"If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one."

- Dolly Parton

Every one of us has unique talents, abilities, and strengths that make us who we are. However, most of us have not learned how to maximize who we are. Such a lack of self-awareness can bar our path toward achieving our goals and might impede living a life both personally and professionally.

UNLOCKING YOUR POTENTIAL

Why is it needed to know our potential?

Understanding your potential will enable you to be on the right course in life as well as your career. Knowing your strengths will also lead you to choose the career path that suits you and bring satisfaction. You get to create ambitious yet attainable goals and develop an interest in taking on challenges. Identification of your potential also builds into an enhanced personal life. Recognition of your strengths and weaknesses helps you to lead healthy relationships, manage stress, and maintain balance in life.

How does this help in the workplace?

Knowing what we are capable of could mean a great deal at work. When we know our strengths and abilities, we are in a better position to take up tasks and projects that allow us to use our talents to the full. This enables us to deliver at a higher level, hence quality work is produced. It also helps to boost our confidence and inspire our efforts towards performance enhancement in our jobs. An understanding of our strengths and weaknesses leaves no room for thinking about the growth potential. It identifies the areas of development that we need to strengthen further through training or experience. This clarity enables us to discuss with our managers how we can enhance our skills and potential for career growth. It helps us in making better decisions about which opportunities or roles would be a good fit for us. Embracing our authentic abilities at work eventually leads to greater job satisfaction and enables us to be of greater value to our organization.

HOW TO IDENTIFY OUR FULL POTENTIAL?

Discovering the key aspects of one’s personality will eventually pave the way to creating a direction for oneself. Here the key aspects of personality can be core values, external strength, recognition needs, position of safety, and excitability.

Core Values: The Foundation of Personality

Core values are the fundamental principles and beliefs that guide an individual or organization's behaviour and decision-making. These values act as a compass, helping to establish a clear sense of purpose and direction providing a foundation for building meaningful relationships. When individuals live according to their core values, they are more likely to feel a sense of fulfilment and purpose in their lives.

External Strength: A Window to the Soul

External strength is considered ways you would prefer to strategize to get things done. It describes the most preferred options by which you would like to interact with your environment to create the necessary change for you and your people.

Recognition Needs: The Desire for Validation

Recognition need is the kind of feedback you would prefer to get from the people you are interacting with. It is a part of your identity that you feel comfortable displaying to the outer world. Feedback and support that help promote this identity will help motivate you during times of stress and uncertainty.

Position of Safety: Finding Comfort in Familiarity

Positions of safety denote what you consider as the safest approaches toward problem-solving and growth. It shows what are the ways you would like to resolve inner conflicts and dilemmas before allowing yourself to express yourself to the world. It may also affect your sense of inner satisfaction and improve the feeling of being content.

Excitability: Information Processing in Action

Excitability indicates how we respond to information and how we use the information to bring about action and behaviour in our day-to-day professional lives.

(To find your key aspects of personality, explore our tailored assessment designed to guide you towards a deeper understanding of yourself and your potential. Take the first step now!) Should Insert the link to Crossroads.

HOW TO PUT THIS INTO PRACTICE?

• Identifying Your Core Values

Take some time to reflect on what's truly important to you - the principles and beliefs that you will not compromise. Maybe honesty, integrity, or compassion could be the core values. Write them down. When faced with a choice, check if the options align with your core values. For instance, let's say you accidentally got given too much change back at the store. The honest choice would be to return the extra money, even though keeping it would financially benefit you. Doing the right thing by being honest honours your core value.

• Leveraging Your External Strengths

What skills or talents do others compliment you on? Maybe you're a talented writer, good with numbers, or have strong leadership abilities. Identify your strengths and look for opportunities that allow you to use them. For example, if organization is one of your strengths, you could take on roles coordinating projects or events.

• Understanding Recognition Needs

Some people are motivated by public praise, while others prefer quieter affirmation. Notice what type of recognition energizes you - things like awards, positive feedback, or responsibility. Then put yourself in environments that provide that. For instance, if you value titles/roles, you may succeed in corporate settings with clear hierarchies.

• Finding Your Position of Safety

We all have different needs for familiarity versus new challenges. If trying new things is energizing for you, frequently change your routines. But if you prefer safety,

establish firm boundaries and backup plans. For example, you may have a rule like "I won't make any major financial commitments unless I have 6 months' worth of expenses saved up first."

• Adapting to Your Excitability Level

Some people are stimulated by fast-paced, spontaneous environments, while others prefer calm predictability. Assess which type of setting and workload allows you to be most productive and focused. Someone energized by spontaneity may thrive as an entrepreneur, while someone who prefers routine may prefer government work.

Increasing insight and awareness into these aspects of one's personality will expose decision points that feel congruent with your authentic self. Concentrate on opportunities that resonate with your core values and allow you to apply your strengths in a way that offers recognition, safety, and optimal stimulation. Such a path leads to overall greater fulfilment.