Be Yourself at Work: Using Self-Assesment Tools to Maximize Your Potential

Attend an Upcoming Strength Strategy Workshop for those local to 20147!

I once asked a peer for some advice on how to handle a project meeting. I was told to relax and ‘Just be myself’. When I was given this advice, I didn’t really know how to act upon it. I mean, who was I really? What does it mean to ‘just be yourself’ at work? How does ‘being myself’ mean I’m being my best self? I not only wanted to know how to be my best self, I wanted to know how to develop the right boundaries.

LEARN HOW TO SAY “NO”: My motivation was not to understand what I should be saying yes to in my world – I’m a professional ‘yes’ enthusiast. I’ve said yes to more trainings than I should have been allowed to go to. My motivation was to understand when to say no. The book Boundaries, by Henry Cloud, reveals that knowing when to say no means truly understanding where your talents and gifts naturally thrive and grow. Especially when you need to interact or work with people you love or have as best friends.

KNOW YOUR LIMITS: Knowing your limits also means understanding which business strategies empower you to be your best, connect with the right clients, and offer services without being completely drained or hating what you do. The book, Shift UP!, by DeAnna Muphy, is a must read on this subject. If you can relate to any of this, keep reading.

USE SELF-ASSESMENT TOOLS: Getting to know how to ‘just be yourself’ can start with some easy to access assessments. This is much more helpful than going around asking your friends and family at first (I write on this later). The 3 I recommend are:

1. Meyer’s Briggs Type Indicator

2. Clifton’s Strengthfinders

3. DiSC assessments

Having someone to help you interpret these and put them into true application with meaning and results is highly recommended so that you don’t immediately start using your talents in all the wrong ways.

Meyer’s Briggs Type Indicator: The Meyer’s Briggs Type Indicator (known as MBTI) is probably the most familiar and well known. Many people take it in school or work when looking to understanding how to work with different people.

Pro: To realize the difference between introverts and extroverts, Big picture thinkers versus those who concentrate on minute details, people who lead with their heads versus those who lead with their hearts, and how people perceive time differently serves an amazing purpose. New Managers who now must take care of their people, lead and motivate, while still maintaining deadlines and performance – this is an extremely useful tool and easy to access online.

Con: It tends to simplify everyone into 1 of 16 categories and one must dig deeper to understand all that can be gained from this assessment.

DiSC Assessment: The Disc assessment is a wonderful addition to the assessment arsenal as it helps teams understand how each person approaches projects, conflict, and team relationships at work. Pro: This is particularly helpful in understanding how people show up at work – and why they interact with you the way they do. It allows people to see where they are among 4 distinctly different interacting types and its beautiful simplicity is in its application to how team members can learn to function more effectively with one another.

Con: While this brings awareness, the tools to handle conflict positively on a 1:1 basis feel limited.

Clifton Strengths Finders: My favorite assessment to date is the Clifton Strengths. With over ½ century of data mining and validated studies, Don Clifton father and, now, his son and Tom Rath, along with the Gallup center, have found 34 strengths people possess.

Pro: Research reveals that we function the most out of our top 5 strengths, that our leadership style is influenced by our top15 strengths, and additional application by People Acuity has found that people typically do not value or realize the potential of the other 19 strengths that are outside their top 15. These 19 potential blind spots can breed a variety of sources for conflict.

Con: How you handle conflict positively can be learned by understanding your strengths. Learning your strengths is most beneficial from someone certified in Clifton Strengths and many forget to do this and do not go beyond reading what their strengths are for validation and forgetting how to maximize them.

SUCCEED: How you interact with others stems completely out of

1. How you utilize your own strengths

2. Learn to value the uniqueness of other’s strengths, and

3. Intertwine all talents to maximize innovation, creativity, and influence.

This is extremely beneficial to teams, small business environments, families who work together, and organizational teams who need to maximize client opportunities. There are many types of assessments I recommend depending upon purpose and need for clients. These 3 assessments are great at helping individuals figure out who they are, how to be their best, and how to work well with others. To learn more, reach out to Carole at Relevant Insight, where coaching means disrupting what doesn’t work and then jumping into what brings success and positive growth.

Attend an Upcoming Strength Strategy Workshop for those local to 20147!

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