Most everyone can relate to a time when they rode a “big wave” and accomplished something really challenging.
Using your strengths effectively to ride the waves in life will carry you safely to the shore. The big waves might come from outside of you, but the ability to ride them comes from inside of you—from your character strengths.
A good time to take inventory of your strengths is after you’ve “ridden the big one” up onto the shore—and the tide has left some things in plain view on the sand. What strengths do you see that propelled you to new heights? These are the strengths you should pick up off the sand and polish.
I once coached a man who had some major breakthroughs as he examined the shore. He recognized that he was a perfectionist who micromanaged everyone’s work. This occupied so much of his time and energy that he lost sight of his top strength—creativity. Once he learned to set clear expectations about desired results, he could then get out of the way of his staff and let them do their jobs. The time and freedom this opened up for him was enormous. Because of this, he unleashed his creativity and went on to successfully develop two new “big ideas”—doubling his business that year! For him, taking the time to walk the shore and reflect on his strengths was transformational.
Walking the shore involves noticing the valuable resources lying on the sand at your feet waiting to be picked up. Strengths coaching is one of those valuable resources. For example, training alone can increase productivity by more than twenty-two percent; but when followed by coaching, that figure soars to eighty-eight percent! (Source: Public Personnel Management, The Business Case for Coaching.) Strengths coaching will help you create positive practices—those consistent strengths based behaviors that bring out your best self—enabling you to ride the big waves in life.