To be clear...Size up your strengths and....Optimise your outcomes

Published: Fri, 01/24/25

Dear ,

Happy New(ish) Year and welcome to this first of the year edition of "To Be Clear..."- a refreshing sip of regular coaching clarity in your inbox! I hope you enjoyed a break over Christmas and New Year (even if that now feels like ages ago).

Thank you to all of you who sent thoughtful and even moving examples of how you were giving and receiving the gift of presence at home and at work. I'm so glad that article resonated so strongly.

This issue offers you a resource to uncover and a skill to build as you set intentions for more clarity and effectiveness at work in the coming year.

Work out your stealthy strengths

Image: John Arano on Unsplash

One of last December's issues of "To Be Clear...", considered how, as with the Now layer of ONION®, when it comes to achieving our desired Outcomes, we all have resources which are available to us but which we have not yet tapped into.

As you get going in 2025, I hope that you (and all my clients) consider an untapped resource available to you beyond time, money, support, information and even emotional runway - important though they all are.

I call this available but underused resource Stealth Strengths. By Stealth Strengths, I mean the strengths and skills that you deploy so easily, so naturally and so excellently that you have ceased to notice or appreciate them. It's almost as if these strengths of yours are operating by stealth right under your nose!

I can think of one client who excels both at having creative, expansive visions for improving things organisationally and at practically executing those visions with incredible effectiveness. Some people are excellent at the first, some are strong in the second but those who are equally top notch at both with comparative ease? That's a category all of its own.

The problem is that Stealth Strengths come so easily to you that you often fail to see or appreciate how unusual, useful and powerful they can be. One of the great privileges of my job is to coach clients, whether they are teams, individuals or organisations, to discover and then to deploy their Stealth Strengths to achieve their desired Outcomes.

Just yesterday, I met with a client to celebrate her successfully selling a business in a complex, highly regulated and tricky market. It's the second such business I've worked with her on and, as we were discussing what comes next, I offered the observation that she excels at doing seemingly impossible deals.

She looked at me slightly askance - not only is she humble but, as far as she's concerned, getting tricky deals over the line successfully and with integrity, whatever the circumstances, is just something she does. She doesn't even rate it as a strength. Having seen many (far simpler) deals fall apart before close, I had to remind her how unusual (and incredibly valuable) this particular Stealth Strength is.

How about you? As the year gets going, are you faced with big challenges or opportunities you're struggling to get your head around? If so, how can you use your Stealth Strengths to get clearer and make progress towards a succesful desired Outcome? Three tips:

Image: Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Uncover them - The problem with Stealth Strengths is that you need to do a bit of detective work to uncover them. It might help to make a Done List of significant things you've achieved in your work or business over the last 12-18 months. Look at that list and, as you identify patterns, consider which strengths and skills have consistently made those achievements possible.

When it comes to uncovering Stealth Strengths, two (or more) heads are better than one so if you're working as a team, why not carve out some time (as little as 15 minutes) and ask, "What do we do so well we don't even notice?"

Whether you're an individual, team or organisation, it's vital to involve others outside your situation who understand what you do and have observed you at work. Whether it's a coach like me or a colleague, customer, client or even friendly competitor, an outside observer can help you to uncover Stealth Strengths you hadn't noticed. Why not ask them "What do you think we do especially well?". Some of their answers will be a surprise.

Utter them - Much of the time, your Stealth Strengths can help serve others but they won't know you have them if you don't tell them. Whether you're applying for a new role, pitching for funding for a business or trying to resolve or move something forward in your work or business, find ways to let people know the ways in which your Stealth Strengths can be of help. You don't have to be braggy about it; in fact it can be far more arrogant (and unhelpful) to assume people will just read between the lines and work out what you do well.

Use them - Once you've begun to identify your Stealth Strengths, think about situations at work where they can be of help in increasing your clarity and effectiveness. Perhaps you are able to easily, naturally, excellently - and even enjoyably - connect people/ go deep/ write crisply/ speak compellingly/ articulate and solve problems fast/ make people feel safe/ think strategically/ identify risks others don't see/ sell in a non-pushy way/ make things enjoyable/ clarify complex ideas". Why not ask, "Where can I use my Stealth Strength more intentionally and beneficially in my work or in my business over the coming weeks?" Again, prepare to think creatively and to be surprised, your Stealth Strengths will be far more transferrable than you might first think.

As 2025 gets going, why not resolve to identify and use three of your Stealth Strengths more intentionally in the coming year? Perhaps we can check in at the end of Q1?

As always, do let me know how you're thinking about and applying this.

Next up, a skill which we rarely think of as a skill but which we can all develop to increase our resourcefulness, clarity and effectiveness at work even when things look tough.

Optimists' Prime*

Image: Localize on Unsplash

As I work with my clients and on my own practice, I am very aware that there are key strengths and skills some have naturally and strengths and skills you have to build. As we head into a new year of known and unknown challenges and opportunities, one skill everyone could use at work is optimism.

Cue the work of Professor Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania whose groundbreaking book, Learned Optimism** I mentioned in a December issue of "To Be Clear..." as we considered the difference between reflection and rumination.

Professor Seligman's work is based on over forty years of research and data which backs up what we know to be empirically true, optimism is key to thriving at work and beyond. What the research shows is that although some people are naturally more sunny than others, optimism is not just a character trait some possess or about plastering a smile on your face when you're not feeling it or a matter of mindlessly repeating empty affirmations.

Instead, optimism is a key skill which we can all develop with practice. Optimism, or as Professor Seligman puts it "...the practice of hope" (as opposed to the practice of despair) has been proven to build wellbeing by strengthening your ability to weather - and even thrive in - the inevitable disappointments and difficulties which are a part of work as well as wider life for every person.

Image: Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

One big difference that my clients consistently tell me working with me makes is that every client who works with me exponentially grows their sense of agency. This increased agency is key to helping them to achieve their desired Outcomes. In other words, no matter their natural temperament or team or organisational culture, all of my clients learn to become more and more skilled and succesful optimists, ensuring that they continue to achieve continued success beyond their work with me.

It turns out that the classic song has it right, if you're going to get clearer and get ahead at work or in your business this year, it really pays to Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive***. Optimism isn't the luxury of dreamers in rose-tinted spectacles or the preserve of annoying Pollyanna types, it is the must-have skill for any team, individual or organisation who wants to achieve their desired Outcomes, whatever the challenges or terrain.

So, how do you learn this vital skill? Professor Seligman explains that key to developing the skill of optimism is your explanatory style which he defines as "How people explain to themselves the good and bad things that happen to them."

He breaks down explanatory style into three factors:

Permanence - how much you believe that the causes of a good or bad situation are temporary and can change (ie. when something goes wrong not to believe it will go wrong every time)
Pervasiveness - how much you are able to isolate specific bad events as opposed to letting them colour everything else (ie. when something goes wrong not catastrophising and presuming that everything will go wrong)
Personalisation - how much you take into account circumstances and other's actions rather than automatically and totally blaming yourself and and your intrinsic character

When you encounter unexpected and perhaps unwished for challenges at work or in your business in 2025, why not increase your clarity and build your optimism by asking the following three questions, based on decades of research with hundreds of thousands of people:

-How permanent is this? Can I/ we be 100% sure that it's always going to go wrong?

-How pervasive is this? Can I/ we be 100% sure that it's going to go negatively impact everything else?

-How personal is this? Can I/ we be 100% sure it's 100% our fault and other people and circumstances played no part?

As you face changing circumstances in the months ahead, why not resolve to regularly ask these questions with a colleague, collaborator or even as a team, building a culture and mindset of practical optimism in your work or business. Do get in touch with your thoughts, questions and insights or if you'd value - or know a person or team who might benefit from - some coaching in this area; as always, I'd love to hear from you.

There you have it, a resource to uncover and a skill to develop to drive your clarity and effectiveness at work in the coming year. I'll be in touch soon to share more ideas for greater clarity at work.

In the meantime, wishing you a clearer week ahead.

As ever,

Ranti

* - Having referenced this classic character, it seemed only right to include this clip of him living up to the theme by inspiring hope...of a sequel!

** - Whilst I highly recommend the book, this short article provides some ideas for applying some of the content.

*** - This Aretha Franklin version is a particularly lovely version of this much-covered song.

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