© Alex Linley 2008

Use your strengths less!

Post by invited guest contributor Robert Biswas-Diener

For most people, using strengths is second nature. We are all naturally inclined to gravitate toward situations in which we will excel and we tend to leverage our best abilities for greater achievement. In fact, using strengths can seem so obvious a strategy for success that some people avoid working on strengths altogether! For these people, it seems sensible to focus on weaknesses for the pursuit of personal growth.

In recent years, however, a growing body of research suggests that working with your strengths can be a strategy for success. For example, the most successful managers tend to spend disproportionately more time with their top producers relatively to their lowest producers. In addition, engaging personal strengths is associated with more intrinsic motivation and, therefore, more happiness. I have even seen how much more effective I am as an instructor when I focus on my students at Portland State University who are in the C, B and A range.

What this line of research has translated to—where positive psychology is concerned—is a push toward “using your strengths more.” I have seen blog posts encouraging folks to use their strengths more and attended trainings that promote the same approach. While there is nothing inherently wrong with this advice it may not be the entire story. What most people forget is that, as individuals, we interact with the world around us. Although strengths are a natural part of us, our strengths interact with situations and circumstances. Simply put, not all strengths are appropriate to every situation. Sometimes using a strength less, rather than more, can help you be far more effective and result in greater satisfaction!

This week try gaining more mastery of your strengths by thinking about the most appropriate way to use them. As you consider the challenges and circumstances of the near future which of your strengths do you think you can put into play more, and which might you want to dial back? If you have a particularly good story about overusing a strength, feel free to e-mail me.

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