Live An Extraordinary Life

You Are About To Read A stunning Fact: 

The Gallup organization have asked 1.7 million employees in 101 companies from 63 countries the question:

“At work do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?” 

Take a guess how many people strongly agreed with this statement.

The answer: 20%. That means that most people and organizations are operating at only 20 percent of their capacity. 

Herein lies The Secret Weapon that can blow the doors off your potential…. YOUR STRENGTHS.

In the book, “NOW, Discover Your Strengths”, Buckingham and Clifton tell us this number is low because organizations are primarily focused on overcoming weaknesses instead of maximizing strengths.

Their other groundbreaking assertion?

 We attain excellence only by maximizing our strengths, never by fixing our weaknesses.

So What Is A Strength?
 A strength is any activity that you perform with consistent perfection. It is composed of 3 parts:

1. Talents: Your naturally recurring and successful patterns of thought, feelings or actions  (ability to help people achieve their potential through coaching)
2. Knowledge: Facts and lessons learned (study in psychology, coaching, business)
3. Skills: Competencies applied to an activity (listening, pattern recognition, emotional intelligence)

Do You Know Your Strengths? 

You can learn your top 5 strengths by taking the STRENGTHFINDER online. The only catch is, you have to buy the book to get an access code. In my opinion, it’s worth the investment. It takes about 20 minutes to take and you get a report instantly. It is fast and remarkably accurate. I have taken it and used it with many clients….always a home-run.

How does it help you unlock your potential?

1. You learn what you are naturally good at so that you can apply those things to work and life successfully and consistently.
2. You attain the language to describe what you are good at to employers, friends, partners etc…so that you find the best match-ups and opportunities to contribute and collaborate.
3. You have the information you need to make informed decisions about how to succeed in any work or life situation e.g. what job will be best for you, will that promotion be career enhancing or a potential disaster, how can you best contribute to the success of your team, family, community?
4. Your work and life become more effortless because you are in the flow.
5. Flow = FUN

Give it a shot and let me know what you think.

Sheila Madden is the CEO of Madden Coaching & Consulting where she coaches and consults with leaders of high growth companies, individuals wanting to live an extraordinary life and new college graduates who are ready to launch their careers with competence, confidence and character.

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