When I ask you what your strengths are, what comes to your mind? You might consider all the personality tests you have taken, it can be MBTI, DISC, or Tom Rath’s Strength Finder 2.0 (which is what I have taken recently).

This book, on the other hand, asked us to identify our strengths from our experience, not from those what the tests told us. Marcus suggested the acronym SIGN to help us identify our strengths, those are S for Success, I for Instinct, G for Growth, and N for Needs.

While S or Success can be a good start to help you identify your strength, your success can drain your energy instead, and you are simply unhappy about it. Therefore, you need to look up also on the other areas of growth, those are the I, G, and N.

I or Instinct is something where you have an “I-can’t-help-but” quality to them. It’s what you feel before doing it. For example, I can’t help but create a system or workflow to make things easier or faster to be done. That’s one reason why sometimes I’m quite slow in finishing something, or keep on changing things (such as my blog’s theme) to make it is easier for me to be productive.

G or Growth is the area where you grow the most! It is what you feel while you are doing it. Marcus said as if it is your interest, as if it is your true happiness, and yes it is the area where you will find yourself wanting to practice, read more, find new techniques and grow.

N or Needs is about how you feel after you’ve done it. You might be tired, but psychologically, you are excited and fulfilled, and of course you’re looking forward for other opportunity to do the similar thing. For example, system and efficiency is a strong need in my life, I enjoy the opportunity to arrange things in order and make a process efficient. Even if it’s tiring, and sometimes frustrating, there is something of satisfaction after I have done it.

The core concept is that our strength will fuel our energy, while our weakness will drain our energy.

What is the book all about?

This book emphasizes on the importance for us to work on our strength rather than our weaknesses. More than identifying our strength, this book also helps you in

• busting the myths around strength and weaknesses,
• making the most of what strengthens you,
• cutting out what weakens you,
• speaking up to let our strengths shine, and
• building strong habits to put our strengths into practice.

It’s true that the whole world sometimes will not care about your strength, what they care is what they need from you. Therefore, rather than asking them to care about your strength, look forward to what you can offer with your strength, that’s a first step how you can put your strength to work. Rather than simply quitting the activities that you despise, ask if others can help you instead, maybe it’s their strength, something they like to do.

Overall, this book really speaks a lot about how individual or even team performance can be revolutionized. It’s great if each of us can feel fulfilled, and eventually we will be able to perform to the fullest.

Your turn: looking at S, I, G, and N… what is your strength? Write and share yours here… And I believe in the process, you will discover something true and useful about yourself.

To your strength and success,
Robert