Are You Presenting All Your Strengths?
Curt Skene’s In2Win! Career Coaching Supplement.
The key to presenting your strengths is knowing what they are and finding ways to demonstrate them! One great way is through case studies and testimonials that speak directly to them. While your core strengths are often the bread and butter of your employment success you never want to present them without demonstrating a wider range of other abilities. If you do those same strengths can quickly become your weakness.
Strengths tell the employer what you can be but they can also communicate what you can’t. In today’s fast-paced world it’s risky to present yourself solely as a one dimensional executive. For example, a leader needs to be just as comfortable being a great follower while a motivator needs to be recognized as a powerful listener. So while you present your strengths make sure you underline a range of other skills that will provide the organization with the depth and flexibility needed to survive in this ever-changing world.
While in transition work hard to continually develop your core strengths, but work even harder on being brilliant in the areas where you are not as strong. The multi-dimensional executive is the dynamic force companies are looking for and dearly need today. Each day practice perfecting the skills of a successful executive (e.g. writing, speaking, analyzing, predicting, creating, envisioning, motivating and organizing).
Employers need adaptable leaders. Show the range of strengths and situations in which you can succeed.
Why I Wrote This Page
Because leaning too hard into one dominant strength creates an implicit assumption that you’re weak in the opposite trait, even without any actual evidence either way.
People fill gaps with stereotypes: a leader is quietly assumed not to be a great listener, an analytical thinker is assumed not to be a strong communicator, simply because no evidence was offered to counter the assumption. This is a real cognitive shortcut, and it means presenting only your strongest, most obvious strength can actually work against you by leaving an unaddressed gap the listener fills in themselves, usually not in your favor.
Demonstrating range isn’t about diluting your core strength. It’s about closing the inference gap before someone else closes it for you, incorrectly.
Action Steps
- Identify your most obvious strength, then deliberately prepare one story that demonstrates its natural opposite, a leader who also listens, a driver who also follows.
- Watch for employer language that reveals what they might be assuming about your gaps, and address it directly before it hardens into a concern.
- Don’t present strengths as a list. Present them as a range, showing you can flex depending on what a situation actually needs.
In2Win! Afterthought
Curt’s current observations and updated guidance will be added here.
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