Your personal strengths

What is a personal strength?

A strength is not just something you do well. It is something you do well and that also gives you energy: when you use it, time flies and you finish with more drive, not less. That second condition is the one people often forget.

That is why this exercise uses two axes: how well you do something and how much energy it gives you. Crossing them separates real strengths from traps, which are the things you do well but that drain you.

The four zones of the board

• Real strength: you do it well and it gives you energy. This is where it pays to spend more time.
• Trap: you do it well, but it drains you. It tends to grow because others rely on you for it.
• Potential: it gives you energy, but you have not mastered it yet. With practice it can become a strength.
• Delegate: you neither do it well nor get energy from it. Better to reduce it or ask for help.

What it is used for in coaching

• Self-esteem. Naming strengths with concrete examples gives a solid, realistic foundation.
• Career. It helps choose roles, projects and tasks that fit what the person does best.
• Wellbeing. Identifying traps explains why some weeks are exhausting even when “everything goes well”.
• Goals. Leaning on strengths makes progress on hard things more likely.

How to identify strengths, step by step

1. Make a broad list. Capabilities you believe you have, without filtering yet.
2. Place each on two axes. How well you do it and how much energy it gives you.
3. Look at the zones. Real strengths, traps, potential and what to delegate.
4. Find evidence. A specific moment when you used each real strength.
5. Ask for feedback. Ask others what they see in you; it may confirm or surprise.
6. Plan to use them. A concrete way to use your main strength this week.

Well-known strengths tests

There are longer instruments for going deeper. The VIA classifies 24 character strengths and comes from positive psychology (Peterson and Seligman, 2004). Gallup’s CliftonStrengths identifies dominant talents. This exercise does not replace them: it is a quick, visual way to open the conversation in session.

Powerful questions about strengths

• Which activity makes you lose track of time?
• What do people come to you for?
• What do you do well but finish exhausted?
• What did you learn quickly without anyone teaching you?
• If your week had more of your number 1 strength, what would change?

Common mistakes

• Confusing competence with strength. Doing something well is not enough if it empties you.
• Staying with adjectives. Without concrete examples, strengths sound hollow.
• Focusing only on fixing weaknesses. Developing strengths usually pays off more.
• Not using them on purpose. Knowing them helps little if the week does not change.

Frequently asked questions