What type of super-strength have you been hiding?

If you know somebody who experiences impostor syndrome, they will tell you that they know deep down inside themselves that aching feeling of inadequacy while trying to achieve their own level of success.

Most of the time these individuals are seeking validation and approval of their work from others. To take it up a level they usually slave away to deliver on what they think someone else is expecting of them.

The trouble comes in when we compare ourselves to other people, we are throwing away our authentic voice and using somebody else's instead.

As an employee or as an entrepreneur people are paying you for your unique and individualized views, opinions, passion, vision and perspective.

Look for ways to build your self-confidence like repeating self-affirmations, journaling and documenting challenges to see how you overcame them by yourself and so on.

When you are taking time out of your life to pursue other people's goals, visions and passions then you just can't be yourself. You'll end up losing yourself if you trek down this path.

Until you are living your authentic life it'll be damn near impossible to hone in on your strengths. See, you might be stuck inside your head giving into your insecurities and self-doubts.

You may be too busy worrying about your weaknesses to appreciate the natural abilities that you do have.

This is why I wanted to introduce you to the concept of focusing on the twenty-eight skills that lay in the middle of our two extremes of strengths and weaknesses.

Our natural strengths ( the top 20 percent): are the abilities you default to because they become easy.

Weaknesses ( the bottom 10 percent): are the things you are simply not good at and will probably never be good at)

Lastly, hidden strengths ( the middle 70%): are the things you neither excel nor fail at.

See for some strange reason we as human beings obsess about our strengths and weaknesses but overlook the pool of skills in the middle, hence the name "hidden skills".

This is a curated list directly from the book "Hidden Strengths" by authors Thuy Sindell; Milo Sindell. The book breaks down the importance of skill development and the connection to job compatibility.

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Category:

Leading Self

Skill:

Emotional Control

Flexibility

Integrity

Resilience

Self-Confidence

Executive Presence

Work/Life Balance

Category:

Leading Others

Skill:

Assertiveness

Conflict Resolution

Influencing Others

Listening

Partnering and Relationship Building

Teamwork and Collaboration

Verbal Communication

Category:

Leading the Organization

Skill:

Creativity and Innovation

Entrepreneurship

External Awareness

Inspirational Vision

Organizational Awareness

Service Motivation

Strategic Thinking

Category:

Leading Implementation

Skill:

Coaching and Mentoring

Customer Focus

Delegation

Effectiveness

Monitoring Performance

Planning and Organizing

Thoroughness

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Don't know what your hidden strengths are? Finding out what they are is the key to both personal and professional growth. Especially when you want to jumpstart the growth process and be on top of your game.

Four groups of skills are critical to professional success with prompts to answer. This helps to gain clarity from your questions:

1. Leading Self: How aware are you of your skills and limitations? How strong is your ability to self-regulate?

2. Leading Others: How do you interact with others in the organization?

3. Leading the Organization: To what extent do you think about the direction of the organization and how you function within it?

4. Leading Implementation: How are you ensuring that things get done?

Conclusion

An idea of what you're naturally good and do really well and things that you can't do very well.

However, we can conclude that you are mostly aware of your range of capabilities.

Imagine if we took this a few steps outside of our comfort zones with added focus, practice and consistency to develop the other 70% of untapped potential growth!

Personally,

I was in shock to see numerically how insignificant both strengths and weaknesses are compared to our hidden skills.

The best tip and HR advice is to find a career that compliments your top 20% of skills and avoid a career that depends on your bottom 10% of skills for the sake of your sanity and expected outcomes of success.

- Note to readers: Adapted from the book "Hidden Strengths by Authors Thy Sindell & Milo Sindell

What skills can you start working on to accelerate your professional career, personal growth and development?

Let me know in the comment section down below!

- Thanks for reading, for real

- Articulate Tee