Understanding "Strength" from a Strengths Coaching perspective

By Dries Lombaard



"Focus on your Strengths".

You must have heard this often before.  Still, how many of us understand what it really means?

What do you reply when asked in a job interview to elaborate on your "Strengths" and "Weaknesses"?  

I can tell you what the most common answers are to this question:

"I am a hard worker."

"I am very reliable."

"I am good with people."

"I get things done."

Serious. That seems to be the depth of our general understanding of what strengthens us.

And when asked about weaknesses, we do not do much better:

"I am a perfectionist."

"I take on too much."

"I say what I think."

"I dream too big."

Oh my word....

Through my interaction with people during the past decade as a Strengths Consultant, and in more than 7000 hours of Strengths-interaction with individuals and teams, I realized that one huge mistake is to assume that people understand what "Strength" and "Weakness" really mean.

Most often, they understand a Strength to be either a virtue, or a skill.  

It is neither.

As for weakness, in almost all cases they understand a weakness to be the detriment they experience when their Strengths play too strong.

So, let me explain the meaning of Strength and Weakness, from a Strengths Coaching perspective.

1. Strengths align with natural Talent.

In order to understand where your true strength is located, you first have to understand your natural talent.  With talent I do not refer to physical talent like athleticism or being musical. I refer to the natural wiring you have within your emotional, intellectual and physical sustainability.  Still too vague?  OK, let me unpack it like this:

•   Talent is natural energy.

• Do you have the natural energy to spend time with people in an emotional setting?  That's a talent.
• Do you have the natural energy to spend time analyzing numbers, patterns or data?  That’s a talent.
• Do you have the natural energy to finish everything you start, no matter what the circumstance?  That's natural talent.
• Do you have the natural energy to come up with brand new ideas, to brainstorm and to be creative with your mind?  That's natural talent.
• Do you have the natural energy to confront challenges with vigor and with certainty?  That's natural talent.

•   Talent is natural need.

• Do you have the natural need to research, gather information, read and collect interesting stories or facts?  That's a natural talent.
• Do you have the natural need to spend time with people with potential, in order to develop them with small steps of progress and growth?  That's natural talent.
• Do you have the natural need to take risks, go it alone and do things that most people rather won't try?  That's natural talent.
• Do you have the natural need to be ordered, neat, structured and plan everything you do in detail before doing it?  That's natural talent.

•   Talent is not mere ability. Talent is sustainability.

• The fact that you can do something, even do it very well, is not a measure of talent.  That is an indication of skill. Talent is measured by your sustainable endurance to keep on engaging with aligned activities in an above average manner of performance and passion.

•   Talent do not "change" (get replaced) over time.

◦   From late puberty or early adulthood, talent is pretty much hard wired within each one of us. It was formed by both nature (our DNA) and nurture (our upbringing). Your values can change over time. Your interest can change. Your passion can change. Your ability can change. Your experience can change. Your knowledge can change. But your talents - the sustainable energy and need that feeds you from within and drives you in a specific direction of performance?  That is developed over time. Don't confuse a talent being developed with a talent being changed or replaced.

•   Talent can be clearly defined - just like knowledge or skill.

◦   The energy and need that you experience within your thought-patterns, your emotional patterns or your behavioral patterns, can be clearly defined and explained. It is not vague and mysterious,  Research over the past fourty to fifty years has contributed to a wealth of definition of human talent.

•   Talent can be measured - just like knowledge or skill.

◦   The Gallup Organization is a world leader in research and the collection of data and information.  You probably heard about them with the well known "Gallup Polls", relied upon during the American Presidential elections.  Gallup is also a leader in the research of human talent.  With the groundbreaking work started by the late Dr Donald Clifton (1924-2003) and continued to this day, Gallup developed an online assessment to measure the natural levels of your talents within a sequence of 34 defined Talent Themes, the Clifton StrengthsFinder. Ranking it from "strongest" to "weakest", it is probably the best tool available for personal awareness and development of natural talent into Strengths.  

2. Strengths must be developed - or they stagnate.

•   A well-managed talent becomes a strength. A mismanaged talent becomes a detriment.

◦   Once you understand the natural energy and need connected to your talents, you have the duty and the challenge to manage that specific energy and need well.  If you do, your energy and your need creates the sustainable fuel for you to reach new levels every day.  If you don't, that very same energy and need can become the detriment and boulder in your way towards performance and satisfaction.  This is exactly why people see some of their strongest energy - mismanaged - as a weakness, like too perfectionistic, procrastination, too driven, too soft hearted, dreaming too big or making decisions too fast.  It is not a weakness, it is mismanaged energy that causes a detriment. And you CAN manage your natural talents well, if you know how to control the energy and the need.  (This is exactly where Strengths Coaching becomes so essential and valuable!)

•   Talent + Knowledge + Skill + Experience = STRENGTH.

◦   Talent alone is mere potential.  In order to use your talent well, you need to develop it.  And developing talent is done in practice - by using it.  

◦   Talent and knowledge:  Knowledge is an essential building block of talent.  You need to have knowledge about the specific talent (awareness), but then, you need to acquire knowledge in the specific area where the relevant talent(s) provide energy and need.  Often knowledge is directed towards "passion" or "interest", and that is correct.  But once you understand your specific talent needs and energy, you can become much more specific within the knowledge you acquire in order for the talent to become a strength.

◦   Talent and skill:  You can acquire pretty much any skill you want.  Limit to skill lies in physical, emotional and intellectual ability, but still one can go very far with "hard work".  Skill is the abilities you develop.  Talent is the sustainability to keep on using skills.  Again, if you develop and acquire skills within the correct alignment of your talents, you are on a pathway to success and engagement that may surprise you!

◦   Talent and Experience:  Talent, just like skill, must be practiced.  It is a matter of "use it or lose it".  You need to become, and to stay "talent fit."  The more experience you have within your talentedness, the stronger you will play and the more value you will add to whatever you do.  Experience means most when it is gained very specifically and focused.  If experience is not aligned with talent, it is mostly only wasted time.

•   Talent development is intentional.

◦   All too often do I encounter people who believe that talent will develop and grow simply like the body does.  It probably will, but if not exercised, fed and developed with intention, your talent potential will not be reached.

◦   No matter what industry, field or discipline:  if you study people who are successful and fulfilled, and recognized as being so, they will be able to share with you a life story of intentional talent development - aligned with the acquisition of knowledge, skill and experience.

•   The development of talent is measured in TIME.

◦   Time is basically the only measurable element we cannot get back, once we have used it.  That is also the reason time is so precious.  Talent development is directly and proportionally in line with the time you spend to develop it.

◦   Many individuals and companies are not willing to make the investment of time within talent development.  The result is that they can only rely on the knowledge, skill and experience people bring - and all too often the energy lacks, and the needs of individuals are not fulfilled.  Disengagement follows.  Be willing to invest time in talent development.  The return on this investment - if done intentionally and accurately - will be beyond belief.

Next time when you are asked the question "What are your Strengths?", I hope you are able to NOT give a mundane, generic answer, based on general abilities.

I hope you clarify the question by maybe first asking "Do you mean my Strengths, or are you referring to my knowledge, skills and experience?".  That will already make them think twice about their own question....

Remember that your Strengths are a combination of what Strengthens you out of natural energy and natural need, combined with relevant and specific knowledge, skill and experience.  If I am asked the question "What are your Strengths?", I will reply in more or less the following way:

"I have a well developed Strength in moving people with high potential towards new levels of performance they did not see as possible. I know how to spot the exact potential in people, and then I have the skill and experience to help people excel from good to great faster than expected.  This is also known as the Maximizer Strength.

I have enormeous capacity for information - obtaining it, researching it, processing it and turning it into skill. New information, learning and ideas are my thing, and when I have the freedom and opportunity to use my capacity for reading, researching, writing and teaching, I have the skill to share the information in ways that help others understand, grow and excel. I obtained the skill and experience to be a brilliant facilitator, teacher and trainer.

This is also known as a combination of the Strengths of Learner, Ideation, Input and Intellection.

I also have the well developed Strength to be very responsive in the moment.  I can change direction in an instant. I love pressure and respond to new agendas, schedules and challenges with high energy. I developed the management of this energy to a degree that is became a Strength which sets me apart from most others.  You will not easily catch me off balance.  As long as it is within my field of expertise, you can bring it on without even giving me a heads-up.  I will respond, and respond brilliantly. I am flexibly and responsive to the utmost. This is also known as the Strength of Adaptability.

I bring with me also a natural radar for risk.  I need time to think things through, and if you want someone to play devils advocate and spot the risks in a planned action or direction, I am your guy. I can look at the facts and data in a very sceptical and analytical manner, and once I believe it can be done, you can rest assured that all boxes are checked. Some call it pessimism. I call it a Strength, because I can apply it well.  So if you want a Strength of careful consideration before action, built on facts and deep deliberation, I am that person. It is also known as the combined Strengths of Analytical and Deliberative.

If you can live with the above energy and needs combined, and be assured that I am very aware of the pitfalls of each, and therefor I have spent many years in developing my knowledge, skills and experience around it in order to use it best, then I am your guy.  These are my Strengths."

Next time:  Understanding Weakness from a Strength Coaching perspective

Dries Lombaard is the co-owner of Strategic Leadership Institute and Neuworx, and has more than 7000 hours of Strengths Coaching experience over the last decade.  He is leading a vibrant and growing network of Strengths Coaches in Southern Africa, and works with corporate and multinational leadership and management teams and C-level leaders as a Strengths Coach and training facilitator.