Your Assets And Qualities
It is always a good idea to make an inventory of your assets (both personal and educational) which we will now look at in depth.
Taking a fresh look at your skills, abilities, assets and knowledge
Many people forget that they have a huge reservoir of knowledge and skills that they have acquired over time, even school leavers have pools of information that is extremely useful in a career. Unfortunately some of these skills we learn gradually and we simply forget at times that we have them, some skills we develop as a by-product of learning something else. Many of us have particular skills but do not consider them special in any way because we take them for granted or assume that everybody else has them. Now may be the time to do an inventory of our skills and assets and reassess which ones we enjoy using the most. Many of you may find that these tie in with the signature strengths that you preferred earlier in this course. However before we start lets use some examples to remind us how easily assets can be forgotten or not considered.
- If you have ever thrown a party or organized a function then you have demonstrated leadership skills.
- If you have genuinely listened to a friend in need then you have mentoring skills.
- If you have shown someone how to do something or demonstrated something then you have teaching and/or training skills.
- If you have ever given constructive feedback to your children or to friend then you have appraisal and coaching skills.
- If you have ever written a letter that was understood then you have communication skills and language skills.
- If you ever expressed an opinion or said anything at a meeting or in a class then you public speaking skills.
- If you have ever played a team sport then you have team working skills.
Look at the following downloadable list, against each one write a score between 1 - 5 where
Now you can take a highlighter pen and mark all categories that score a four or five. These are areas where you have natural talent. These skills are likely to be related to your signature strengths and/or your type and style which you have already explored.
Now use the highlight pen to mark ones that have scored a three. These are areas where you have adequate skills and have acquired these as part of your day to day life rather than as an expression of who you are. Finally scan through the group where you have scored below average and notice your reaction to theses. This is actually an interesting group and may in fact have sub-groups. One such group is composed of the skills that you least like and would prefer to avoid like the plague, However, there is a second group that is important to identify, these are the ones that reveal your limiting beliefs about what you think you are capable or not capable of. Maybe they don't fit with your image of yourself or they conflict with your values. Maybe they simply frighten you or because it has never occurred to you that you might be able to do them but some will be based on your beliefs about them. For example you might have wanted to dance but someone told you were a terrible dancer at one time so you simply did not follow through with the idea. Go back and have another look, what can you discover that is simply based on your own beliefs about yourself. We will examine the impact of personally held beliefs and how they can hold you back a little later on in this course.
It is of huge importance to recognise the difference between the things that you find genuinely difficult and the ones that you have not tried. The first group gives you fair warning of jobs that require these skills that you do not like using. The second group may actually make you aware of the precise things that keep you from the career or job that is best for you.
Summarising
Now it is time to write down your abilities and skills under the following headings:
- Areas where my skills are above average
- Areas where my skills are adequate
- Areas I find genuinely difficult
- Abilities and skills that I have avoided learning/doing because of my beliefs about them
- Abilities that I would like to use in the future
- Abilities that I would like to develop further