Competency and Core Identity—Do You Know Yours?

We just completed a seminar in Chicago for high-potential academic health system physician leaders. We focused on helping each participant define their unique foundation to build upon. The response was so positive that we wanted to share it with you.

Two Components of Our Personal Foundation

• Our Competencies, or Strengths, enable us to have a competitive advantage.
• Our Character—our Core Identity—directs our strengths in the service of making a difference.

Our Competencies/Strengths

• Talents: assets we are gifted with at birth
• Knowledge: learning we have gained during our growth journey
• Skills: abilities we have perfected with practice

The set of competencies each of us has is like a stealth bomber; it is an asset that gives us a competitive advantage. We had the participants read Discover Your CliftonStrengths from Gallup and take the CliftonStrengths assessment to gain insights into their unique set of strengths. We surfaced and validated their strengths in action to better understand what each strength has done for them. The takeaways were:

• Each of us is unique, and we need to respect our own strengths and recognize the strengths of others.
• We can impact the world more easily by capitalizing upon our strengths.
• Sometimes, we should stop working on our weaknesses unless they inhibit a strength.
• To build a great team, we need a diversity of strengths.

Our Character, Our Core Identity

How we conduct ourselves and move through the world is defined by our Core Identity—our why and how. How are we going to put our competencies to work? Our Core Identity is our compass for where we are going and how we are conducting ourselves when on a purposeful journey.

Elements of Our Core Identity

• Our Purpose for Being brings energy into our lives and a desire to achieve for today.
• Our Vision is the difference in the world we hope to make by serving our Purpose.
• Our Guiding Principles (Values) define the way we most effectively work with others to serve our Purpose.

We challenged each participant with these questions: Who are the individuals who have had the greatest impact on your life? What was it about them, and how they treated you, that was so meaningful? Those stories surfaced the Guiding Principles that are so deeply meaningful to each participant.

We then asked each participant, What are your most significant and meaningful lifetime accomplishments? In reviewing those accomplishments, the participants surfaced what they were making possible. Our Purpose in life is revealed when we honor what is most meaningful to us and the difference we make in our lives and the lives of others.?

Our Vision should answer the questions, If I got better at fulfilling my Purpose every day for 30 years, what would I be making possible for a better tomorrow? And If I do not serve this Purpose, what would be missing in 30 years?

We wish you the best of luck on your journey to better understand your own foundation for thriving and success in life. Building great teams requires respecting the diversity we need in strengths, with all team members in alignment with the entity’s Purpose.

Please share your thoughts, and connect if we can help.

#leadership #team #PeakPerformance #CoreIdentity #TeamDevelopment #ShiftFromMeToTeam #Competency