Work Life Effectiveness

Work to Your Strengths

What’s the best way to develop your work life effectiveness? Well, perhaps it’s to apply the basics of strengths-based management to both your work-life and to your personal life.

No happy manager can afford to ignore this insightful approach to management. This article summarises some of the basic questions you can ask, to help you make the most of your strengths. Whether at home or at work.

This is one of our Manage in a Minute pages. These contain essential tips on fundamental management topics. No fuss or side-tracks, they get straight to the point. Here, in a series of bullet points which can be read in a minute (ish!), are some essential tips on work life effectiveness.

Work Life Effectiveness: Putting Your Strengths to Work

Follow these 15 suggestions to help you think about your work life effectiveness. They begin with questions to help you identify your strengths. This is not necessarily an easy activity, but it’s a crucial one. Set aside some time to think through what you are good at.

Then think about the questions that encourage you to learn more about yourself. Perhaps you’ll be able to decide what it is you really want to do!

What do you think you’re good at?
What do others consider your strengths to be?
Where have you had success in your work or life?
What strengths did you use to achieve this success.
Looking back over the last month, what things have you done that made you feel strong, that made you look forward to doing them, and that came relatively easily to you?
What is it that you do best, using feedback and evidence to support your conclusions?
Ask people who know you well – they often see your strengths better than you can. What do they think are your strengths?
Think about how you work best – do you work better alone or in a team, on projects or on routine tasks?
What kind of organization do you prefer to work in? Large or small? Where there is less certainty or more certainty in your work?
Do you enjoy working to the pressure of deadlines?
Where do you belong? What kind of job, what kind of company, with what kind of people?
How do you learn best?
What are your values? Do they fit well with what you are doing?
How can your strengths and enthusiasms deliver things that people value?
How can you create a plan to develop then build on your strengths?
Learn more broadly than just seeking facts or information. Look for meanings and insights. What are the wider questions that need to be asked and explored?

More on Work Life Effectiveness?

It would be superficial to suggest that discovering “who you are” is something you can do overnight. However, knowing more about yourself can help you make choices about what you do. In the words of Panasonic founder, Konosuke Matsushita:

“Be yourself. Once you know what you like to do, what you are good at, then all you have to do is work hard at it.”

If you do have the time to read more on this topic, follow the full discussion in our article: Goal Setting Activity. Or look at other detailed discussions on some of our related articles in the Goal Setting Knowledge Hub.

More help with personal development skills

If you want some more personal development resources, look at some of the e-guides in the Personal Development section of our store.

We’ve bundled together these six PDF e-guides to help your well-being in the workplace. At half the normal price! Read the guides in this order and use the tools in each. They are great value, packed with practical advice, tips and tools on how to motivate yourself (and others) to perform. (5 pdf guides, 125 pages, 26 tools, for half price!)

Work Life Effectiveness