Know Yourself So You Can Grow Yourself

“Know Thyself” was written on the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi according to Greek writings. This saying became known all throughout the Greek culture as it spread throughout western philosophy. It continues to impact readers and give us a great starting point for self awareness. And in the context of leadership it is true that you have to know yourself in order to grow yourself.

You can only improve that which you are aware of. So, if you are unaware of your strengths how will you ever now how to improve them? How will you know what to aim for if you haven’t clearly identified your target? Self-awareness allows you to expedite your influence. The more you know yourself, the more you can grow yourself.

Years ago, I dedicated a few months to clearly identify the strengths I possessed. It was a process of self-discovery as I worked to narrow my focus. I had been increasingly spreading my duties thinner and thinner as I was involved in too many roles. I finally had to have a meeting with myself to define who I was and where I should be investing my effort. Instead of being a jack-of-all-trades-and-master-of-none, I wanted to to be a jack-of-few-trades-and-a-master-of-some. Through self-reflection I realized there were 3 areas where I added the most value:

• Communicating
• Coaching
• Creating

I call them my “3C Strength Zone.” I realized that these 3 areas were the things I not only should be spending at least 80% of my time in, but they were also the areas I needed to grow in. Instead of improving my weaknesses from terrible to average, I decided to improve my strengths from good to great. Instead of winging it in my strength zone, I decided to focus my time and energy to intentionally exploit it. I now have a target I know to be aiming for in order to help me focus my time and value. As soon as I get out of the 3C Strength Zone I know I am wasting precious time and not adding the true value I can. This allows me to adjust and re-shift my effort. My schedule is now filled with the majority of my time being dedicated to my strengths.

If I were to ask you what are your strengths, you should have an immediate answer. You should be able to quickly and confidently give me a detailed answer of exactly what you do best. If you fumble around, and need paragraphs of articulation, you don’t know your strengths. If you can’t explain what you do best in a few sentences, you haven’t taken the time to know your strengths.

I understand this can be a hard process of identifying your strengths. It can be complicated and hard to define. When asked what was the most difficult thing, Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus replied, “To know thyself.” When asked what was easiest, he replied, “To give advice.” Self-discovery is sometimes a daunting task, but it is necessary to your success. If you don’t take the time to clearly know yourself, you won’t be able to raise your influential value.

Here are 4 questions that will help you start to identify your strengths…

1) What Are You Passionate About?

The areas you are most passionate about usually involve your skills. What do you read about, think about, and ask questions about? These insights will help you know your true passions. Leonardo da Vinci said, “Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art.” What keeps you up at night because you can’t get it off your  mind?

2) What Have You Succeeded At In The Past?

It doesn’t matter what you have talked about doing; what matters is what you have successfully done. What tasks, events, programs, or opportunities have you excelled in? Success in a particular area indicates an individual’s skill. You will obviously not excel in things you are bad at. What have you done well at no matter how big or small it may have been?

3) What Comes Easily To You?

We are naturally intuitive in the area of our skills. When you are able to learn a new skill quickly or accomplish assignments efficiently, it is usually a great indicator of your strengths. What comes easily to you? What do you accomplish faster than anyone else? What do you inherently know faster than others? What area do you just have that “gut feeling” that seems to guide you in your decision making?

4) What Do You Make Better?

When you have a strength in a given skill, you are clearly good at it. If you want to know if you are gifted in an area see if you make it bigger or smaller. Highly gifted individuals will take a project and add to it rather than subtract from it. They will tend to be more thorough in the execution than average. What do you do that seems to be better when you get a hold of it?

If you want to raise your influence you have to operate in your strength zone. Discover it, develop it, and discipline yourself to do it.