In this episode, Sarah dives into a crucial topic for career clarity and confidence: how to identify your strengths when preparing for a new leadership role.Whether you're navigating a transition, returning from redundancy, or feeling unclear about your value, this episode will guide you through practical, reflective tools to uncover and articulate your unique strengths—so you can position yourself powerfully for what’s next.

Show Not:

[00:01:00] Why Identifying Your Strengths Matters

Understand the importance of knowing and communicating your strengths for your next role.

[00:02:00] Common Challenges Senior Women Face

From imposter syndrome to redundancy and lack of clarity—why strengths can feel hard to spot.

[00:03:00] Real Client Example: Shifting Interview Confidence

How coaching helped a senior leader improve confidence and articulation in interviews.

[00:04:00] How Strengths Drive Career Clarity & Pay Equity

Why strengths awareness impacts career enjoyment, performance, and pay.

[00:05:00] Client Story: From Playing Small to Strategic Leader

A redundancy led to discovering untapped strategic strengths and bigger career goals.

[00:06:00] Client Story: Owning Efficiency as a Superpower

Discovering a strength in driving efficiency transformed personal brand and job positioning.

[00:07:00] Step 1: Create a Personal Career Timeline

Use life and career highs/lows to reveal consistent themes and character strengths.

[00:08:00] Step 2: Reflect on Key Achievements

Analyze what made your past achievements successful—skills, passion, and business value.

[00:09:00] Step 3: Explore Your Reputation and Leadership Brand

What are you known for? Dig into the external perception of your leadership value.

[00:10:00] Step 4: Seek Feedback to Uncover Blind Spots

How asking trusted colleagues can bring strengths to light you may overlook.

[00:11:00] Step 5: Craft a Powerful Narrative

Align your strengths, experience, and impact into a compelling leadership story.

[00:12:00] Final Thoughts & Invitation

Reflecting on your strengths gives clarity, confidence, and career direction—reach out if you'd like support in this journey.

[00:13:00] Resources, Reviews & Closing Inspiration

Useful Links

Sign up for Weekly Career Inspiration

Learn about Leadership & Advancement Coaching Programmes

Book a Free 121 Clarity Call

Join The Love What You Do Facebook Group

Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn

Rate & Review the Podcast

If you found this episode of Unstuck & Unstoppable helpful, please do rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

If you're kind enough to leave a review, please do let Sarah know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: sarah@careertreecoaching.co.uk

✨ You are capable of more than you know. Shine brightly. Lead boldly. Be unstoppable.

Welcome to Unstuck and Unstoppable,

the podcast for ambitious female

2

leaders who want to create more impact,

income, and influence in their careers.

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feel connected to their passion

and purpose, but without

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selling out or burning out.

5

I'm Sarah Archer, a leadership coach

and career strategist, helping women

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like you thrive in leadership roles

while staying true to your values.

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I'm the founder of CareerTree

Coaching and have over 15 years of

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coaching experience and significant HR

leadership experience to share with you.

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I know as a female leader it can

be hard to find time to focus

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on your career aspirations.

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The day job can be all consuming.

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Plus, no matter how senior you are,

there are always going to be times

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when you feel stuck, when you have

self doubt, or feel like an imposter.

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And that's where unstuck

and unstoppable comes in.

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Each week I'll be sharing practical

strategies, insightful interviews and

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inspiring stories to help you boost

your confidence, lead with purpose

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and achieve sustainable success.

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If you're ready to stop playing

small and unlock the incredible

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potential you have within you and feel

unstoppable, you're in the right place.

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Let's get started.

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Welcome to episode 30.

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I am so glad you're here.

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Today we're talking about how to identify

your strengths for a new leadership role.

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let's dive into this topic because it's

important to know what your strengths

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are because it helps to position you for

your next role, if that's something that

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you are thinking about at the moment.

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It can be challenging at different points

in our career to recognize our strengths.

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It might be that we've had a lot of

diverse experiences and it can be

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a struggle to see how those diverse

experiences add value to the current

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job that you're going to be applying

for, that you're currently in.

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Or it might be that you are so immersed

in the day-to-day in the busyness of work.

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'cause let's face it, if you are

working as a senior leader, your

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days are gonna be probably full on.

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It can be hard to see what you do as

a strength because you just don't have

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that reflection time to revalue it.

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Or you're taking your strengths for

granted because it's something you do

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all the time and you don't see it as

different to what anybody else does.

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Or you've had a bit of a

confidence knock recently.

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Maybe it's been redundancy or you've

been trying to move for a while and

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you haven't been able to move, or

you've had a bad experience at work.

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That can make you question

your value and question the

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strengths that you are bringing.

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Or maybe you've been job

searching for a while.

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And you're not getting interviews

because your messaging isn't clear.

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You don't have that clarity about what

you're bringing, what your offer is.

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And in fact, I was doing some interview

coaching this week with a senior leader

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who has been, getting interviews,

but not getting the job offers.

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And what we started to do was actually

look at how she was articulating her

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strengths, her unique selling points,

the things she was bringing to the

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role, and, doing that exercise was

able to transform how she then felt in

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terms of her confidence at its views.

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I suppose the things to say that you're

not alone, if this is something you

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struggle with because, lots of people find

it difficult to articulate what they're

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bringing, and we're gonna look at a few

different ways that you can gather that

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information to help you either in your

current role, articulate your value, or

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if you're thinking of moving to another

role, be able to have that clarity around

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your positioning and your messaging.

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Now, it's important work to do, really

understanding your strengths because

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it will increase your self-belief

and your career confidence if you

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have that inner confidence, inner

knowledge of what you bring and

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why you are good at what you do.

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It also means that you can find the right

role for you because you want to have

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it the next role or your current role.

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You want it to play to your

strengths because if it

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plays your strengths, then I.

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You are more likely to enjoy it

because we tend to enjoy what we're

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good at and you are gonna perform well

because it's playing your strengths.

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It will help you with that

whole clarity piece about what

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the right role is for you.

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It also means you are more likely

to be paid what you are worth.

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If you can articulate and know your

strengths, because then you can

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articulate the value you're bringing.

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So that whole negotiation piece,

when you are looking at that new

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role, or if it's promotion in your

current role or pay review time,

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you're gonna be able to articulate.

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The value that you bring and

therefore justify that pay increase.

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There's lots of important

reasons why you need to be able

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to articulate your strengths.

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But as I said, it can be tricky and I've

got a couple of client examples 'cause

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I think it's always nice to know that

other people are, experiencing this

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as well, just to talk to you through.

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I was working with a client

recently who's been made redundant.

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And obviously redundancy, does

knock your confidence and make you

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think about, okay, what is gonna

be the right role for me next?

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And as we were working together we were

looking at identifying her strengths

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and what she really enjoyed and what

she really wanted in that next role.

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And she was able to see.

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Because she was thinking should she

maybe just plateau in her next role?

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She was able to see that actually she

had a real strength in strategy, but

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also translating that strategy into

operations and making things happen.

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And that she had been playing small

in her thinking around her next role,

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and it really helped her to open up

her horizons around what that next

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role could comprise of for her just by

doing that work around her strengths

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and what she really loved doing.

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. And my other client I was working with

we were doing some branding work, some

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leadership branding, work around her

particular strengths and reputation, and

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she identified that her biggest strength

was around efficiency and making things in

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the business efficient and adding value to

either cost saving or revenue generation.

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And once she got that clear for

herself that was her real strength and

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she recognized it straight away, that

it was something she loved but hadn't

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really seen as one of her key strengths.

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It made her whole positioning much

easier in that she could then articulate

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that through her CV and through her

positioning on LinkedIn and with

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her network and the clarity about.

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The key element for the next role for her.

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Recognize that you're not alone.

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Sometimes you need help with this.

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Sometimes it is hard to go inside

and be able to see it for yourself.

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You do sometimes need that external

perspective, but there are things

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you can do to kickstart your

thinking around this particular area.

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The first thing you can do is a

bit of an overview to get some

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perspective around your career journey

so far, your life journey so far.

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And that is to create a

timeline for yourself.

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Looking at what the highs and the lows

have been of your life and career.

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And this is something

I do with my clients.

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And what you can then do.

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Is notice what are the themes that are

linking those highs together and what

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are the themes that help you navigate

those lows and some of that work.

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Getting that perspective will help you

see, both the character strengths, but

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also some of the technical or expertise

strengths that you bring to your career.

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And we don't do that very often, do we?

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We don't look back on our journey and

think about some of the things that

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have linked our experiences together.

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And that is helpful if you have got

that diversity of experience where

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you feel the roles perhaps have

all been very different or you've

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worked in lots of different sectors.

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The second thing you can then think

about doing is drilling down even

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further and looking at achievements

that you've had, and you could take

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the last five years and think about

the key achievements that you've had

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and what has been going on there.

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What has contributed to them?

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What have you done?

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What skills, what strengths have

you used to create that achievement?

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And did you love it?

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Did you enjoy it when you were.

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In the midst of it.

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And then you can think about what is

the value that brings to the business.

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Was it increasing efficiencies?

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Like my previous client I just

mentioned, was it increasing

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revenue or increasing growth?

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Was it around people?

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Was it around innovation?

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Was it around risk?

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Because all of those things are

really important to the business.

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If you can link your strength with.

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What the business is trying to do, that's

gonna help you articulate the value

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that you can bring, and you can also

drill down into your reputation as I did

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with my client that I just mentioned.

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Really thinking about what

you are known for, what your

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leadership brand elements are.

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Now, again, you can do this on your

own, but sometimes you do need some

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support from a coach to do this with

you, to help you spot some of the things

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that you might have a blind spot to.

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Because sometimes our strengths,

particularly our character

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strengths they're so innate to

us that we just don't see them.

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We think everybody has them because

they just come so easily to us,

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and so it can be hard to spot them.

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Which is why sometimes you need somebody

else to help you with that drilling down.

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And similarly, you can ask for feedback

to try and counter the blind spots

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that you have to your strengths.

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Choosing somebody that knows

you really well, that you trust,

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that can be objective as well.

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And asking them to give you some feedback

on what they see as your strengths can be

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really helpful and spark a conversation

about why don't I see that's my strength.

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Do other people see that too?

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And again, sometimes working with

a coach around , the feedback

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element can be really helpful.

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In the past I've done 360 feedback

sessions for my client where we've

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pulled together information from

different people that they trust.

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And then the fourth thing you can

think about doing is to create your

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narrative around your strengths.

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Thinking about what story are you telling

about your journey, your strengths and the

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value that you bring to an organization.

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My client I was telling you about in terms

of interview coaching, doing that work

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around her, USPS really helped her shape.

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The story she was telling around the

value that she brings to the business.

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If you are feeling your narrative is

weak because you're not clear, then

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that is going to get in your way when

you are at interview stage, but also

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when you are talking to your network

about the role that you want, or

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when you are working out what it is

that you want to do next, your own

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internal narrative is really important.

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Again, thinking about that,

maybe getting some support with

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your narrative, if you feel.

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You can't break out from the current

narrative that you're telling yourself.

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So lots of reflective things to do

around identifying your strength, but

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so important and so helpful in order

to make sure that the role that you're

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going to take next or your current

role plays to those strengths and

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enables you to get the recognition

that you, that you know you are due.

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And also to get the pay if you are

about to go into a new role that

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you want or in your current role.

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Do that reflective piece and that will

give you much more confidence about

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being able to articulate the strengths

that you bring, that add value to the

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business and make a real difference.

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And if that's something you want

some help to work through, then

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please do as always, message me.

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We can set up a conversation to talk

through how coaching can help you be

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clearer about the strengths and the

value that you bring to the business.

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Thank you so much for listening

to this episode of the Unstuck

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and Unstoppable podcast.

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I have lots of free resources you

can access on my website, ww.career

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tree coaching.co

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uk, and I'll also put

links in the show notes.

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If you found this episode

helpful, then please subscribe

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so you don't miss the next one.

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And please do share it with a

friend and leave me a review

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and I will personally thank you.

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Remember, you're capable of

more than shine brightly.

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Lead boldly and unlock the

extraordinary potential within you.

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Be unstoppable.