Personal Branding Advice: Combine Your Greatest Strengths and Values

Early on in my career, I came up against a very real struggle that negatively impacted my career path and personal life. Why? Because while we often try to separate “work” from “fun” and our professional lives from our personal lives, the reality is that we’re one person at our core. Sure, much like a diamond, we have facets of ourselves; one side, we show off more than another under different circumstances. But it’s all a part of us and who we are as human beings. It’s all interrelated.

My problem was that I hadn’t taken the time to define and reflect on my values. Nor had I taken the time to identify my strengths and cultivate a career around them. Instead, I looked for jobs based on online postings and “what I’d done in the past.” Further, when I finally did define my values, I realized that the values dominant in my professional surroundings weren’t in alignment with my core values. As I learned the hard way, my core value sets should align across my professional and personal arenas. Strengths have a place in that mix too. When that alignment is missing, I feel unhappy, stressed, and unfulfilled.

However, when I utilize my strengths and my values align across my facets, I feel joy, contentment, and peace. Further, “work” feels less like work and more like growth. Before you can find your brand, your tribe, or a satisfying and fulfilling career, you’ve got first to get a firm grasp on what you want, what you enjoy, what you’re good at, what drives you, and what matters to you. You need to dig deep and be honest with yourself: What are your strengths and values?

We’re only on this planet once, don’t waste your precious time feeling unfulfilled or squandering your life away.

Here are my top 5 values and strengths. Interestingly, once I finally took the time to identify them, I found they are eerily intertwined.

VALUES:

It’s hard to narrow down values to your top five. Yet, you must do so. You don’t have to sort them, but you do want to grasp what those top five are. Additionally, know that your values can change with time. I can say with certainty that what I valued when I was 19 is not the same as what I value at 39.

My top 5 values, in no particular order:

Passion: life is too short not to do the things you love.

I don’t want to look back on my life when I’m old (that’s IF it’s not cut short, and no one knows how much time they have) and realize I wasted the bulk of it fulfilling other people’s dreams and not my own. I don’t want to have spent my days in a job I’m not excited about, spending five days a week wishing for the weekend and longing for a measly two weeks a year of vacation. I want to do work that is meaningful to me. I want to appreciate and enjoy each day to its fullest. I want to follow my own dreams, spend time with loved ones, have adventures, explore and see the world. I want to live, not merely exist.

What this looks like in my work: Honoring my passion value professionally means doing work that involves creativity, writing, art, culture, nonprofit, health, nature, animals, combating global warming, weather, the ocean, education, science, space exploration, or United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. It also means having the financial means and the freedom and flexibility to take time off for vacations, spend time with loved ones, and do the things I love.

What this looks like in my personal Life: Honoring my passion value personally means finding time outside of work to travel, read, create, and spend time with loved ones. It means trying new things, spending time in nature, making art, having new adventures, exercising, and staying healthy. It means time for self-care, freedom, and wild beauty.

Growth: Remaining stagnant drains life essence. Always grow.

When that passion is missing in my work or life more broadly, I also tend to stop growing professionally and personally. Because when passion is missing, so is motivation. Why take on a new project or learn something new when it involves something that holds little to mediocre interest at my core, or when I’ve wasted my precious energy doing things I hate and am too exhausted for anything else? I don’t want to become stagnant in life. It’s essential that I find areas of passion and interest and always strive to grow in new ways. Life is a precious gift. I don’t want to suffocate my time on this earth with stagnancy and boredom. I don’t want to fall short on the depth of the person I’m capable of becoming. I want to continuously improve myself and be the best version of myself that I can be.

What this looks like in my work: Honoring my growth value professionally means having plenty of freedom and opportunity to learn new things that matter to me. That could be in the form of taking classes, research projects, obtaining certifications, or having the freedom to self-study relevant topics to improve my skill set. It means gaining new experiences, taking on new projects of interest, or promotions. It also means being appreciated for what I bring to the table.

What this looks like in my personal Life: Honoring my growth value personally means looking inward and reflecting on my strengths, weaknesses, and dreams. It means finding where I can grow and taking action steps to move forward. Growth can be in the form of an art class, improvement in my running routine, yoga, or healthy eating habits. It can be in the form of formal education, degrees, going on a new and challenging hike, or making a new friend. Growth can include travel, experiencing new cultures, perspectives, and people who make me see the world in a different light. It can be reading a good book that teaches me something or takes me on an adventure to a far-off land.

Creativity: Creating art brings peace and self-expression––feed that.

Since childhood, I’ve found excitement, a sense of flow, and an outlet for deep reflection and self-expression through art. The exact mediums vary, but it’s important that art and forms of creativity be a constant in my life. For me, it’s typically through writing, sculpting, painting, design, or photography. Incorporating some form of creativity into my professional and personal lives brings a unique kind of freedom and peace to life. I NEED to have creative outlets in both my professional and personal worlds to feel satisfied. Additionally, it’s important to me to find ways to leave this world a better and more beautiful place during my time on it (see “Altruism” below). I can accomplish that through creative art outlets.

What this looks like in my work: Honoring my creativity value professionally means doing work that involves writing, creating social media content, photography, putting together a great team of people, or designing and maintaining a company website. It might show up in the form of creating a class or putting together a newsletter. It means being given the time and brain space needed to free the mind for creative ideas to flourish and be given the authority to act on them, experiment, and try out ideas.

What this looks like in my personal Life: Honoring my creativity value personally means intentionally setting aside time each week to create via writing, painting, ceramics, or other forms of art and self-expression. It means taking time for inner discovery and exploration. It means finding ways to express myself creatively and add more art, beauty, and awareness to the world in the process.

Knowledge: Life-long learners live longer and happier lives.

According to Johns Hopkins when we exercise our brain (learn new things), there seems to be a direct correlation with improved cognitive reserve (damage control), increased synapses (where information is transmitted between brain cells), and decreased dementia. I’m a huge geek when it comes to learning. I love the growth and sense of accomplishment that comes from taking on new challenges and learning new things. I approach the world with a healthy dose of curiosity and a deep thirst for knowledge. There is some connectedness to my previously discussed growth value. Continuously learning, acquiring knowledge, and growing is how I feel alive. That needs to be a constant in all areas of my life.

Note: This ties in with mindset, specifically the growth mindset versus the fixed mindset. A great book on the subject is Mindset, the New Psychology of Success, by Carol S. Dweck. I was raised and grew up with more of a fixed mindset. However, in the past several years, I’ve transitioned into more of a growth mindset. It has been life-changing! I now welcome new challenges, and I don’t see failure so much as a failure but rather as a learning experience on how to do better the next time.

What this looks like in my work: Honoring my knowledge value professionally means continuously expanding my experiences and learning new things. It deeply intertwines with my growth value as increased knowledge also promotes growth. Knowledge can come in the form of training, certifications, or the time and freedom for self-study.

What this looks like in my personal life: Honoring my knowledge value personally means taking the time to read, watch documentaries about subjects that interest me, or going to a lecture. It can come in the form of new life experiences that expand my understanding of the world around me. It can mean conversations with others that add value to my worldview. It can also mean signing up for classes or researching topics that interest me online.

Altruism: Making a meaningful and positive contribution to the world matters.

I want my time on this planet to make a positive difference in some way. I’ve consistently found that when my work doesn’t make the world happier, more peaceful, more beautiful, or touch the community in some positive manner, I become very dissatisfied and burnout in my work. If I’m going to spend more time at work than I do with loved ones, if I’m going to work hard, have deadlines, and sometimes stress, it needs to be for a good cause, something meaningful, or creating some form of beauty.

What this looks like in my work: Honoring my altruism value professionally means doing work that benefits the community, marginalized peoples, improves health or the environment, teaches, or promotes a good cause. It can also mean creating art or writing that touches the heart of another human being or educates them. It can mean helping animals or combating domestic violence, hunger, discrimination, or the subjugation of women.

What this looks like in my personal life: Honoring my altruism value personally means treating people how I want to be treated. It means helping a friend, neighbor or loved one. It means putting as much kindness out there into the world as I can. It also means taking care of myself, so I can be a more present and positive person for the people around me. It can also show up creatively by taking a stand or making an importing statement through art or writing, or through adding more beauty to the world in the form of art.

STRENGTHS:

When it comes to identifying strengths, I highly recommend taking the Strengths Finder/Clifton Strengths Assessment from Gallup. I was shocked at how accurately my results described me. It also helped me solidify what I already knew about myself but had struggled to identify more concretely. Additionally, I found that my strengths deeply intertwine with my values.

I lead primarily with strategic thinking (input, intellection, learner) and secondarily with relationship building (empathy, relator).

My top five strengths:

Input:

My input strength means that I’m good at and enjoy accumulating and archiving both information and experiences. I absorb books like a sponge and dive deep into information on current event topics and subject matters of interest, so much so that I quickly become a subject matter expert and formulate my own theories, concepts, and ideas that make me an insightful voice on the matter. My need to collect and absorb information makes sense––it ties right in with my previously discussed values: knowledge and growth. It drives my healthy curiosity about the world around me and fuels my love for exploration and experiencing new things. My brain looks for trends in current events and theorizes outcomes. Additionally, I love to collect experiences in life and formulate a deeper understanding of the world through them.

Clifton Strengths’ advantage of input: “Your pursuit of mastery and access to knowledge empowers you to make credible and well-informed decisions.”

What this looks like in my work: Honoring my input strength professionally means jumping on opportunities where research, writing/journalism, or teaching are needed. Any opportunities to position myself as a subject matter expert and offer advice or where I can interact with experts and learn, absorb, and accumulate additional knowledge will draw on my talents.

What this looks like in my personal life: Honoring my input strength personally means reading a wide variety of books and absorbing the content like a sponge. Books that teach me something, books that add to my knowledge base, and books that take me on adventures are essential. It also means collecting new experiences in life by following my passions, exploring the world, traveling, and meeting new people, which ties into my passion value.

Intellection:

My intellection strength very much feeds into and is primarily related to my input strength. It means that I’m introspective and love opportunities to absorb knowledge and books from forward-thinking, future-oriented thinkers. It also drives my ability and love for writing, teaching, and sharing accumulated knowledge with others. Additionally, using writing as a form of reflection and crystalizing thoughts is an important strategy for me to utilize and benefit from this strength fully.

Clifton Strengths’ intellection advantage: “You love to think, muse, and reflect. Your powerful mental processing and intellectual activity empower you to clarify and explain, regardless of the topic or situation.”

What this looks like in my work: Incorporating reflection and writing is a must in some form. So is acquiring new information on subject matter that interests me. Being able to share my knowledge with others through writing, teaching, or social media is highly important to my career growth.

What this looks like in my personal life: Reflecting about my life experiences, opinions or offering advice through writing is a must. It allows me to inwardly reflect and outwardly express myself. Additionally, since I dive deep into topics that I feel passionate about, writing and offering advice as a topic expert positively helps others, which touches on my altruism value.

Learner:

My learner strength feeds into my other two strategic thinking strengths: I continuously learn and improve myself. That desire for continuous improvement in part fuels my drive for knowledge, subject mastery, and collecting information. I thrive and search out challenging classes and strive to stretch and expand my thinking and look for ways to promote personal or professional growth or acquire new skills. Remaining stagnant is not an option for me.

Clifton Strengths’ learner advantage: “You love to learn, and you intuitively know how you learn best. Your natural ability to pick up and absorb information quickly and to challenge yourself to continually learn more keeps you on the cutting edge.”

What this looks like in my work: Much like my other strategic thinking strengths, the learner strength means that my work should offer plenty of opportunity for growth, again, one of my core values. Professional development opportunity is a must. If I feel I’ve hit the ceiling or become stagnant in my position, I’ll find another opportunity elsewhere to continue learning and growing.

What this looks like in my personal life: Taking inventory regularly of where I am and where I want to be in the short-to-mid-term future is a must. Doing so allows me to grasp where and how I can grow, enjoy life, and feel fulfilled. Taking on new hobbies and improving on old ones is also important. Soaking up as much knowledge as I can from books or classes is also a must.

Empathy:

My empathy (and relator) strength falls into my secondary area of savvy, relationship building. It means that I have a knack for sensing the feelings of others and have an acute ability to relate to others. People often confide in me and find comfort in my power to listen genuinely and soothe tension. This strength enables me to help those around me solve problems positively.

Clifton Strengths’ empathy advantage: “You have great emotional depth. Your awareness of the expression, value, and implications of others’ emotions makes them feel like you understand them.”

What this looks like in my work: Nonprofit work speaks to me because it allows me to help others or help the planet in some fashion. Because I have a talent for sensing the feelings of others, working with marginalized communities is an area of passion and strength. Additionally, that empathy extends toward animals and the environment. It is also related to my altruism value.

What this looks like in my personal life: In my personal life, empathy extends to my personal relationships and helps to solidify bonds of trust, understanding, and feeling heard. Empathy allows me to develop a deeper emotional connection and understanding with those around me in a way that promotes healthier relationships. I must take the time to hone in on emotional energy and use that in positive ways that encourage growth.

Relator:

My relator strength ties in with that of empathy because it involves using my ability to not only pick up on the emotional state of others but relate to those feelings in a way that promotes deeper friendships and cultivates a trusting environment where people feel heard and respected. It also promotes an environment where others often seek my advice.

Clifton Strengths’ relator advantage: “You naturally form genuine and mutually rewarding one-on-one relationships. Your authenticity allows you to build close, long-lasting connections that foster trust and confidence.”

What this looks like in my work and personal life: The relator strength, to a large degree, is the next stepping stone off of my empathy strength. Empathy means I have a keen sense of the emotions felt by those around me, and the relator strength allows me to do something positive with that ability. Namely, use it to build more authentic connections and more profound understanding to improve relationships. That’s beneficial in both career and personal settings.

Conclusion

There are a lot of commonalities across my values and strengths, and that’s no coincidence. Regardless of personal or professional setting, we’re the same person at our core, and it’s crucial to remember that and incorporate our values and strengths into both arenas. When our values and strengths are at odds, mismatched, or not honored in various facets of our lives, we experience discord and a lack of fulfillment. We have a short time on this planet; why waste it pursuing the wrong things?

Once you get a firm grasp of what you’re good at and what you value, you can cultivate your brand more authentically and positively, attracting more of the things you want in life and less of the things you don’t!

#jobsearch #career #careerstories #tipsandtricks #success #jobboards #networking #relationshipbuilding #strengths #values