Playing to your strengths - a leadership coaching story

Have you ever caught yourself thinking that other leaders seem to navigate challenges effortlessly while you struggle to find your way? You're not alone.

Recently, I worked with a senior leader who felt exactly this way. She watched her peers handling complex situations with apparent ease and concluded that her "brain just didn't work like theirs."

Emotional intelligence

What she hadn't realised, was that her unique approach to leadership had its own powerful advantages. Like many high-achievers, she had fallen into the trap of overlooking her natural talents while fixating on perceived weaknesses.

Our strengths are our greatest untapped resources. They energise us, drive our best performance, and set us apart. Yet paradoxically, we often:

• Dismiss them as "just the way we are"

• Feel uncomfortable acknowledging them

• Focus instead on "fixing" our weaknesses

Through our coaching partnership, this leader discovered how her exceptional emotional intelligence and creative problem-solving skills were actually hugely valuable to the business.

By shifting her perspective from feeling inadequate to leveraging her strengths, she found new confidence and clarity in her leadership role. A small, but hugely impactful shift, which set her up to tackle other challenges with greater self-belief and a positive outlook.

When did you last take time to reflect on and intentionally leverage your natural talents?