By: Yadi Caro
Do you know the value you bring to your team?
They hired you for a reason and after this lesson, you’ll be able to confidently recognize the strength of your skills.
Conducting a self-assessment of your skills and weaknesses will define which areas you can contribute to more and which areas you may need to seek help from your teammates.
Here are some steps you can take to assess yourself:
Step 1: Evaluate your technical skills. Review documentation such as your job description, the statement of work for your team, and expected results.
Evaluating these will prepare you to identify what type of work to sign on to. Or, in which type of work you may need to partner up with an expert teammate to get caught up.
Step 2: Assess your soft skills. This is a bit tricker because they may not specifically be captured in your current job description. But there are a few ways to go about assessing them.
For example, check out the Clifton Strengths Assessment which assesses areas such as strategic thinking, your level of influence, and how you relate to others. Another great tool to assess these kinds of skills is the VIA Institute on Character Strength Analysis. It will assess your love of learning, kindness, and even how curious you are.
Step 3: Be open to HONEST feedback. Seek out the honest opinion of people you trust. Find a friend, former coworker, or even your partner. Compare your own assessment of your skills and theirs to see where the differences may lie. You may think you are good at listening, but perhaps your partner thinks otherwise.
This feedback will help you realize the areas you can improve on. There may be areas where you need support when collaborating with your teammates.
To learn more about assessing yourself, check out this podcast episode.
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