I remember the first time, there were more, that I showed up to a review with a list of valuable skills I had that were not being utilised by the company. The move did not come from strategy, but from frustration at going to work and being limited in how I was allowed to contribute.
Unfortunately, I know I am not alone. As an industry, we spend a great deal of time talking and thinking about gaps: skills gaps, training needs, areas for development. Self-reflection and a growth mindset are useful and necessary, of course, but often the most valuable audit one can run is not of one’s weaknesses, but of the strengths one has already built, the ones one may have stopped noticing. Because that is where the competitive advantage lives. Teamwork and complementary skills can help fill the gaps.
And so, in the first session of the WICE Forum, we will ask the audience: “Do you know what your strengths are?”
I will be joined by Gill How , a strengths coach who has spent years helping professionals identify the specific, high-value capabilities that make them indispensable to their companies and teams, and then use them with precision.
It will be an interactive session aimed at creating a space for self-reflection and clarity, so the finalists can face the day ahead with a clear sense of their own competitive advantage.
Gill and I look forward to welcoming all the finalists.
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