The Importance of Strengthening Strengths
The Importance of Strengthening Strengths
The Importance of Strengthening Strengths was written on January 06, 2023. It is the first of five popular essays from 2023’s Thin Slices, a subscriber-only segment of the Wiley Weekly Newsletter.
Each essay was first available to Wiley subscribers. You can subscribe to the Wiley Subscription for access to all essays here.
On Monday [January 02, 2023], Jared and I went for a 10-mile hike to reflect on the past year and begin dreaming about the new year. We asked ourselves several questions and allowed ourselves to feel unhurried when answering them.
What is already good?
Do you have any fitness goals this year?
How are you feeling about the way we spend our money?
These questions and others led to productive discussions and identifications of pivots needed to feel proud and accomplished a year from now. My favorite question, though, one about the two of us, led to feelings of pride and validation.
What makes us work?
In other words, when, how, and why does our partnership thrive? What are we doing to create a marriage that feels uplifting? Equitable? Supportive?
How are we speaking to each other when we feel in need? How are we listening to each other when we feel heard? What makes us work?
When I worked at Elizabeth Suzann, a leadership principle Liz taught me was this: it is best to identify, focus on, and grow the natural strengths of your team members. In other words, it is best to strengthen strengths. This is much better—much more productive—than identifying, focusing on, and attempting to change the natural deficits of your team members. In other words, the health and success of a team increases when we invest in growing natural strengths, not changing natural deficits.
This reminds me, as well, of a food philosophy that teaches this: it is best to add items to your diet when you wish to improve your health. This is much better—much more productive—than removing items from your diet. In other words, if you want to feel more energetic, focus on adding delicious vegetables to your diet, not removing your favorite chocolate cookies from Dozen Bakery.
Strengthen strengths.
Each idea above feels aligned with Jared’s and my discussion when answering the question, “What makes us work?” Identifying, focusing on, and growing what makes us work are the actions we wish to take in this new year for our partnership.
What makes you work?
What makes your team members or village work?
What makes meal time work?
May we continue to build upon our natural strengths.
Photo by: Zachary Gray