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Self-Assessment is the #1 Factor for Your Growth and Success

Self-assessment is the #1 factor for your growth and success, but it’s all too often overlooked and misunderstood.

Quick! When I say do an honest self-assessment what points do you immediately think of?

What did you come up with?

Shortcomings?

Strengths?

If both, which were there more of?

Many of us tend to focus on our shortcomings.

In evaluating ourselves, we tend to be long on our weaknesses and short on our strengths. – Craig D. Lounsbrough

We’re not very good at fully appreciating what we are good or even exceptional at doing.

The positives often get overlooked, undervalued, and under-expressed.

Just how clear and strong are you in realizing and expressing your strengths and abilities?

How much “humility” are you over applying to the skills, talents, and experience you have and therefore underreporting to a potential employer?

Or even more importantly, undervaluing yourself as you consider the possibilities you can undertake in your New Way Forward.

By doing a self-assessment, you will likely discover that you are vastly underappreciating, applying, and expressing your strengths, talents, and abilities.

Two types of self-assessment

Really, there are two types of self-assessment. Call them professional and personal.

For your professional self, you can assess your strengths and weaknesses.

For your personal self, assess those life managing and life progressing (or stagnating) parts of yourself.

Part of the process is you coming up with a list of attributes, gaps, and shortcomings to take note of. This list, in and of itself, will be telling.

Why Self-assessment is the #1 factor for your growth and success

By doing a self-assessment, you will likely discover that you are vastly underappreciating, applying, and expressing your strengths, talents, and abilities.

This is critical for anyone looking to “pivot” their life to something more meaningful, fulfilling, and even profitable.

This is critical for anyone looking for work, to be self-employed, a gig worker, or to staring a business.

By realizing and showcasing your strengths while also fulling realizing and dealing with (improving) your gaps and shortcomings, you vastly increase your chances for success.

My Story

When I was in a professional transition period, I hired a resume writer. Beyond getting a beautiful resume, I discovered how much I was undervaluing and understating my strengths.

She gave me a thorough questionnaire to list not just my experience, but my skills and talents and the way I had successfully applied them.

I considered many of my skills, talents, and experience to be obvious, and just plain ordinary. As my resume writer pointed out, “They may be that to you. To others they are magic.”

This was an epiphany.  She was right!

Things that seem natural to me (writing, ideating, performing, strategizing) are perceived as amazing by many people and certainly sought after by employers and clients.

There is also a matter of context. After reviewing her first draft of the resume, I bristled at how she had expressed some of my qualifications.

  • In charge of planning and managing all aspects of the client engagement lifecycle.
  • Executive advisory & Decision Support.
  • Collaborated and led (with full creative and business autonomy) in multiple roles — executive producer, creative director, producer, writer, theatrical director, director, speech coach, and major account manager (at the C-level).
  • Team Building and Mentoring Support.

The list went on and on.

I thought, “Wow. Who is this guy?” I knew it was me but wasn’t she going too far?

No. She pointed out that each and every item was absolutely true, accurate, and legit.

Boom. It hit me. She was right and I learned to not undervalue or under-express my talents and abilities.

You are not serving potential clients and employers by holding back and you are certainly not serving yourself. Going after a job or whatever is not the time to be timid.

All you’re doing is telling the truth

Many of us don’t want to come off as boisterous, braggadocio, or self-aggrandizing. Absolutely you want to avoid that (you’re also being judged on what you will be like to work with).

But if you’ve got it, flaunt it. You are not serving potential clients and employers by holding back and you are certainly not serving yourself. Going after a job or whatever is not the time to be timid.

In fact, what you’re being is truthful.

If you believe you are potentially the right person for the job or project, then prove it and project the confidence in your abilities that employers desire.

It is also critical to assign value to those skills, talents, and experience. What is the value and benefit to that employer given their needs and challenges?  Do not ever assume the receiver of your information is going to connect the dots. Odds are they won’t.

Once you have done your self-assessment, gut-check it. Are you indeed overstating it or is it a little uncomfortable because you have been understating it? If it’s a little uncomfortable but nevertheless true, it’s a sign you’re getting there.

Focus on the positives and elevate them in your mind and expressions to the point where you start to feel a little bit like you’re overstating it. When you feel that, you know you’re on the right track.

Now that you’ve elevated your self-assessment, make sure you apply the value each can bring. Value is the ultimate consideration for anyone hiring someone into a business or as a contract, freelance gig worker.

“Without proper self-evaluation, failure is inevitable.”   – John Wooden 

Finally, you’ll agree. Self-assessment is the #1 factor for your growth and success, and for you, it’s no longer overlooked and misunderstood.

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