Strengths and how they relate to your job: Onsite representative

Until working with HTI, I never put much thought into my strengths, and the vital role they play in my career. Once employed, I was put through a strength training course with a certified Gallup Clifton Strengths Coach. The idea was to help you identify your strengths and apply them in the workplace and with a team. The benefits to knowing your strengths is understanding how you operate best, making your work success shine.

With this training, I’ve been able to identify my core strengths, and it helped guide my path for work. Strengths are meant to help you focus on what you’re good at. This helps you work on where you already excel and can be very beneficial in the growth of your role.

There are 34 different themes or talents altogether. I took my top 5 strengths and broke down how each helps me excel in my role as an onsite lead:

1. Discipline:

   Routine and structure are the first words that come to mind when I hear discipline. Discipline may not be the first thing you think of when thinking of an onsite role, but it’s in my core. It serves me well in my role as it always brings me back to what needs to be done daily to best perform my job. In an un-orderly job role, it’s good to have some order to come back to. One way this strength shows in my role is by double checking work. Other ways this is shown in my role is whenever something unexpected happens. I follow this core strength and get back to the must do tasks of each day while being flexible enough to handle the unexpected.

2. Restorative:

   This strength is key to finding solutions to problems that arise, and spoiler, there will be problems! I’ll see an issue and luckily this strength is engraved in me to help problem solve. I may not be able to figure out all the answers on my own, but I’ll find a way to get the answer. I stay away from “I don’t know” But rather, “I’m not sure on that, let me follow up with you when I have the answer.” This strength can also be known as the fixer, if something is broken I’ll find the best way to fix it.

3. Relator:

   This is a strength that I believe to be great to have when being onsite. I meet many new people and it’s good to gain relationships with them. Remembering details of how an associates daughter is doing since surgery, or if they took a PTO day on their birthday to spark conversation makes relationships even closer. It’s easy to keep all relationships “just business” but you can build trusting relationships while remaining professional. Being able to be that person that can hear someone’s struggles, and demonstrate understanding of what the person’s going through is substantial in good HR.

4. Focus:

   Prioritize! This is what I think of when I think about focus as my strength. Prioritizing helps me to stay on track and not lose sight of what needs to be completed first. Every day I tend to write out an old school pen and paper priorities list. Crossing off the list brings an indescribable satisfaction. I take into consideration what’s been set on my calendar as an everyday item and what new things specific to the day I need to get done. Prioritizing helps better tackle the unexpected situations that come my way.

5. Consistency:

   This strength can show up in many forms. It could be you excel at following rules and holding every person to the same standards. Perhaps you make sure you don’t fall short in the quality of the work you are giving. I always have processes and procedures to follow that lets this strength shine. I also have tasks that remain consistent in my role. This works well with my strengths because I find satisfaction in what some would say is tedious work. I break down repetitive work done on a weekly, daily or monthly basis and make a calendar invite as a reminder. I pride myself in following deadlines when I’m able to always get my client the reports and data they need. Most importantly, I make sure I don’t over commit to an earlier than possible deadline. If ever I can get them information early, that’s an extra bonus.

Ask yourself what you believe to be your strengths and how they can help you excel in your role to be more successful.

To find out more information on strength courses, please visit: https://courses.gallup.com/courses/strengths.html