Yesterday, I was coaching a very gifted and talented leader who, across all four domains, has strengths that are a perfect fit for where the organization has been over the last eighteen months. This leader delivered high performance and had success with their charge during these eighteen months. Now, the organizational needs have shifted because of this […]
It Takes Courage to Claim Your Strengths
Knowing and claiming my strengths has been a process of becoming more self-aware. While working with a coach over the years, I’ve learned how to manage my strengths and learned their full power and potential. I believe it takes courage and confidence to share with others what you are really, really good at, without shame […]
Where Do I Focus: My Strengths or My Weaknesses?
Two of my top strengths, Activator and Command, made perfect sense to me but over the years had been identified as problematic behaviors in some of my performance reviews. I felt ‘different’ and ‘misunderstood’. I was often coached or counseled by colleagues to stop those behaviors, to be more passive, to adopt a low profile […]
Discovering Your Strengths
Boost Personal Growth : Trust in the Future
Recently I have received coaching from two different coaches. Within the same week they both gave me a journaling assignment, much like the one suggested in my previous blog (link). They framed their assignments with different questions and when I started writing they did not seem similar. As I kept journaling, epiphanies started to emerge […]
Transforming Personal Growth: Look Back to Look Forward
I have had several epiphanies over this past year while taking a deep dive into strengths through the Strengths Strategy certification training I completed. Coming to know my entire list of 34 strengths has given me a much better appreciation for where I am strong, where I am experiencing ease and success and where I […]
Getting Unstuck from the Past: Reframe Reality for a New Story
A New Year has launched – the time of the year when there are high hopes and promises for things to be different ‘this year.’ Many create New Year resolutions with great intention and enthusiasm that often last only a few weeks before old habits creep back in and take over. We unconsciously fall back […]
Conversation Skills: Why Saying “Yes, and…,” Can Be Hard
Saying “Yes, and…” is a developed skill. Turning it into a habit allows you to more readily be in service to others. You are not creating resistance to what you bring to the table. When we are not driving our own agenda nor sitting in judgement of another’s contributions our hearts and minds are open […]
How Improv Comedy Helps Conversation Skills
Practicing “Yes, and…” requires self-restraint in setting our agenda aside and being fully present in a conversation. Simultaneously, we need to have self-confidence in who we are and who we are not. It takes courage and vulnerability to show up as yourself, to be fully present, to listen deeply, to contribute where appropriate and to […]
Diana Gabriel, PPC