“You do not merely want to be considered just the best of the best. You want to be considered the only ones who do what you do.” — Jerry Garcia
It’s a Darwin world. If you want to survive, or thrive, in a Darwin world, you have to play to your strengths. More than that though, you need to differentiate and specialize. Specialize to win. Specialization is nature’s strategy for winning. And there are multiple ways to define how you win.
In the book Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance
Find Your Natural Advantages and Then Seek Out Unoccupied Niches
It’s nature’s way of helping you out.
Buckingham writes:
“Why did nature design you this way? The same reason it gave you an adaptive immune system and opposable thumbs. Because you’re more competitive this way. Find your natural advantages, then seek out unoccupied niches where you can capitalize on these advantages, and you are more likely to thrive, whether in a group of hunter-gatherers or a team of co-workers. Specialization: It’s nature’s strategy for winning.”
Nature Wants You to Seek Out Your Strengths and Strengthen These Strengths
Nature wants you to be your best. It wants you to find your strengths and grow your strengths.
Buckingham writes:
“Nature makes sure you are born different, and then, not content with this, it has designed a complex feedback and personality-molding system to ensure that you become even more different. It wants you both to seek out your strengths and then to strengthen these strengths.”
We see this pattern in nature and we see this pattern in work. One of the most actionable things you can do to give yourself an advantage in the workplace is to find your unique strengths and differentiate based on that. You can then bring your special blend of strengths to whatever you do. What doesn’t work is trying to be the same as everybody else or investing all your time improving your weaknesses instead of growing your strengths.
My Related Posts
- Your Peers Shape Your Personality Towards Your Strengths
- Nature vs. Nurture
- Find Your Strengths
- Find Your Strengths Among Your Team
Photo by gwrrty.
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