As a career coach, I have had the opportunity to guide many people. It is a joy every time! Very often clients are looking for where their passion lies and how they can experience satisfaction and fulfillment from their work. That is why we look for what gives people energy in their work. We do this by mapping out what is important to them in their work and by looking for those skills and strengths that set them apart from others. You need this insight when you want to work on your Personal Branding. As you read earlier in the free eBook Personal Branding this is about discovering, strengthening and making your talents visible, so that you can realize your dream job or dream company...
Use your talents as the foundation of Personal Branding
Discovering those talents is the foundation of Personal Branding. During the search for strengths, in addition to the exercise with the cards, we also work with an exercise about success stories. It is often difficult for people to describe their strengths in their own words. Things that you are good at are often not that special to you. After all, you have always been good at them and you take these strengths for granted. You don't realize that certain strengths are just typical of you and that not everyone can use such skills with the same ease.
What is a success story?
A success story is one in which you describe how your actions contributed to the accomplishment or good outcome of something. It is about things you are a little to very proud of. You look back on them and think to yourself; I handled that pretty well at the time. Or you still look back on what you accomplished or did then with a certain satisfaction.
I notice with a lot of people during counseling that it is difficult to identify success stories for themselves, let alone write them out. I regularly hear them say; "What am I successful at now?" - "Pff, what am I proud or proud of right now?" - "It's hard to say of myself that I am or can be successful" ... Why is that so hard? It seems like success and pride are dirty words. Can I think of myself as being proud of something I have accomplished? Or is that even a success?
What is success?
Finding success stories is often related to how you define success. Will you measure your own success by someone else's success? Will you let your own sense of success or fulfillment depend on the judgment of the outside world? Often people start linking it to external characteristics - such as status, money, responsible position ... But is this accurate?
In Van Dale, success is defined as "good outcome, result or outcome" and "something that ends well. The emphasis here is on a predetermined end result. It is important not to interpret success as an end in itself but rather as the completion of a particular process. Thus, success can be the outcome of something you try or an action you take. It can be a simple task or an established project... In this view, success is something very personal and relative as a concept. Being successful has a different meaning for each of us. Therefore, it is important to determine for yourself when you consider yourself successful and not to compare yourself to others in doing so. Each of us goes through our own development. If you know what success means to you, you can direct your career in a more focused way.
The following tips can help you identify and write out your own success stories.
- Find your own definition of success - keep track of what you do in a notebook and regularly go over what you did - What are you proud of? At what moments were you unaware of time?
- Stop comparing yourself. Focus on yourself and your own story. Your own experiences and feelings. Stay out of judgment to yourself. If it feels good - then it is good.
- Don't look too far. You don't have to look for grand achievements - also look for your successes in small things such as;
a. Someone you helped recently
b. A conflict you resolved
c. Choice you made
d. Standing up for yourself
e. A project you brought to fruition
f. A client you helped move forward
g. Something you made
h. A problem you solved
i. A goal you set for yourself that you met
j. ... - Look at it in a broader context. You can do more than you think. Go over your resume - list hobbies and avocations. Also review the various roles you take on in your life. Identify and describe success stories from professional and personal contexts.
- Be concrete. To identify your strengths, it is important that you describe very specifically what you did. What tasks did you take on? How did you do it concretely? What did you do when? Who did you talk to and what did you say? What was the result? And what are you most proud of?
Once you have specifically written out these steps, you can identify for yourself what skills you used to do this. Then identify the skills that were crucial to the success of your story.
- Identify at least 5 success stories. Write out several stories and see which skills keep recurring
- Share your success stories with someone you trust and know well. They can think along or add things you might not immediately think of.
- Ask for input from people you know and trust.
If it is really difficult to determine for yourself what you are good at, you can make a list of what others have said you have done well. Dare to ask for feedback from others if you can't figure it out yourself.
Career coaching can also help you identify your strengths, your definition of success and associated success stories.