A Square Peg In A Round Hole

Recently at work we had to take the Strengths Finder. After taking the test and letting it score my top five strengths I began pouring through the materials. One of my strengths indicated that I would rather focus on what I do well and use my strengths to the best of a project or role than focus on my weaknesses. The materials praised this "maximizing" tendency and reiterated how important it was to find everyone's core strengths when working on a project or in a role to have the biggest impact.

This weekend at church the same message was reiterated- find your spiritual gifts and serve God in way that is true to those gifts. The pastor stressed the fact that you may be willing to serve God in some way but that may not play to your true strengths, and ultimately the only way to serve God to the fullest is to have everyone serve with their own unique gifts, because otherwise you're just trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

These were two very different settings and yet the message was the same- everyone has different strengths and gifts and figuring out what those are so that they can best be utilized is the only way to achieve maximum efficiency and productivity. This is why I think it's important to have good relationships with your coworkers- to know them as people and how they work best. Then, then you end up having to work with them on a project you'll how best to assign tasks, schedule meetings, meet deadlines, and more. If your strengths don't include the ability to get to know people easily and make these observations about them, just ask. The important thing is to make sure you're using people in way that they work best. Think about it this way: you would ask an accountant to do a marketing plan, or an HR person to do forecast, or a sales person to decide on new partnership ventures. In the same way, you need to play to the strengths of your coworkers- not because it's polite or kind, but because it will get the job done!