Making an Impact With Your Strengths.

In my first, what I like to refer to as ‘big girl job’ with one of the big 4 banks, I was on a really exciting career trajectory.  I will be forever grateful for the experience, opportunity, and growth made available to me there.  I was loving my work, getting noticed, and given the opportunity to join a great leadership program.

Up until then, I was working pretty hard at becoming what I thought a leader should look like. I modelled myself on what I saw around me. Driven, Direct, pushing for results no matter the cost and focused on outcomes. Pushing for results. Even without direct reports, I believed that was the standard I needed to meet and it played out as directive, forceful and dogged in my approach to getting things done. 

And to be fair, it was working. People were noticing.

Then I completed a strengths inventory as part of that program. I still remember sitting there reading the results. I felt completely floored. I actually cried, because what came back didn’t match the leadership style I had been trying so hard to emulate.

My top strengths were love, kindness, gratitude, leadership, and appreciation of beauty and I remember thinking, "How am I ever going to be successful here?”

None of those strengths looked like what I saw in the leaders around me. None of them felt like they would help me get ahead in my environment. What I didn’t understand at the time, but what that program helped me see, was that I had it completely the wrong way around.

I thought I had to change who I was to succeed, instead, I needed to start using what was already there.

That realisation hit hard because it also explained something else I had been ignoring. I was exhausted. Not just busy, but properly drained.

I was spending most of my day operating in a way that didn’t come naturally to me. That takes effort. A lot of it, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that it was catching up with me.

When you work from your strengths, it feels different. Not easy, but lighter. More natural. You don’t have to force it. So I made a shift.

I started leaning into those strengths. Leading with care. Taking the time to understand people. Showing appreciation. Bringing a sense of calm into situations that would usually be handled with pressure or urgency and something interesting happened.

People responded.

Conversations opened up. Trust was built faster. Feedback landed better. People engaged with me differently. The outcomes didn’t suffer. If anything, they improved, not because I became softer, but because I became more real.

We often assume there is one way to lead. Usually shaped by the loudest or most visible people in the room, but leadership is not a copy-and-paste job.  If you are trying to lead in a way that fights against your natural style, it will cost you energy, confidence and, over time, impact.

Your strengths are not a nice-to-have, they are your edge. Yes, you can observe strengths in others that you think you can add to your own, but creating a base from what comes naturally has a lot of power. 

The quieter ones matter just as much as the obvious ones. Especially in environments that reward a narrow view of what “good” looks like.

So take stock. What comes naturally to you that you might be dismissing? What do others consistently thank you for, but you brush off? Where do you feel most like yourself at work?

In our leadership workshops, we help people uncover this. Not as a theory exercise, but as something practical they can use straight away. But you don’t need to attend a program or workshop to get started.

Ask a few people you trust. Pay attention to when work feels easier, not harder. Notice where you have impact without forcing it.

That is usually where your strengths are.