Write a paper on reflection which is similar to what we did in Reflection 1 about a weakness. In discussing future actions regarding strengths, the goal is to come up with strategies that help us build on and benefit from our strengths more than before.
Please have a look at the following articles (listed on the syllabus as well) to learn how we can better benefit from our strengths:
1. Spreitzer, Dutton, Quinn, Heaphy, & Barker. 2005. How to Play to Your Strengths. Harvard Business Review. Available online at https://hbr.org/2005/01/how-to-play-to-your-strengths (Links to an external site.)
2. Zenger, Folkman, Edinger. 2011. Making You Indispensable. Harvard Business Review. Available online at https://hbr.org/2011/10/making-yourself-indispensable (Links to an external site.)
In discussing your future actions, you may ask yourself the following questions and provide thoughtful and specific answers:
1. How can you further improve your strength to a world class and unique expertise?
2. is there a complementary skill that you can work on to magnify the usefulness of your strength area? See the second article above. For example, a creative person might benefit more from her creativity if she has good communication skills that help her in communicating her ideas and inspiring colleagues more successfully.
3. Is there any side-effect for your strength that might hurt your performance? How can you avoid such side-effects? For example, if you have a high score on knowing style, but you apply your analytical skills too much, to the point that you delay projects (due to intolerance of ambiguity or perfectionism), how can you benefit from your knowing style and analytical skills while avoiding such side-effects?
4. Can you put yourself in situations/jobs that better match your strengths? For example, if you have a great score in creative style but not in planning style, a job that involves exploration and design might be a better path for you than a job that requires excessive planning and time management. Please use this last approach cautiously, because
1) Any job or situation requires several skills not one.
2) It is not always good to completely avoid rather than improve your weakness areas.