuong.
    • Think about what aspects of your personality you see as your strengths. Being kind, open-minded, or a good listener is a powerful force related to your overall ability that you may have overlooked. Recognize them and be proud of them.
    • Another way to think about your strengths is to view them as talents, or innate abilities and desires, that match your perceptions and vision for the future. In other words, they are the things where you would say "I don't have to put in the effort, but I've always been able to do" some activity in a good way.
  4. Write about your strengths and weaknesses. Once you've assessed all of your actions and desires, it's time to focus on your strengths and weaknesses. Use a list of other people's comments and what you've learned about yourself through previous exercises to write about the areas of work and life that you think are your strengths and points. Your weakness. Focus on your current views of your own strengths and weaknesses based on what you are doing in your life right now, both in your personal and professional life, instead of working with others. focus on your past or your desires.
    • Remember that other people won't rate or judge you based on your reactions, so be honest with yourself. It can help you to create two new columns, titled "Strengths" and "Weakness". Write them down on paper as you think about them.
  5. Compare the lists against each other. Do they overlap and do you notice a surprise? Do you think you are pretty strong in one area, but not in that field's action list? This mismatch occurs when you talk to yourself in a different way, but challenging situations show your true qualities.
    • What about the mismatch between your desires and what you think are your strengths? This mismatch can happen when you try to do something in your life based on someone else's expectations or based on your own opinion of what you need to do, while Your true desires and responses are quite different from them.
  6. Consider any surprises or deviations. Look at the different lists you've made. Look for any element of surprise or place that doesn't match. Look back at why you think some of the qualities and weaknesses you identified have turned out to be completely different. Is it possible that something you think you love or motivate you to in fact is not? These lists will help you to be aware of this problem.
    • Focus on different areas and try to identify situations that may be relevant to them. For example, have you written that your aspiration is to be a singer, but on the list of factors that you think are your strengths, you write that you are good at science or medicine. ? Although the musician may sound novel, the two professions are completely different. You should work on identifying areas that can truly motivate you in the long run.
  7. Consult with friends or family. Ask for constructive feedback from a close friend or family member. While self-examination may help you get some answers, consulting with others can help you reinforce your observation or destroy some of the delusions you form. . Finding ways to get constructive feedback from others is an important part of being a part of the community. However, don't act defensive, or see them as a personal attack just because someone is suggesting where you should improve. The process of learning how to incorporate positive feedback from others into everyday life can also be a strength in itself.
    • If you don't think your loved one will be honest with you, you can choose someone who can tell you the truth without painting or hiding your weaknesses. Look for an outsider, middleman, or better yet a peer friend or mentor to provide you with sincere and constructive feedback.
    • Ask for feedback on your listing. You can ask an outsider to review and comment on your listings. Helpful comments and questions can include “What makes you think you can't act quickly in an emergency?”. An outsider can remind you of an example of being the hero in an emergency that you may have forgotten.
  8. Seek expert help. If you are still struggling, or you will feel more comfortable with outside resources, you can ask a professional to help you identify your strengths and weaknesses. Many companies can help you with a psychological profile summary, and they are often affiliated with recruitment agencies. For a fee, you can take a test so that the psychologist can review your personality and professional profile.
    • While these tests don't necessarily help you understand the nature of your personality, they can be quite helpful in forming a starting point so you can think about your strengths and weaknesses.
    • From there, you will be able to learn about what factors are considered your strengths and weaknesses. A quality test should be long enough to identify the recurring aspects of your personality.After taking this test, be sure to talk face-to-face with a psychologist to identify your weaknesses and discover your strengths.
    • There are plenty of online tests you can take to gauge your strengths and weaknesses. You can find tests on reputable websites and have been compiled by a licensed psychologist or similarly certified professional. If you have to pay a certain cost for the test, you should do research about the company that provided the test first to make sure it is worth the money.
  9. Review your findings. After you've assessed your strengths and weaknesses, take a moment to look back and determine how you feel about the things you have discovered. Decide if you need or want to address any of your weaknesses and think about what action you need to take to attack or change your weaknesses.
    • Take a class or look for activities that might help gauge your weaknesses. For example, if you find that you are "frozen" when faced with a spontaneous situation, you can put yourself in that situation. You can join a group at community theater, join a sports group, or sing karaoke at the bar.
    • Consider therapies or remedies so you can talk about your fears or worries. If attending a class or singing group doesn't help you or your fear and anxiety have taken root in you and prevented you from moving forward, you should see a therapist.
  10. Eliminate perfectionism. You should be careful not to become overly concerned about your weaknesses. This action quickly translates into a non-constructive pattern of perfectionism, and it can prevent you from being successful. It's better to start with something you can do fairly well with your inherent skills, then you can search for more details to emphasize the skills and gradually improve on them.
    • For example, say you want to improve your communication skills. After a period of self-reflection, you decide that you are actually a good listener, and this is your strength. However, you become shy when it is your turn to speak up, and this is also your weakness. You want to be more confident in expressing your opinion, so try to interject a few sentences at short pauses during the conversation.
    • A perfectionist might say that because you are not a good talker, you should not waste time improving this skill as you will make mistakes. Recognize that making mistakes is part of learning and growth and allowing yourself to make mistakes in self-development.
  11. Don't deny important moments in life. Anyone would be good at something. There are times when you do something you've never done before, but everything goes smoothly and you find that you are totally gifted with it.
    • It could be sports, art, creative pursuits, interacting with animals, or replacing people who are absent from their work. Not everyone can experience great moments like you, so when you have them, you should work to improve your life and reach your true potential.
    advertisement

Part 6 of 6: Using Skills in an Interview

  1. Examine the relationship between your strengths and weaknesses. You can use everything that you have learned about yourself to help you in the interview. Think about how your strengths and weaknesses correlate with the job you're applying for. To be prepared, you can think about the tasks your particular job requires, and consider all the times you were faced with similar tasks in life. What personal attributes are likely to be your strengths and weaknesses when you are involved in the job's stated task?
    • For example, if you're applying for a job as a computer programmer, you can talk about your strengths related to computers and problem solving. However, it would not be appropriate for you to detail your strengths relative to table tennis, unless this is something an employer seems to be interested in.
  2. Show sincerity and confidence. When asked about these qualities in an interview, sincerely describe your strengths. When interviewers ask about your strengths and weaknesses, not only are they curious about your skills, but they also want to know how honest you are when it comes to talking about yourself. Social skills and the ability to advertise oneself will quickly become one of the key skills for almost any job. During an interview, this process begins at a point where interviewees present their strengths and weaknesses, and the comfort they have in doing so.
  3. Practice skills for the interview. In order to become more comfortable with the process, practice interviewing with someone else. Ask a friend to interview you and practice describing yourself in front of that person. Go through this process over and over, with many people, until you begin to feel more comfortable presenting your strengths and weaknesses to them. At first, it might look like you're reading a script, but after that, things will become more and more natural.
    • Before you attend an interview, you can think about many specific examples to clarify your strengths. Not only do your interviewers want to hear about your strengths, but they will ask about specific situations where your strengths become essential to solving any problem or obstacle. Rethink these things, or write them down as much as possible so that you can go to the interview with your preparedness.
    • For example, instead of saying "My strength lies in my attention to detail", you can give a concrete example: "Before, my task was to check the numbers in the bank. The company's monthly book Many times, I have discovered a mistake that could cost the company a large sum of money My ability to pay attention to this detail will greatly help the position where the company is. he / she is recruiting ".
  4. Don't try to "turn around". Employers aren't foolish, and can see through your turnaround efforts. Sometimes they have to interview hundreds of people for the same position, and everyone's first instinct is to use what they believe is their strength to try to turn it into a weakness. However, what you think is a "strength" may not make an impression on the employer, and the employer often looks for employees who value qualities such as flexibility and performance. group. This reaction will often make you look like you lack self-awareness. Common situation-turning sentences include:
    • "I'm a perfectionist and I can't bear to do something wrong." Employers often don't see perfectionism as a real force, as it means setting unreasonable standards for yourself and others and you can also have difficulty with procrastination.
    • "I was stubborn and didn't want to let things go." This may indicate that you are not good at being flexible and adaptable.
    • "I have difficulty maintaining work / life balance because I work too hard." This may also suggest that you are unable to take care of yourself and that you could easily burn out or become a nasty co-worker.
  5. Be honest about your weaknesses. When the interviewer asks you questions about your weaknesses, be honest. There is no reason for them to want to question you if all you give them is hard-line statements about how great you are. The interviewer doesn't just want to hear about this.They are looking for a real discussion of the things you know you need to improve on, a sign of self-insight. Real challenges may include:
    • Excessive criticism
    • Suspecting rights holders, or their peers
    • Exaction
    • Delay
    • Talking too much
    • Too sensitive
    • Show indecision
    • Revealing a lack of ability to improvise socially
  6. Recognize the worst part of your challenge. There are specific parts of your weakness that you need to address and describe how they affect your performance. Talking about the impact of the challenges you faced on your performance can be quite dramatic. It shows your insight and honesty, although you still need to present them skillfully.
    • For example, tell them, "Right now, I'm a procrastinator. I find that this personality affects the amount of work I was able to get done, as well as the amount of work that I had. when I was in college, I easily avoid having trouble with this problem because I know the school system well, I can find a way to avoid it and still get it done I realize that this will not help me at work, because it is not the best way for me to work, to achieve my goals and to get my job done. me ".
  7. Let the interviewer know how you tried to overcome your own challenges. Again, reality is better than illusion. Giving an untrue response can become impractical and make you look like you're just trying to brag about yourself.
    • For example, you could tell an interviewer, "I'm taking important steps to curb my procrastination habits. I'm forming a deadline on myself and trying to push myself. completed the task on time. This method was very helpful for my problem ".
  8. Talk about your strengths with confidence. You should present confidently, but not be complacent. Try to become confident while remaining humble about your achievements and skills. Of course, you should be honest in the process of choosing strengths that are appropriate for the person, business, or organization you are applying for. True strengths are listed in three main groups:
    • Knowledge-based skills, such as computer skills, language skills, or technical understanding
    • Transferable skills, such as communication skills and people management or problem solving skills
    • Personal personality, such as sociable, confident, or punctuality
  9. Provide examples when discussing your strengths. It's easy to talk about your great skills, but proving it is the key. You should clearly illustrate your strengths by providing concrete examples, whether from personal interactions or from your past job. For example:
    • "I am a good communicator. I care about the words I use, and avoid creating ambiguity when I communicate. I don't mind asking someone of higher status to explain when I'm not. I get to know them. I take the time to visualize the differences in interpreting questions or statements made by different people. "
    • You can also demonstrate your strengths and skills by sharing the good things that happened during your efforts when it was successful.
    • If you have obtained an award or recognition, you can also mention it.
    advertisement

Advice

  • Be careful when defining your desires so that you don't get it wrong. These are wishes formed from false beliefs such as whether your future is working for a foreign company so that you can live in Paris, London, and Rio or you want to be a movie star. So you can go to fancy parties and meet a rich spouse. They not desire because they do not help you to do something full in your life but simply an illusion. You should be aware of the difference, otherwise you might make a serious mistake in building a career based on delusions instead of on your own innate strength and true purpose.
  • It takes time for you to change your weaknesses, so give yourself a little rest if you can't come up with a solution right away. Also, don't take the time to turn a weakness into a strength. First, you should find ways to solve the problem through building the necessary skills, and this is what you can change. Then you can find ways to build your strengths, which is exactly what you want to shine because they are completely natural to you.

Warning

  • During the interview, never brag about your strengths or complain about your own weaknesses. Be upfront and come up with ways to improve your weaknesses. As for your strengths, you should be honest and humble about them to avoid revealing too much about yourself.
  • Avoid thinking in a way that you will perish unless all you have is a strong point and no weaknesses at all. Any person has the challenges they need to overcome. Imagine yourself as an interviewer and how you would feel if someone did not take any action other than bragging about their perfection.