Naming your strengths can feel awkward, like you're about to give yourself a job reference. This prompt sidesteps that by asking the more useful question: not just what your strengths are, but how you actually use them. The honest answer reveals where you under-use them, over-rely on them, or use them in the wrong places.
A strength used well is small and steady. Used poorly, it can quietly burn you out.
Writing your strengths alongside how you use them keeps you honest. It can show that the strength you're proudest of is the one you turn to for tasks it doesn't suit — focus used on the wrong project, empathy used on people who don't reciprocate, persistence used on the wrong problem. It also reveals strengths you've stopped using altogether.
Useful before a career decision, during a mid-year review with yourself, when you feel underused at work, or after burning out using one strength too hard. Also good at the start of a project to plan which strengths the work actually needs.
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List three strengths in plain language, not job-spec language.
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For each, write one place you use it well.
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For each, write one place you use it badly or too often.
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Mark any strength you've stopped using recently.
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Choose one shift in how you'll deploy a strength this week.
Other ways to ask the same thing
“Which of your strengths do you actually rely on most?”
“What are you genuinely good at, and where does it show up?”
“Which of your strengths is overused, and which is underused?”
It's tempting to hide behind humble phrasing or to list strengths that sound impressive but aren't really yours. The point isn't a polished list. It's the match between what you're good at and where you spend it. Specific examples — not adjectives — make the answer useful.
Three strengths: I notice what's unsaid in a room; I'm good at structuring messy projects; I write clearly. Notice unsaid — used well in 1:1s with my team; used badly when I read 'tone' into a Slack message and spiral. Structuring messy projects — used well at work; used too often in friendships, where I try to organise other people's lives. Writing clearly — quietly stopped doing it for myself this year. Shift this week: 30 minutes of writing for me on Sunday, no audience.