Know what you're good at

Pay attention when people compliment you

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to know what you are good at. Being
able to name strengths and examples of these will boost

(00:24):
your confidence and might come in handy for reviews or
if you're job seeking. So I recently heard about a
job seeker who got an assignment from a career transition
course to ask several colleagues to identify her greatest professional strengths.
I know I would enjoy telling someone I liked and

(00:46):
worked with where they shined, and I imagine this woman's
colleagues felt the same way. And I imagine she enjoyed
hearing these good things. When she walked into interviews, she
would have a ready list of strengths and examples that
people told her of how she demonstrated them. Most of

(01:08):
us won't have a good excuse to ask people about
our strengths so formally, but still people often tell us
what we are good at. If we listen. By paying
attention to compliments and not batting them off, we might
be able to learn about ourselves and present ourselves in

(01:29):
a positive way in the future. So pay attention, take notes.
Maybe you give an important presentation and a colleague comments
that you are a great presenter, or that you are
a natural at connecting with a crowd, or that you
respond to questions. Well, write that down. Now you've got

(01:53):
a strength and an example of how you showed that strength.
Or perhaps after you coordinate a successful Halloween bazaar at
your kid's school, the principal comments that she knows she
can count on you to produce a great event. Remember
that event production is a useful skill, and a quote

(02:15):
from management about it being successful is an example you
can cite to anyone asking about this. Your boss might
mention that she assigned you to lead a particular organizational
change project because of your strength and gathering stakeholder feedback
she just identified as strength, and when the project goes well,

(02:38):
you can cite it as an example of how you
excel at this. When people tell you what you are
good at, listen, don't explain it away, really hear it.
You can thank people politely and then make sure you
capture it in some way, such as in a note

(03:00):
file or even in a journal or an email to yourself.
These strengths will really be helpful for anyone crafting a
personal reflective part of an annual performance review. Whatever you
are presenting to your manager will definitely be aided by
having the ability to quote her positive feedback back to
her or the feedback from other people she respects. And

(03:24):
if you are job hunting, I know many of us
have been tripped up in the moment when asked about
our greatest strengths. But if you have seen the skills
required in the job posting and you are asked this
question and you have been making a list of strengths,
you can mention the strength that most closely matches the

(03:45):
job description and then you can give an example from
when you got this feedback. This will definitely help you
stand out and could be just the thing to help
you land this opportunity In the mean time, time, this
is Laura, Thanks for listening and here's to making the

(04:06):
most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

(04:31):
is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows,