A Key Question to Answer for Occupational Well-being

Key Points:

• Everyone tends to engage more in activities that make them feel strong.
• In any job position at your workplace, you can enhance your performance by investing in your innate talents.
• To discover what makes you excel at work, start by identifying your five natural talents.

Identifying innate talents and building strengths based on them begins with ensuring the right mindset. There are multiple myths that can hinder the realization of your potential. You must learn how to overcome the negative effects of these myths. One such myth is: “As you grow, your personality changes.” However, the truth is: “The more you grow, the more you become who you already are.” Long-term studies indicate that a person’s core personality remains stable over extended periods, showing only minimal statistical differences across decades.

To develop strengths, grow and progress more easily, and feel more satisfied in your career path, it is essential to focus on your natural talents and invest in acquiring new skills, knowledge, and experiences. This is because our core characteristics remain constant over time.

For instance, as a manager and team leader, you may have a natural talent for team building and completing tasks on time according to agreed-upon specifications. You can strengthen these talents by acquiring knowledge and implementing coaching competencies such as building trust, ensuring clarity and alignment in agreed expectations, and communicating effectively with your team members, including providing frequent feedback, expressing appreciation, and maintaining a coaching mindset that involves self-reflection and taking responsibility for your growth and that of your team. By doing this, you intentionally use your natural talents and invest in coaching your team members to help them discover their own talents or potentials, allowing them to develop and grow in areas where they feel strong at work. By doing so, you create an interdependent team with a strong sense of belonging and high engagement, ultimately leading to consistent high performance.

Humans have an inherent desire to be good at something and to be respected and appreciated for it. One of the best ways to achieve a career that brings you respect, appreciation, success, and happiness is to engage more in tasks you are skilled at or perform activities that make you feel strong before, during, and after execution. Enrolling in the ICF accredited coaching certification programs can further enhance your ability to guide and develop both yourself and others effectively.

Gallup research shows that individuals who engage in work they excel at every day are six times more likely to feel engaged in their jobs and more than three times more likely to experience a high quality of life. When you understand what you are naturally good at and what brings you the respect you seek, you gain clarity on the precise career path that truly aligns with you.

For some of you, your response to the above question may precisely indicate why you are currently in your present role. Others may realize that something is not working, and their current job does not often allow them to do what they excel at.

Regardless of your situation, you can use what you learn to better align your natural talents with your daily work. You can borrow elements that contribute to your strength in work and use them to develop new methods for performing tasks and activities you enjoy less.

As mentioned earlier, managers play a vital role in enhancing employees’ sense of belonging and improving their performance. Start by discussing with your manager any ideas you have for utilizing your strengths more effectively—managers are aware of projects and collaborations that allow you to leverage your dominant natural talents.

When you hear someone say, “You can become anything you want,” it may initially seem true because you may have heard this idea repeatedly from role models such as parents or teachers. However, this is another myth that requires reflection. The truth is that you probably cannot be anything you want because you cannot be great at everything. No one excels at everything! However, what is true is that if you recognize your natural talents and build the necessary skills and knowledge in your role, you can achieve greater success. Your natural talents do not dictate or limit your career choices; rather, they provide an opportunity to make work more enjoyable. When you understand and embrace them, you can intentionally apply them toward goals that matter to you, your team, and your organization. What we know is that when you love what you do, you perform better.

In conclusion, sometimes, you may be asking yourself the wrong question. The key to career success is not asking, “What job should I have?” The critical point is aligning tasks and activities with your innate talents that naturally make you feel strong, enabling you to perform well and advance in almost any job. Therefore, the only question you need to answer is: “What am I naturally good at?” We know that natural talent is one of the most reliable indicators for building strengths and feeling empowered at work.

Taymour Miri is an ICF master coach and a Gallup certified strengths coach and more recently one of the first 136 coaches world wide to be awarded an Advanced Certificate in Team Coaching. He has 30 years’ experience in leadership roles and 20 years of experince in coaching. Taymour has trained over 1,500 coaches across five continents and is the founder of International Coaching Education (ICE).