2009-06-28 20:09:01
Trying to maximize your strengths?
Why not look for successful people with similar strengths and ask them what they are doing? Try looking for people in your area of expertise or industry and then look outside your area of expertise or industry.
Why not start a mastermind group that is focused on challenging its members to grow, stretch and reach new levels of personal and professional success? Maybe start a Face Book, MySpace or LinkedIn group focused on your area of strength and see how many people you can get to join and then ask how they apply their strengths.
Are you a Twitterer? Send out a question to your Twitter followers asking if anyone has strengths similar to yours and then ask them how they apply their strengths. Start by connecting with me at www.twitter.com/davidmarktaylor
Gather all this input and then determine how you can apply it to your life to be more productive and effective.
Tags: strengths, , network, , success, , mastermind, , Twitter, , LinkedIn, , MySpace, , FaceBook, ,
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2009-06-20 21:52:55
Cato was a scholar in ancient Rome who, at the age of 80, began to study Greek. He was asked why he was attempting this difficult task at his late age and he replied "It is the earliest age I have left."
Too many of us view learning as a period of time that we have to suffer through and once we are done high school or college then the time of learning is over. I have heard some statistics recently that only 1/3 of all adults read a single book cover to cover after graduation. I also saw a study that showed that the average CEO reads between 3 and 5 books a month. Now you might say so what…the average CEO reads 3 to 5 books a month and most adults don't read anything after graduation. Well, the average CEO makes more money in one week than most adults make in a complete year. Now this disparity in wages cannot be attributed entirely ro reading but there is a direct correlation between personal growth and income level. Those that are always learning and see personal growth as a way of life have higher incomes.
I have taught my Strength Zone material now for a number of years to a wide range of audiences and one of the comments that I hear consistently from some of the older demographic is, "I sure wish that I could have learned this when I was younger. Then I could have applied it and my life would be much better today. Now it is too late for me because I am too old."
This is so wrong! Learning must be a lifelong process. It must be firmly entrenched into your way of life regardless of your age group. Whether you are in kindergarten or 80 years old (like Cato) you need to continue to learn. Of course the more you understand about your Strength Zone at a young age, the greater your chance to learn in your areas of strength and maximize your potential. However, there are a great number of people who have started amazing careers and enterprises late in life and been extremely successful. I have listed just a few below:
• Colonel Sanders was 65 when he started KFC
• Randy Johnson pitcher for Seattle Mariners was 30 before he really broke into the big leagues
• Oscar Swahn who at 72 won 2 shooting metals in the summer Olympics
• Rodney Dangerfield was 42 before he got his big break in show business
• Charles Bukowski published his first novel at 49
• Buckminster Fuller the famous architect didn't begin his career until he was 32
• Robert Duvall was 42 when he acted in his breakthrough role in the Godfather
The lessons here are simple:
1) Always learn regardless of your age
2) It is never too late to unleash your potential by discovering your Strength Zone and begin working in your areas of strength!
Tags: learning, , read, , strength, , strength, zone, , Cato, , Rome, , scholar, , CEO, , income, , personal, growth
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2009-06-14 19:48:49
J.P. Morgan was an American financier and banker who was a dominant force during his time in the business world 1892 to 1913 (he was the CEO of JP Morgan and Co. from 1892 to 1913). His Strength Zone revolved around a deep understanding of business structures and management and he specialized in reorganizing businesses in order to return them to profitability. He was so good at saving troubled businesses that he got his own noun. Around 1905, the process of turning a firm around financially came to be known as Morganization according to the May, 2009 version of Conde Nast Portfolio magazine.
To this end he was involved with the purchase, reorganizing and restructuring of the following companies;
• Albany and Susquehanna Railroad
• New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railroad
• Philadelphia & Reading
• Chesapeake & Ohio
• Great Northern Railway
• Montezun line
• International Mercantile Marine Company
• United States Steel Corporation
• He was also credited with the formation of U.S. Steel which was the first billion-dollar company in the world with an authorized capitalization of $1.4 billion
Besides having a noun created in honor of his Strength Zone, Morgan was so good at what he did that he was asked to bail out the US Treasury twice, including in 1895 to the tune of $65M in exchange for government bonds!
So what are you going to do with your Strength Zone? Defining and living in your Strength Zone is critical to your success no matter what your role in life. There is no telling what you can accomplish if you follow this simple little Strength Zone strategy! Become so good at what you do that you get your own noun!
Tags: JP, Morgan, , business, , management, , strength, zone, , talents, , skills
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2009-06-06 10:02:48
Last week we defined talents and indicated that a good place to start in identifying your talents was to take the Gallup organization's StrengthsFinder online profile.
If you went ahead and did this, good for you! If you haven't done this yet, what are you waiting for….this could change your life!
Now that you have your profile results….your top five talents, what does this mean? What do you do now?
Well, as we discussed last week, the key to success is to identify your talents and then build on these talents by developing skills and gaining knowledge in these talent areas. You need to develop these talents into towers of strength!
The other thing you need to do is to apply these talents to each role that you have in life. You need to take a detailed look at every role that you have and redefine your approach to this role so that you can maximize the use of your talents. I have shown a few examples of this below;
Achiever –This is one of my talents and this is how I define it and use it: I have to have a system in place to measure my progress against preset goals. I have to make progress against these goals. My goals are balanced between personal, relationships, health, career, fun and financial. I have to measure progress in each of these areas each week, and I review these goals daily. It is not good enough to achieve one thing per month. I have to achieve something daily. This does not have to be a major accomplishment, but it does have to be something that takes me a step closer toward a major accomplishment. Making progress yesterday is not good enough. I need to accomplish something each and every day. When I don’t structure my roles in this fashion I experience some level of frustration which then causes me to be a lot less productive than I should be.
Analytical –I work with a project manager with this talent. He loves to look at different project scenarios and calculate what the gross profit would be in each scenario. This is a fairly complex calculation, including such things as rebates received, commissions paid, employee margins on straight time, employee margins on overtime, employee margins with uplifted salaries and margins on contractors. He also spends time looking at patterns within the portion of the project that has already been executed. He comes up with conclusions based on his research, and uses these conclusions to tweak his project and make it better. His projects are always well executed and profitable.
Intellection –I work with a technical expert that this talent. He likes to get away by himself and think through issues and problems. He does not like to make snap decisions, and he does not like to be interrupted while he is alone thinking. He was the first person in our company to make it known that he was not to be disturbed between 1 and 2 pm each day. This had been unheard of in our company before this time, as we prided ourselves on an open-door policy. Since this individual started his practice, however, others have seen the benefit and built reflection time into their own schedules.
These are just a few examples of talents and how they were applied. This process takes continual reflection and tweaking. This is more of a lifestyle than a one time activity. Take the time and discover your talents and define your roles to take advantage of these talents….you will become more engaged, productive, profitable and fulfilled!
Tags: talents, , strengths, , strength, zone, , achiever, , analytical, , intellection
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