Fix a weakness or build a strength?

It’s a pretty straightforward question: to improve your performance at work should you fix your weaknesses or build on your strengths? But where would you place your bets?

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Yet a growing body of research suggestsfocusing on our strengths can boost our engagement in tasks by up to six times, making it easier to achieve our goals, lower our levels of stress and improve our feelings of well-being.It seems eighty-seven percent of us believe we should take dead aim at our weaknesses and work diligently to improve them.

So which should you be doing?

I believe you should do both – which might sound surprising come from someone who’s trained thousands of people around the world to use their strengths.

Let me be clear.  I believe you should be as capable at identifying and fixing your weaknesses, as you are at identifying and building on your strengths. 

I also believe you should be able to make an informed choice so in different situations, for different outcomes, you know which approach will serve you best.

Why do you need both?

Researchers have found your greatest successes and greatest growth comes from regularly using your strengths in your work.  This is because your brain is hardwired to perform at it’s best by drawing on the thoughts, feelings and behaviours you’ve practiced over and over and over again, because they’re things you like doing and you’re good at.

No matter what situation I’m faced with, I always start by seeing if there’s a strength I can build on.  The reality is using my strengths makes things easier, more engaging and more enjoyable, meaning it takes less effort and time to see the results I want.

For example, one of my strengths is curiosity.  I love learning new things.  When I need to master something I haven’t done before my strength of curiosity is a great way to get me to dive into figuring things out.

But what if you don’t have a strength that would help?

Scientists now know our brains continue learning right throughout our lives, so it’s absolutely possible to take a weakness and turn it into a strength.  But, it’s important to be realistic about the amount of effort this requires.

Current estimates are that it takes between 8,000 and 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to take a weakness and master it.  Put that into context and we’re talking about a couple of hours a day, every day a year for about 8 – 10 years.

Are you being realistic about your weaknesses?

If I don't have a strength to draw upon and fixing the area of weakness is important enough that I’m willing to invest the 8 – 10 years of effort, then I set realistic expectations and start showing up.

For example, when I discovered the field of positive psychology, my strengths were purely in the domain of marketing.  Not a huge amount of help.  I knew my strength of curiosity could help me stick at what I needed to learn, but I was also realistic about the time and effort it would take to close my knowledge gap.  And then I put in the hours of practice.

Had I walked away simply because I didn’t have a psychology strength to build on, I would have missed out on the most rewarding work I’ve ever done.

So what’s the right question to be asking?

When it comes to improving my performance I’ve learnt to always ask: in this particular situation, for this particular outcome, am I better to build on my strengths or fix my weaknesses? 

Now where would you place your next bet?

Michelle is a Premium member of Business Chicks, request her online business card and connect with her here. 

Michelle McQuaid is a best-selling author, workplace well-being teacher and playful change activator.  She is passionate about translating cutting-edge research from positive psychology and neuroscience, into practical strategies for health, happiness, and business success.

She holds a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania  and her work has been featured in Forbes, the Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post and more.

Michelle lives to help women discover their strengths, move beyond their fears, and finally discover what it truly takes to flourish with confidence.

Sick Of Feeling Stressed Out?

Sick Of Feeling Stressed Out?

Are you feeling stressed out?  Don’t worry it happens to the best of us!

When I’m trying to learn something new, pulling off something at work I haven’t tried before or just keeping all of life’s balls in the air at once – even today – I can feel my levels of stress mounting up!

Luckily a little bit of stress isn’t bad for us.  In fact it can narrow our focus and get us concentrating on the one thing we most need to pull off at that moment.

Left unchecked however, as stress begins to accumulate – hour after hour, day after day, month after month and even sometimes year after year – it can wreak havoc on our performance, our relationships and our health.  Our bodies simply weren’t built to handle that much cortisol – our stress hormone – without regular breaks.

So what can you do to protect your well-being when you’re starting to feel overwhelmed by stress?  Check this out.

How To Reset Your Stress Levels

Professor Barbara Fredrickson’s research suggests that positive emotions – like joy, hope, love, interest, pride, amusement, serenity, pride, gratitude, inspiration and awe – can short circuit the impact of stress when it’s undermining our well-being.

How does this work?

Fredrickson and her colleagues decided to induce stress in research participants by telling them they might have to shortly give a public speech to a roomful of strangers on why they were a good friend. Sure enough stress levels shot up as measured by the activation of participants sympathetic nervous system with the appearance of sweaty hands, increased heart rate and increased blood pressure.

After a minute or so, participants were told they were off the hook and asked to simply watch a randomly assigned video clip that generated a positive, neutral or negative emotion as measures were taken on how long it took them to recover from their state of anxiety.

Those who experienced positive emotions had the fastest recovery from the impact of stress.  Those who experienced the neutral or negative emotions had the slowest recovery from stress.

Fredrickson calls this the “undo effect” of positive emotions.

In today’s episode of Chelle McQuaid TV, I’ll show you how experiencing heartfelt positive emotions can literally put the breaks on negativity and help you to rebound physically and emotionally when you’re feeling stressed out.

Five Ways To Undo Stress

Five of my favorite practical, tested ways to undo stress include:

• Getting close to nature – going outside when the weather is good has been found to boost your positivity and expand your thinking.
• Doing something kind – helping someone else takes your mind off your troubles and connects you to something larger than yourself.
• Finding something to laugh about – watching a funny video, reading a funny story or talking to someone who makes you laugh induces feel-good chemicals into your brain.
• Savoring something positive – think about something good that’s happened in the past or that’s coming up in your future and literally jump up and down for joy like you did when you were a child to experience heartfelt positivity.
• Slowing down – taking some deep, slow breaths and if you can mixing in a short period of meditation helps to calm your heart rate and get the blood flowing through your brain so it’s more fully engaged to cope with what your facing.

In her book “Positivity”, Fredrickson suggests a whole lot of other practical, tested ways you can also inject an experience of positive emotions when you’re feeling stressed out.  You can watch Fredrickson talking more about these strategies here.

The goal here is not to get rid of all stress.  Remember a little bit of stress isn’t bad for us. Sometimes it’s exactly the kick in the pants we need to get focused and moving on what’s important.  Rather your intention should be to become more aware of when stress is serving you well and when it’s undermining your well-being, and then be able to act in ways that support your journey to flourishing.

What are your favorite ways to inject some positive emotions when you’re feeling stressed out? If you’d like a little help with more practical, tested approaches to play with just ask below!