3 tips for being in your element
When are you in your element? When are you at ease yet excel? “They were in their element,” is a phrase often used to describe somebody on top form. For example, a professor gives an inspiring lecture, a dancer produces a marvellous performance or a chef creates a wonderful meal. Think about the specific activities in which you demonstrate three characteristics: a) You do what you enjoy: b) You feel at ease: c) You excel. Here are three tips for focusing on where this happens for you.
1. You can clarify when you are in your element.
One IT worker said: “I really enjoy solving seemingly impossible computer problems. Everybody else is going crazy - saying how much money the customer is losing - but I feel calm during the crisis. My company now employs me as a full-time trouble-shooter to work on-site with clients. Describe the situations in which you feel at ease and yet excel.
The specific activities in which I feel in my element are:
*
2. You can put yourself into more situations in which you are in your element.
This is the crucial part. Great football managers, for example, select players to play in their best position. Why? Because that is where the player has what is called ‘personal radar’. They know what is going to happen before it happens. Great managers in business follow a similar rule. They put people in the places where they perform at their best. You will also have a sixth sense in certain situations. Try completing the following sentence.
The things I can do to put myself into
more situations where I am in element are:
*
3. You can keep improving when you are in your element.
Put yourself in those situations and keep improving. How to make this happen? One approach is to maintain good habits. When working with peak performers, for example, I encouraged them to keep something called My Right Book. Looking at their daily work, they were asked to record: a) Three things I did right today - and how I can do more of these things in the future: b) Two things I can do better in the future - and how. They then got into the habit of constant improvement. Try completing the following sentence.
The things I can do to keep improving when I am in my element are:
*
You can find many more tools for building on your strengths at:
http://www.thestrengthsway.com/
posted by Mike Pegg at
08:24
1 Comments:
Great site Mike, and thanks for the book you sent me, it was very informative, and has been useful in my work, especially the focus on setting goals, and the use of positive ‘trigger questions’.
I have used a form of the Strengths Approach with vulnerable people within Health and Social Care for many years, Working primarily within the mental health sector, I have found this approach both ethical and effective, and I was so pleased to find other sites promoting this particular philosophy/psychology.
For me, the application of the Strengths approach to Mental Health is mainly about countering negative language, i.e. - what's happening for you today as opposed to 'what seems to be the problem' and 'what has helped you with this in the past' rather then launching straight into advice and suggestions. It is also about maintaining a partnership role rather then an expert recipient role.
To try and promote this approach, I am co-editing a blogsite myself with Steve Morgan at www.thestrengthsapproachforum.blogspot.com. We wanted to raise awareness of the alternatives to the medical model, and support other ‘strengths practitioners’ who may be working in isolation within a still very problem orientated field of work.
The ‘personal strengths model of case management’ was originally established in North America in the early 1980’s, and was introduced into the UK in the 1990’s as a Case Management model for working with people with long-term and enduring mental health has traditionally been associated with ‘hard to engage’ & ‘treatment resistant’ client groups.
The ‘Strengths Approach’ in mental health is method of working which challenges the more traditional problem-orientated approaches to working with mental distress, and the inherent negativity that this can often promote ‘Problems’ are managed and resolved optimistically by focusing on the service user’s own priorities and goals, and by building on their own abilities and resources.
You might also like to see Steve Morgan's website at www.practicebasedevidence.com, or my own at www.optimistic-solutions.ltd.uk, for more information on the application of this particular branch of the strengths model.
Chris Raven
By
The Strengths Approach Forum, At
3 October 2007 at 13:49
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