Your Strength Chart!

STRENGTH CHARTING

Can you name out loud 12 or 6 or 3 strengths about yourself?  What about 12 or 6 or 3 strengths of your life partner, son, daughter, parents?

Strength charts are a powerful way to enhance relationships, build self esteem, and make you successful in a job interview.

Bonus:   A Strength Chart makes a meaningful gift for any person and any occasion.

Today, you’ll learn how to create a strength chart for yourself and others, suitable for framing!

THE POWER OF STRENGTH CHARTING

Way back in the 1950's, my father, who was an award-winning public speaker and great motivator of people, created a STRENGTH-CHART KIT.  His STRENGTH-CHART KIT included several parchment pages with 31 blank lines on each one for people to fill in with their strengths.  He included a special pen.   He also included several sample strength charts he had created for people so they could see what a strength chart looks like.  He put the samples in a special presentation folder with a see-through cover.  Then everything went into a special strength-chart kit box.

For many decades after that, in hundreds of speeches, he encouraged people to create strength charts for themselves, their families, their friends, and their co-workers.

The idea took off, and soon teachers were having their students create strength charts for themselves and each other.  Supervisors and managers were creating strength charts for their teams.  Thousands of people over the years created strength charts!

I remember my mother worrying that nobody would be able to think up 31 strengths about HER when she couldn't even come CLOSE to thinking up that many.  When we presented her with all 31 strengths on her own framed chart, she cried.  So did I.

My dad never worried much about copyrights or intellectual property, he just liked to share his ideas. So it came as no surprise to me last year when a recruiter I know showed me a book all about strength charting.  She was excited about a seminar she had been to on the topic.  I guess they knew a good idea when they saw one!  I hold the actual IP rights as my dad's literary executor, and now YOU are getting the idea straight from the daughter's mouth!

What are the underlying ideas behind strength charting?  Why are they of value?

1.  With strength charting, we get to find out what is RIGHT about ourselves and others.  It is very uplifting for everyone and helps create a positive environment.

2.  Just as the One-Minute Manager says, if you can catch people doing something GOOD, and let them know you KNOW, it is very motivating to them.  People will always strive to live up to your expectations, and strength charting reminds them of what those expectations are!

The very talented Bebe Neuwirth said just yesterday on television:

“People who SEE us bring out our best!”  She is so right.

3.   Strength charting builds character and self esteem.  It is positive reinforcement and badly needed in our lives every day.

4.  Strength charts make wonderful, unique gifts for ANYONE.  Just think how meaningful it is for someone to know that you TOOK THE TIME to actually think of their strong points. 

5.  Strength charts help prepare you for success in the job interview.  You are expected to have poise, confidence, self esteem, and the ability to express yourself in a positive way.  Just by creating and reviewing your strength chart every day, you will become adept at the interviewing process.  Do you think you will be ahead of your competition?  Of course you will!

Here are the steps I recommend you take to create your STRENGTH CHART:

1.  Choose some amazing paper, a special pen, and an elegant frame (or else laminate your final copy).  This is an IMPORTANT PROJECT.  Make it first class.  I really like parchment card stock, yellow if you can find it.  In color psychology, yellow is the color of action and decision.  You can get it at any good office-supply store or copy center.  If you decide to laminate, then plain yellow paper works well, it doesn’t have to be cardstock.

2.  Start a list of your strengths.  Look back at what you've accomplished, things you are proud of.  Write them down.

3.  Collect strengths from people who know you!  This is so much fun and so rewarding!  I recommend you choose 5-6 people who know you well and ask each of them for three strengths about you.  Give them three strengths about THEM, too.  Watch the excitement and the conversation flow!

Sooner or later, every client I work with for any length of time gets a laminated strength chart from ME.  Here are a few strengths I put on a client’s chart just yesterday:

4.  Next, incorporate all your strengths into a master list.  However many you have is fine.  You do NOT have to have 31.  My dad’s idea was that it would be useful to have one for each day of a 31-day month as a focus for the day.  You can have MORE than 31 if you wish!  The more the better!

5.  In your best printing, number your special piece of paper with all of your strengths and fill in the blanks.  Take your time!  Do it by hand!  There is sound psychology behind printing it all out – handwriting is brain writing, and you are programming your brain with your statements as you write them. 

In fact, the quickest way to build self esteem is to HAND WRITE one of your statements every day, sign your name to it, and underline the signature three times.  Fill a page this way every day, and in 30 days, you won’t believe the difference in your confidence level!  Try it out and see!

6.  Frame your strength chart and hang it where you can see it.

7.  Review your strength chart every single day.  Add to it as you wish.

8.  Create a strength chart for every person who is important to you!

9.  People respond very well to sincere, positive reinforcement.  Build it into every single relationship you have every single day, including your relationship with yourself!

Remember what Bebe Neuwirth said:  “People who actually SEE us bring out our best!”

See yourself, and everyone else, in a new light!

Thank you for visiting sheilaknows.com, home of New Light Consulting Corportion!