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Published: Feb. 7, 2021, 9:30 a.m.

Work In Your Strengths Zone To Make Work Enjoyable

How often you work in your strengths zone has a lot to do with living your best life. Here at Lead Through Strengths, we believe that choosing easy doesn't equate to choosing lazy. It means choosing efficiency and getting more of what works for you and what you enjoy focusing on.

This may sound too good to be true. But what if the gap between you and your own strengths zone is actually shorter than you think?

In this episode, Lisa Cummings and co-host TyAnn Osborn will walk you through some of the ways to get there. Read on and listen as they share stories and lessons that shaped their "work in your strengths zone" concept. Another spirited, inspiring and important discussion that you wouldn't want to miss.

Here\u2019s a full transcript of their conversation:

Lisa: You're listening to Lead Through Strengths, where you'll learn to apply your greatest strengths at work. I'm your host, Lisa Cummings, and you know, I'm always telling you \u2014 it's hard to find something more energizing than using your natural talents every day at work.

Well, something that's just about as energizing is when I get to hang out with my other host here in the room, TyAnn Osborn.

TyAnn: Hi.\xa0

Lisa: So today's episode is all about using your strengths to make things easier, to make life easier. It's about doing more work in your strengths zone. There's actually a very high return on effort from using your strengths to get things done. However, many of us do things the hard way.\xa0

TyAnn: So true. Why do we do that?

Lisa: Maybe we don't know we are.\xa0

TyAnn: Yeah.

Lisa: I know that I've done it in my career or out of habit...\xa0

TyAnn: Me too.\xa0

Lisa: \u2026 where as a younger performer, and I wanted to prove myself, I would work the longest hours, I would, you know, you have the stuff to learn so you have to go through the learning curve part.\xa0

TyAnn: Right.\xa0

Lisa: But then you get in the habit of doing everything through brute force. And there comes some time when it doesn't matter if you work 72 hours a day. That isn't the thing that is going to get you to the next level. If you work in your strengths zone, you're way more likely to crush your performance goals. You have to figure out how to not do it through your hours...\xa0

TyAnn: Right.\xa0Absolutely. I think you have to really keep an eye on:

What's the end goal here?

What problem am I trying to solve?

Am I trying to solve for \u201cI need to work a lot of hours," or am I trying to solve for actually getting an end product done?

But you know, this kind of reminds me of when we were in school and we were learning math, because I don't know if your math teacher was like this, but mine was where anytime you learned a new concept, you would learn it the hard way where you had to do it all by hand and write it all out.

And then the next day when you came in, the teacher would say, \u201cOkay, and here's the formula." Or, \u201cHere's the shortcut.\u201d

And then invariably, you're like, \u201cWhy didn't you teach me that the first time?\u201d

And then there was always some answer about, \u201cWell, you might be out without a calculator one day and\u2026\u201d \u2014 which no one's ever out without a calculator now.

So anyway, but it's just one of those \u201cWe can get to the same place, and you can get there the hard way or you can get there the easy way.\u201d\xa0

And it's interesting that as adults or are in our corporate world, we tend to think that the easy way, that there's something wrong with it. And it's funny how many times someone will kind of fight me on this concept, or say like \u2014

\u201cThat's cheating. I have to do everything the hard way." Or, you know, "Go uphill both ways, little brother on my back, in the snow with no shoes, or else it doesn't count.\u201d\xa0

Like, where do we get that message?

Lisa: It does make people feel awkward. There was a time when I was talking about strengths, making you feel like work is easier, that you could enjoy it, that you could be energized by it, that it makes you feel excellent with less effort. All of the E's you get when you work in your strengths zone.

TyAnn: Right. Ease, enjoyment and effort.

Lisa: Yes. And they're like, \u201cSo, making work easy?\u201d It was this kind of cheating response, like, \u201cSo, where the goal is to make everything easy?\u201d As if it's a shortcut that brings low quality.\xa0

TyAnn: Isn't that funny that it can only be work if it feels like it's awful or hard, or like I have to trudge off to the salt mine every day and...

No, that that's not how it's supposed to be. And frankly, if it feels that way, I would say maybe we ought to take a pause and look at what's going on because it doesn't have to be that way.

But this is a concept you and I talk about all the time. And I use this almost daily in my conversations with clients and other people and even kids. It doesn't have to be that hard. And you're making it too hard.

And so here's where I think having like a spirit guide or a trusted person you can talk to can really help because when you're the one making it hard, it's almost impossible to see that you're the one making it so hard.

Lisa: Yes.\xa0

TyAnn: It can be really hard to get yourself out of that.\xa0

Lisa: Yes.\xa0

TyAnn: Yeah. Because it makes sense to you at the time.\xa0

Lisa: You even did it to me as an accidental coaching one time. I remember I was like, \u201cBut I need to do more of this because I want this on my resume. I need this credibility.\u201d

And then you said, \u201cIt's already on your resume. And it will still be on your resume if you don't do it anymore.\u201d

And I had this moment where I was like, \u201cOh right, it's draining me. There are other ways to build this career\u2026\u201d\xa0

TyAnn: Right.\xa0

Easy Doesn\u2019t Mean Lazy

Lisa: And I don't have to continue that one. Somehow, I got convinced.

And I also think with people like Gary Vaynerchuk, and there's a lot of messaging about hustle, and I'm not saying that hard work isn't good. And I'm not saying that there isn't a time in your career or when you're new to something like in startup mode for something, a lot of times, it is a glut of effort at the beginning.

So I don't poo poo the idea of hustle because I don't want that to mean, \u201cWell, then I believe in lazy." But I think that's part of the problem.

It is easy doesn't equal lazy. But for some reason, we tell ourselves it does. What seems to be missing is the idea that finding work in your strengths zone can really step your game up.

TyAnn: Yeah, I think that's baggage associated with that. Or yeah, that if it's not a struggle, it doesn't count, or something like that. I think that's kind of an American thing, too. I don't know where that comes from. But I would just say, let's revisit that. I don't think that is the way it has to be.

Lisa: Mm hmm.

TyAnn: I don't think you have to work 28 hours a day.\xa0

Lisa: How do you know when you're making it hard? So let's say I hire you as a coach, and I'm like, I'm totally overwhelmed. I'm working late into the night, I'm not seeing my family. It's just too much. And you're going to be assuming that I'm probably making something tougher than it needs to be.\xa0

TyAnn: Yeah.\xa0

Lisa: How do we even uncover what it is?\xa0

TyAnn: I would say, the first thing you've done well is you've brought somebody else to help. So, spirit guide!

Again, you don't have to hire somebody. But do ask for help, because being overwhelmed, and then just trying to muscle through \u2014 here's what I know to be true:

More of what's not working is going to get you more of what's not working.\xa0

Lisa: Oooooh. Tough truth.

TyAnn: And I put that on a t-shirt.

And so, and that's often what our natural response is \u2014 when something's not going well, like, \u201cI'm just going to double down." Well, guess what? That's going to get you twice as much of what's not working.

So good on you that you could recognize \u201cI need help.\u201d

But after we don't know where we need help, so here's what I have people do. Just where's the crunchy? Where's the frustrating part?

So here's a true story. I was working with an executive at a high-tech computer manufacturing place that we both worked at one time. And she was very frazzled, very frustrated, and you could just see it. She exuded this kind of hot mess energy, you know what I mean? Have you ever met somebody like that, just sort of, it was sort of repellent, honestly. It was sort of like, \u201cI don't want that to get on me.\u201d

And you can imagine how that made her team feel and how that made her clients feel. And so I was asking her, like, \u201cWhat is going on?\u201d

And the first thing she said to me was so funny. She said, \u201cI can't get to work early enough.\u201d

And I thought, \u201cOh, maybe we're just looking at \u2019I work all the time.' Something like that."\xa0

\u201cSo tell me more about that.\u201d Which by the way is one of my favorite questions. \u201cTell me more about that.\u201d Because never assume you know what they're going to say. I have to tell myself this all the time.\xa0

"Tell me more about that."

And she said, \u201cWhenever I get to work in the morning, people are waiting for me in the parking lot. So they pounce on me when I drive in. I can't even get in the building and set my bag down before people are all over me and everyone is wanting a piece of me like there's nothing... I can't even get in the door and I've given myself away.\u201d\xa0

And then I, \u201cOh my gosh, wow." Whoa, I can write a whole book about that. There's so much there.

And so we talked about that. And then I just asked her, \u201cWhat would make your life better?\u201d

And she said, \u201cI would just like to walk in the door and put my bag down and get a cup of coffee and have a few minutes to look at my calendar, plan my day, and then start.\u201d\xa0

And I said, \u201cOkay, why don't we do that?\u201d

And so it was a little bit like that kind of doing it the hard way. Her solution was, \u201cI'll just get to work earlier." And so literally, she had backed her work up to where she was showing up at 6 am. But then people kept showing up at 6 am. So whatever time she got there, that's what time they got there. Like, you're gonna start having a cut, you know, in the parking lot. This is crazy.

"Why don't you just set a boundary and tell people what you need? And all you need is an hour or 30 minutes or whatever. So that's not unreasonable. Just tell people.\u201d

And she couldn't see it. But, so it was so easy for me and so \u201cAha\u201d for her.\xa0

So again, she was doing things the hard way. And like I was, \u201cJust make it easy. Let's just set a real easy boundary.\u201d

Totally changed her life.\xa0

Lisa: Hmm. It's amazing one thing \u2014 this might be one of your magic powers, because you did it for me, you did it for her... There are a lot of these conversations where you just need another person to help you see how simple it can be to shift into work in your strengths zone.

TyAnn: You've done that back to me too. So I appreciate that.\xa0

You\u2019ll Never Know What\u2019s Possible Until You Try To Work In Your Strengths Zone

Lisa: You also have this other great, favorite question. So besides, \u201cTell me more about that,\u201d one that I think that you've asked very well on this theory of seeing where you've made a barrier between getting to the life that you want and the one that you're in, where you're just like, \u201cI'm making it all too hard and can't do it all," your question of:

\u201cWhat would you do if you were brave?\u201d

Now it gets, you have to get in reflection mode to really answer the question.\xa0

TyAnn: Yeah, don't you love that question?\xa0

Lisa: Yes. Because even for her situation, this isn't like... A lot of times when we're talking about this brave question, it's more like the \u201cI'm self-actualizing and I'm trying to come up with \u2018what would I do with my life if I were brave?\u2019\u201d\xa0

TyAnn: Right.\xa0

Lisa: That's deep and it takes a lot of reflection, and there are probably five great answers to it. But what about her scenario, if you just said, \u201cWhat would your solution be if you were brave?\u201d\xa0

TyAnn: Yeah. And what's fascinating is, you know, we've talked before about fear, and I think she was afraid to set a boundary, because it was so easy when I asked what would make your life better. She's like, \u201cI just want to put my purse down. I would like to have a cup of coffee. I would like to look at my calendar.\u201d

Okay, well, that all seemed super easy. None of that is crazy at all. She wasn't asking for a personal driver and, you know, a corner office or anything crazy. She was just asking basically for boundaries.\xa0

And okay. Well, what was holding her back from doing that? Fear. Fear that if she told somebody no, what would happen? She would be seen as a bad leader. She would be seen as a manager who didn't really care, that a good manager gives everything to their team. And you know, whatever, all these things, all the \u201cshoulds\u201d she should be doing.\xa0

And so I love that question. I wish I could take credit for it. I'm sure I heard it somewhere, though. But the \u201cWhat would you do if you were brave?\u201d because often again, your body knows the right answer, but your brain won't let won't let you go there because of fear that holds us back.

So what would you do if you were brave? You're like, "You know what, I wouldn't even do this project.\u201d\xa0

\u201cOkay, well, why not?\u201d\xa0

\u201cBecause it doesn't matter. This isn't really what we should be doing anyway. This thing is a waste of time. Our customers don't even want this. What would I really do? I would explore this other thing.\u201d\xa0

\u201cOkay, well, how come we don't do that then?\u201d\xa0

\u201cAh, well, because we tried that once and it got shot down.\u201d

Or,\xa0\u201cWell, you know, we're so far down the path now that we've expended all this time and energy. So I can't. I can't say no." Or whatever it is.\xa0

And so we don't even let ourselves go there. That's a great question.\xa0

Lisa: Yeah, it is. And you may not always use the answer, like, that's another really great practical example: "I would scrap the whole project."

Well, we go back to this concept of where your personal preferences and your business priorities are that it may or may not align. But if you don't ask yourself the question, you can't discover the action that you could take to explore it.\xa0

And even if the business decides, \u201cno, that project is going to continue," what if by expressing it and thinking through it in a way that is mature and well-thought-through.

Who knows, maybe you end up having a conversation with your leader about that project and they go, \u201cYou know, but Jane's been dying to work on a project like that. So if you want to just get reassigned, if this thing's dragging you down, I'd love to get you over on this one.\u201d\xa0

TyAnn: Right.\xa0

Lisa: That's a possible outcome.

TyAnn: There's always possibilities, right? And I think sometimes we're afraid. Again, fear underlies all this stuff. We're afraid of what the answer might be.

By the way, the answer might be, \u201cYou know, we just got, we just got to finish.\u201d Which by the way, is always going to be the answer if you never ask.\xa0

Lisa: Oh, this is like the ultimate sales question. If you don't ask, the answer is no.\xa0

TyAnn: Right.\xa0

How Can It Make Things Easier For You? For The Team? For The Business?

Lisa: So, you can always ask. Now, there are high-risk requests and high-risk things to put out there. But I think if you've thought through a process like this, like:

What am I making too hard?

Think about business terms.

If I'm going to justify something in business terms, what would resonate with my leaders? What if work in my strengths zone actually translates into more revenue or more productivity (which it likely does).

Well, being efficient. Getting a high return on our energy or effort or spend.\xa0

TyAnn: Yeah, absolutely.\xa0

Lisa: So if you can find a way to express that, you're more likely to get this new path.\xa0

TyAnn:

Is this something that can help us scale?

Is this something that really drives internal productivity?

Could we decrease noise in the system?

Could we increase market penetration?

Could we increase customer retention?

And there's all kinds of things out there that could be helpful to you. And again, the answer is always going to be \u201cno\u201d if you don't ask or if you don't think about it.

But I think this is actually a really fun, creative question too that I've seen some teams use as, you know, in a team meeting, not every time but maybe once a month. Ask as a team:

What would we do if we were brave as a group?

And see what comes up. And you know, usually, there's a big silence at first because it's always hard to be the first one to be like, \u201cI think we should ditch that project,\u201d Or you know what. But once you kind of get the ball rolling, it's fascinating. And it's a really cool creative thinking activity.\xa0

Lisa: Yeah, it really is. And you could take that thinking activity and layer in strengths very literally as well, where you could say:

How would you apply one of your strengths if you were brave this week?

TyAnn: I love that. Be brave and work in your strengths zone.

Lisa: That's like, real practical.\xa0

TyAnn: I love that. That would be great.\xa0

Lisa: And then I might say, \u201cOh, well, I would reach out to that colleague in Latin America, who is on a team and does a similar role. And I've been wanting to get to know him but I just haven't taken the initiative and felt a little awkward... Okay, I'll just\u2026 I'll do that and make that thing happen.\u201d

TyAnn: You know, it's interesting, and I'll bring up the Relator theme. And that one's a fairly common one, we see that a lot in team Top 5s. It's one of Gallup\u2019s Top 5 for their overall database, and that is a particular theme that tends to get shoved aside because it's not an urgent theme, right? You\u2019re usually not graded on your performance review for how your Relator skills are today. But that one tends to show up high in terms of personal needs, in terms of satisfaction for you. So that could be one of those things that \u2014

\u201cYou know what, it's not my job description to reach out to the guy Latin America, but that would actually kind of really be satisfying for me, and that would really help me build that relationship. And yeah, it's gonna take a little time and frankly, might feel a little bit awkward at first, but that's what I would do if I were brave.\u201d\xa0

Lisa: Yeah. And what a great way to circle back to this concept of, \u201cOkay, you're making things too hard.\u201d

So I can imagine a scenario where that Latin America team you've been trying to pass your work off and say, \u201cHey look, we've localized it.\u201d

And they're like, \u201cNo, you're not localizing anything. You've made some poor translations into Spanish, and it's awful.\u201d

And they think you're terrible to work with.\xa0And the team is resisting everything you hand off to them. And meanwhile, you have this nice little talent theme, Relator, sitting there waiting in the wings for you to say, \u201cOkay, what would make my life easier? Where am I making it too hard? Where I\u2019m making it too hard is I'm trying to shove the way everyone else has already done it, and I'm not stopping to say, 'I have tools in my tool bag right here.'\u201d\xa0

TyAnn: Right.\xa0

Lisa: My Top 5.\xa0

TyAnn: Right.\xa0

TyAnn: You\u2019re trying to lead with execution as opposed to a relationship theme when that's your jam. So lean into that.\xa0

Lisa: Yeah.\xa0

TyAnn: And you can even, you know, blame it on us, blame it on the podcast. You can say, \u201cHey, I was listening to Ty and Lisa, and they said, you can kind of lean into one of your themes so I'm going to try that even though it feels a little weird.\u201d\xa0

You can use that. And that's a really good intro. And you can be like, \u201cOkay, it didn't work so well.\u201d

Lisa: You're probably going to be at least back to where you were before. It rarely goes bad where you should at least ask or try. Just use it.

TyAnn: You should give it a try. Again, first thing that can happen is you're back to where you were.\xa0

Lisa: Yeah.\xa0

When Work And Life Gets Hard, Lean Into Your Strengths

TyAnn: And again, you know, you get better at things you practice. And so just, I would keep trying, but I would just say if something feels hard in life, or crunchy, or you really just feel like, \u201cMan, why is this so hard?\u201d

And you hear that oftentimes on teams. I say that, like, \u201cThis shouldn't be this hard. Why is it this hard to get a decision made? Why is it this hard to get this thing approved?\u201d\xa0

That's a really good time to kind of stop and think, \u201cYeah, what is going on here?\u201d

And there is another way to come at this thing, where we can lean into our ease, enjoyment and you know, effort on, and have it just better spent. So that's a really good verbal clue to pick up on.

Lisa: It is. Every time I talk to Ty, I think of song lyrics. So now I'm thinking of this Cake song, I think it's Short Skirt/Long Jacket, where they say \u201cshe uses a machete to cut through red tape.\u201d And I'm thinking about your talent themes as your machete.\xa0

TyAnn: Yeah.\xa0

Lisa: And now you've got some red tape. You've got like,\xa0\u201cI can't get it. Why is it taking so long to get this approved? Why is there all of this bureaucracy?\u201d Yeah.\xa0

TyAnn: There you go.

Lisa: Start getting your strengths out. Start looking for ways to work in your strengths zone.

TyAnn: When you talk about it, your easy button all the time, you have one lying around here somewhere, I mean, that's it. That's your way forward. And so if life feels hard, if projects feel hard, if communication fails, or whatever it is, go back to your strengths and like, \u201cOkay, there's got to be a better way to do this. It doesn't have to be so hard.\u201d\xa0

There's no medal for hard. There's no giant report card in the sky, that it's going to be like, \u201cGosh, Lisa did everything the hard way. Well done.\u201d

That\u2019s not how life works. Because if you spend all of your energy on things that don't matter, getting things done the hard way, you're not going to have energy for the stuff that does matter. And we're never going to get the best of you out in the world because all of your goodness has been sucked up on junk.\xa0

Lisa: Hmm.\xa0

TyAnn: Makes sense?\xa0

Lisa: I mean, it's the end.\xa0

TyAnn: That's it.\xa0

Lisa: If you want the best of you, bring yourself the things that bring you ease, energy, and enjoyment. Remember to ask yourself that question: What would you do if you were brave?

And we'll leave you for now. If you feel like you're getting sucked into the junk \u2014 I don't know, I just totally botched your saying right there \u2014 but that this is the way to rethink it.

Ask those curious questions, and ask yourself, \u201cWhy not me and why not now?\u201d And give them a try.\xa0

Alright, with that, we'll see you next time. Bye for now.\xa0

TyAnn: Bye.

These Additional Resources Should Inspire You To Work In Your Strengths Zone

We hope you enjoyed this episode with Lisa and TyAnn. Indeed, life can be draining when you don\u2019t work in your strengths zone or not doing the things that you love. In the episode Can Working In Your Weakness Zone Lead To Burnout?, Lisa uses a plant that turned yellow as a metaphor for the poor attention to strengths. This important episode will especially help managers to detect the telltale signs of burnout in a team, and to discern their root causes, in order to address them ASAP. \xa0\xa0

That comes with a caveat though, because life is not perfect, and in reality, work comes with some tasks we love and some tasks that live in the draining weakness zone. In the Strengths Are Not An Excuse To Avoid Weakness Zone At Work episode, Lisa points out that you can\u2019t use your strengths as a reason to have bad performance or low accountability \u2014 by neglecting something you don\u2019t like doing. There are results that still need to be achieved, but your talents can help you get them in a strengths-focused way.