Understanding your strengths and weaknesses can help you improve your personal life and develop professional communication skills. Self-knowledge is a great tool that many people neglect because of difficulties or discomfort. What you think is your strength may not be one in the eyes of others, which makes it difficult to categorize some of a person's traits. While you will mostly have to rely on personal experience, there are exercises to help you identify your professional and personal strengths and weaknesses. Below are also tips for applying these techniques in real life situations to get the most benefit, such as in a job interview.

Steps

Part 1

Awareness of your capabilities

    Appreciate your efforts. The very willingness to understand where you are strong, and what should be given more attention, makes you a strong person. For this activity, you will need inner endurance. Remember to cheer yourself up and remember what a wonderful person you are.

    Write down everything you do. To identify your strengths and weaknesses, think about activities that you often participate in or enjoy the most. Throughout the week, write down all the activities you do during each day, rating them from 1 to 5 on a scale of pleasure.

    Move on to reassess your values. Sometimes it is quite difficult to recognize your strengths and weaknesses without first defining your basic life values. Values ​​refer to the beliefs that shape your thoughts about yourself, other people, and the world around you. They form the basis of your approach to life. Take some time to reassess your values ​​so that you have a better understanding of which aspects of your life are good and which are disadvantages, regardless of the opinions of others.

    • Think about the people you respect. What attracts you to them? What traits of their character do you value? Do you own them yourself?
    • Imagine that you have the opportunity to change one thing in your society. What will you change and why? What does this say about your values?
    • Think back to the last time you felt content or happy. When it was? What happened? Who was next to you then? Why did you feel this way?
    • Imagine that your house is on fire (but all pets and people are already safe) and you can only save 3 items. What will you save and why?
  1. Examine your answers for the presence of a particular pattern. After reassessing your values, look for similarities in your answers. For example, you admire Bill Gates and Richard Branson for their entrepreneurial spirit and creativity. This suggests that you value ambition, competitiveness, and ingenuity. Perhaps you want to do something about poverty in your community so that everyone has a home over their heads and food on the table. This suggests that you value people, social activities and work for the good of humanity. You may have several core values.

    Determine if your life is against your beliefs. Sometimes people discover their flaws when, for some reason, their lives do not align with their core values. Living in harmony with your values ​​will make you a congruent personality, which in turn will increase your feelings of satisfaction and success.

    • For example, you value ambition and competitiveness, but are stuck in a hopeless, monotonous job with no opportunity to prove yourself. You may consider this your disadvantage, because this kind of life does not correspond to your idea of ​​what is really important.
    • Or maybe you are a young mother who values ​​learning and wants to return to teaching. Because one value (of attaining education) contradicts another (family life), you may feel that being a good mother is a disadvantage. In this case, you need to learn how to balance your values. Wanting to go back to work doesn't mean you don't want to spend time with your child.
  2. Consider the situational meanings of values. Determine what the advantages and disadvantages are characteristic of social conventions or customs in a given situation. Social conventions are a set of rules established in a particular geographic area or ethnic group that regulates interpersonal interactions in the hope of maintaining social boundaries. Having an understanding of the accepted foundations will help you determine what counts as an advantage or disadvantage in a particular geographic area.

    Practice answering questions before your interview. In order to gain experience, conduct a test interview with someone you know. Ask a friend to ask you questions and try to describe yourself to him. Repeat this as many times as necessary and with as many people as possible until you feel comfortable describing your strengths and weaknesses. At first, you will feel like you are reading from a piece of paper, but over time you will begin to feel more and more at ease.

    • Excessive criticality
    • Suspiciousness (in relation to bosses, colleagues)
    • Excessive exactingness
    • Slowness
    • Excessive talkativeness
    • Excessive sensitivity
    • Lack of confidence
    • Lack of tact

  3. Admit the harmfulness of your shortcomings. They can affect your work. Talking about how your weaknesses have influenced or can potentially affect your work can make an impression. This will demonstrate your discernment and honesty, however, you should still be tactful in what you say.

    • For example, you can tell them the following: “I am slow at the moment. I understand that this affects the amount of work that I can do, and also potentially affects the amount of work that my colleagues can do. In college, I was able to sort it out because I knew the system, found a way to deal with it, and did everything on time. I understand that in the professional world this will not work, as it is the wrong approach to work, achieving my goals and fulfilling the tasks set. "
  4. Give examples when talking about your strengths. It is one thing to communicate that you have amazing communication skills, but it is quite another to show them. Illustrate your strengths with real-life, supporting examples from your personal life or work life. For example:

    • "I am very sociable person. I choose my words carefully, avoid using ambiguous words when communicating. I am not afraid to ask additional questions when communicating with people of a higher position, if something is not clear to me. I try to imagine how different people might interpret my questions or statements. "
    • You can also demonstrate your strengths and skills by sharing past achievements and successes after your efforts.
    • If you have achieved any award or recognition, you can share it.
  • Be careful in identifying desires not to include "false desires" on the list. They are desires fueled by the mistaken belief that you are destined to work for the Foreign Office because you then have to live in Paris, London and Rio, or that you want to be a movie star in order to attend glamorous parties and find a wealthy spouse. These are not desires, since they lack the feeling that your actions fill your life with meaning, they are just fantasies. You have to understand the difference, or else you might be making the gross mistake of building a career around fantasy instead of using your innate strength and sense of purpose.
  • Fixing weaknesses takes time, so take a break if you are unable to immediately come to a solution. Also, don't waste your time trying to turn your weak side into a strong side. First, look for a workaround by developing your skills that you can change. Then come up with ways to further develop your abilities, which will become your hallmark, because they are given to you by nature.

Warnings

  • During an interview, never brag about your strengths or whine about your weaknesses. Be straightforward and offer a way to overcome your shortcomings. When it comes to strengths, they need to be real and modestly presented.
  • Try not to fall into the trap of thinking that you are doomed if you have weaknesses in addition to your strengths. Nobody is perfect and every person has something to be ashamed of. Imagine yourself in the role of an interviewer and think about how you would react to a person who would not cease to brag that he has no flaws.

Human. You can hear about this in any psychological program or read in books. Everyone should know their strengths and weaknesses. This will make it easier to adjust to life and choose the right job. How to figure out which of them belong to the weak and which to the strong? Many internal questions can be answered if it is clearly understood that this consists of both positive and negative sides. Trying to find a person without flaws is a waste of time and energy.

The question of the strong is constantly being addressed in interviews. This technique is referred to as the main psychological methods that HR managers prefer to use. Of course, experienced recruiters are less and less eager to identify a person’s strengths, as job seekers tend to use memorized patterns or write patterns that they don’t own. They try to point out weaknesses as little as possible or not write at all. The same goes for the stronger sex. The best in society are not always best, but guys continue to follow the pattern that has been instilled in them.

When analyzing your own personality, the difficulty lies in the fact that no one will help you with this. If your parents followed the development of your talents in childhood (they took you to various sections and circles, watched your perseverance), then it's time to start the most difficult work on yourself.

How to highlight strengths in yourself?

Take a closer look at your talents. The strengths of a person are always manifested through what he does. If others listen to your opinion, then your strong point is psychology. There is no equal in the kitchen, and any recipe turns into a masterpiece, the strong point is cooking. You have a wonderful voice - singing. Finding a strong side is not so difficult.

You need to constantly develop and devote enough time to yourself in order to reveal yourself to the proper extent. These examples are a manifestation of the creative side of a person, but talents can be more practical. For example, you negotiate well with people, which means that your strong point is communication skills.

Interrogation of the environment - the way to know yourself

Another way to identify a person's strengths is to interview acquaintances, both old and new. They will be able to tell a lot of interesting things, and their opinion will certainly agree in some way with your own. As a last resort, you can turn to a variety of psychological tests, the compilers of which have calculated and thought over everything.

Keep track of what you say in the interview

When you find yourself interviewing for a managerial job, don't say that you cook or sing well. These are not the strengths of the person that the manager wants to hear about. It is necessary to decompose the character into its components. Having, for example, a culinary talent, a person becomes disciplined and responsible, since you need to devote enough time to cooking and finding new unexpected flavor combinations.

It takes great imagination to create a delicious new dish. The strengths of the person for the questionnaire are the ability to plan, reliability, hard work, flexibility, analytical skills, the ability to quickly make decisions in a difficult situation. It is they who should be paid attention to in professional activities. Do you like writing short essays? Then you should do journalism or copywriting. Good qualities in a person help him socially adapt and become successful.

What about weak traits?

Along with the strengths of each person, there are also weaknesses. Moreover, the denial of their presence is an indicator of the unformed personality. Do not think that in this way you admit your weaknesses. Such reasoning often leads to a halt in development. The ability to recognize and analyze bad qualities leads to inner balance.

How to deal with the negative in yourself?

It is impossible to completely eliminate negative traits, but it is in your power to make them less significant. If you're constantly running late, you know that common time management tips don't always help.

A possible way out is to arrange business meetings in the office in the middle of the working day, then you will always "be on time". But this does not always help: you will still be late for the train or the airport. If you are having trouble planning your workflow correctly, then it might be worth considering the sequence of your actions and planned events. It is more convenient to put all complex and significant tasks at the beginning of the working day, and tackle other tasks at the end: even if you do not manage to meet the deadlines, it will not get worse. A good option would be to expand the staff of subordinates who can do some of the work for you and help shift some of the responsibilities to them. By the joint efforts of the team, it is easy to complete all the tasks on time.

Fear of the public is not a sentence!

Here's another example of the most common problem of many - the inability to speak in public. Both very young employees and managers who are experienced in presentations are faced with this. Working with a professional psychologist and constant training will help to solve this problem. If you are an "owl" chronotype, then you will not be able to work fully in the morning; it would be more logical to postpone all essential matters until the afternoon. In this case, the weaknesses will not interfere with full-fledged activity, and you will be able to realize what is called the "ideal personality" in psychology. The personality structure will be balanced and will not complicate life.

How to handle an interview?

Any person is expected to play the role of a job seeker for the proposed position. How to properly prepare for the answers? First you need to consider your qualities for the following points:

  • skills acquired in the course of mastering knowledge;
  • general skills that will come in handy in any job;
  • unique character traits.

From this list, select from three to five that are most suitable for the current position. It is also advisable to select those qualities in which you are confident and can prove them in practice. Then you do the same thing, only with negative qualities.

Women sometimes find it useful to choose another one from a large list of those best qualities of a man that a spouse has. If this is not easy to do, remember what advantages he possessed, for which you fell in love with him.

Is it worth talking about the weaknesses when applying for a job?

Any employer will definitely ask you at an interview about the presence of weaknesses. Many job seekers ask themselves questions: is it necessary to talk about them at all? How much is considered sufficient? Could mentioning them negatively affect the manager's opinion and the results of the interview? An experienced recruiter understands that any person must have flaws, and if you are not able to highlight them, then an empty line in the questionnaire will certainly alert him.

It's best not to show your excitement. It is useful to indicate what methods of eliminating your weaknesses you use. The company in which you apply should be informed and ready for the nuances of the character of its employee. The main thing in any interview is how calm and confident you are able to talk about your strengths and weaknesses. Such behavior will not go unnoticed, you will be assessed as a mature person and a full-fledged person. The strong qualities of a person do not need to be put on public display, as this may seem like bravado and insincerity.

We decided to prepare our own version of parsing the question for an interview in a common piggy bank, perhaps some of our fellow recruiters will come in handy not only as an example of how to apply for a job, but also at work. And the topic - one of our favorites - is the question about the weaknesses of the candidates.

Job seekers often consider this question of shortcomings provocative or tricky, suspect the employer of wanting to find reasons for refusal, to catch at his word and other sins. Is it really? Let's try to figure it out.

Target

There are no ideal employees, there are those with whose "peculiarities" the company can or cannot.

Asking the question at the interview: "What are your weaknesses?" or "What are your main weaknesses?" we want to assess:

  1. openness,
  2. the adequacy of self-esteem,
  3. self confidence,
  4. ability for self-analysis and development,
  5. the ability to talk about uncomfortable topics,
  6. flexibility and quick wits,
  7. the presence of shortcomings that are critical for work.

Restrictions

By the candidate

Workout. Candidates now prepare for interviews like for exams. Thematic sites and forums, career consultants and coaches do everything to ensure that the applicant appears to the employer fully armed. Answers to standard questions are memorized to the point of bouncing off the teeth.

On the one hand, this is bad, since it is becoming more and more difficult to get something from a candidate that even remotely resembles sincerity. But on the other hand, the main part of the above "assistants" strongly recommends not to lie at the interview, which is good. In addition, if the candidate took the trouble to prepare for the conversation, it means that he is serious about his career, does not like to let everything go by itself, and the vacancy is important for him. And this is a "plus" in his piggy bank.

From the recruiter's side

The temptation to play detective. In pursuit of the weaknesses and shortcomings of our future employee, it is easy to go too far. Don't make the interview focus on this particular aspect. The candidate may have an unpleasant feeling that can affect his perception of the company as a whole and scare him away from further cooperation.

On the issue of weaknesses, it is important for us not only WHAT the candidate says, but also HOW he presents the information. This is what enables us to cope with memorized and unnatural answers. Behavioral reactions, calmness or nervousness, spaciousness or monosyllabic phrases, the ability to give examples will say much more than the meaningful part of the answer.

To whom, when and how do we ask a question?

It is most logical to ask this question after the candidate has told about himself, his experience and achievements. It can be addressed to candidates for any vacancies. The ability to assess yourself soberly is important in every business. Rather, the ranking should be the expectations from the answers. Managerial positions require much higher reflective abilities than executive positions. Potential managers can be asked to provide examples of professional failures, to describe the conclusions reached and the steps taken to remedy the situation.

Rules for evaluating the received answers to the question about the shortcomings of the candidate

Let's make a reservation right away that it is possible and necessary to evaluate the answer to the question about weaknesses during the interview in conjunction with what the candidate says throughout the interview.

A comment

"I have no flaws"

It couldn't be worse

Almost a clinical case.

The candidate is not tuned in to dialogue, is closed, cannot evaluate himself, does not know his weaknesses or is not ready to discuss them, self-esteem is overestimated. He has no imagination and no sense of humor.

An attempt to reduce the question to a joke:

"I have the right not to testify against myself" and similar ironic remarks

A bit better,

but still bad

Irony and a sense of humor are very useful qualities. The candidate has them, we found it out.

Otherwise, it is also closed, as in the previous version.

The seriousness of intentions regarding employment in the company raises doubts.

We repeat the question and ask you to take the answer more seriously.

Formal blanks:

"I am a workaholic and a perfectionist"

"I am so passionate about my work that I forget about everything in the world."

“I can’t rest, I am drawn to work all the time”

Qualities unrelated to work:

"I eat a lot of sweets"

"I can not quit smoking"

The candidate accepts the rules of the game and expresses readiness to follow them formally.

Perhaps this is the influence of the very "co-defendants and assistants" that we mentioned earlier. A man has read "smart" books and articles, and thinks that this is how it should be, that this is exactly what the recruiter is waiting for.

We reveal the trick and give you the opportunity to express your own thoughts in relation to the content of the vacancy.

Trying to get the recruiter to justify the question:

"Let's discuss the criteria for weaknesses, in which company regulations they are indicated, and how they are measured."

Bad, with few exceptions

This answer is only good when you are talking to a prospective legal advisor or trial attorney. Such a grip may indicate professional instinct.

In other cases, it is a block, a way to get around an unwanted question or an attempt to assert oneself at the expense of a recruiter. The latter assumption makes one think about the personal qualities of the candidate. Do we need such a quarrelsome teammate?

Disadvantages not directly related to job responsibilities:

For an accountant or programmer: “It's difficult for me to speak in front of a large number of people. I am lost "

ForPR manager: "It is difficult for me to work with large amounts of digital data"

For operatorcall center: "I have problems with grammar, it is difficult for me to answer questions in writing"

Acceptable, but vague

The candidate is ready to talk about his shortcomings, but not in the context of the vacancy for which he is applying. It remains to send him in the right direction.

Let us concretize the question and ask you to concentrate on the position under discussion.

Partial lack of knowledge or experience as a point of growth. The strategy only works if the applicant is well informed about the goals and corporate culture of the company.

“My experience is somewhat less than what is stated in the requirements. On a formal basis, this is a minus. But if you look at it, I have experience, but there is no fatigue from work, and I also have a fresh look, a desire to improve in this area. I know that you have a young team and you strive to maintain high rates of development. Our goals are the same. I am highly motivated, and I am ready to prove it to you every working day. I don't face professional burnout for a long time. And experience, like age, is a gain ”.

The candidate understands his weak side and speaks openly about it. He was clearly preparing for the interview. I studied information about the company, analyzed it and came up with a way out of the situation.

We check the sufficiency of knowledge with the help of a subject expert.

Disadvantages need to be known in person. If they cannot be defeated, then they must be used or compensated.

"I am an owl". My productivity in the morning is zero. That is why I have chosen your open-ended vacancy. At night, I work much more productively than ordinary people during the day. There are no distractions, no unnecessary conversations and no reasons to take time off. "

“I think badly. This does not mean that I do not like numbers, it is just that the computer thinks for me. I am good atExcel and learned to work with large amounts of data, analyze them and display them in a user-friendly format. I know like no one else how hard it is to work with numbers, so I write the most detailed explanations. I only face computational difficulties when counting change in a store. Although recently I have also solved this problem - I pay with a plastic card. "

The candidate is confident in himself, knows everything about himself. He calmly talks about, at first glance, impartial things. And he does it not without pride. He was able not only to reveal his "demons", he defeated them and made them work for himself. He is constructive, knows how to turn disadvantages into advantages, and respects the interviewer because he gives a complete answer to the question posed.

Additional questions

People don't like to talk about their flaws with strangers. For this there are relatives, friends, acquaintances. Of the strangers, such things are shared only with fellow travelers. Therefore, sometimes you have to help the applicant, guide him, rephrase the questions.

  1. What qualities can, in your opinion, interfere with the performance of official duties? How do you plan to deal with this? This formulation allows us to lead a person to the strategy that we agreed to consider correct - to realize our shortcomings and find ways to compensate for them.
  2. Give examples of situations where your personal and professional qualities prevented you from achieving the desired result? We check the accuracy of the information. If a person has invented "beautiful" flaws for himself, it will be difficult for him to quickly compose such examples. If the information is true, then examples will appear without problems.
  3. What do you think, if we asked your previous leader now, how did he describe your weaknesses? We give the candidate an opportunity to look at himself from the outside.
  4. What professional and personal competencies do you plan to develop in the near future and why? In fact, this is the same question, only in a softer wording. We get the information we need, as well as the candidate’s expectations in terms of training and development.

We all have drawbacks. They are not only the flip side of the merits, but also the potential for development. And it is also a safety device that does not allow a person to get into a business that is not at all his. A standard question in any interview: "What are your weaknesses?"

It is not difficult to find out about your shortcomings, both parents and teachers point out to us from an early age. For some reason, much less attention is paid to the merits, and all forces are spent on combating the weaknesses. Realizing your strengths isn't just about building your self-esteem.

Many people are well aware of their disadvantages. From childhood, they are pointed out first by parents, if the child does not meet their expectations, then by teachers, friends or colleagues. Some even try to get rid of them - from these shortcomings, fight them, because they interfere with achieving goals, building relationships with people.

Constant focusing on one's shortcomings, self-flagellation lead to the emergence of and.

People think about their strengths - merits much less often. And in vain. It is difficult for a person who does not know his own merits. Anyone who does not love himself cannot sincerely love others, and therefore live in harmony with himself and the world around him. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” says the commandment of God.

And despite the fact that this commandment is as old as the world, self-love was considered abnormal and condemned until recently. A person who declared that he loves himself was treated with distrust, calling him an egoist, because for years the attitude “To love yourself is bad!” Was developed.

Psychologists say that it is bad not to love yourself, because a person who does not love himself is subconsciously tuned in to the fact that he is not worthy. He is content with what he has and does not seek to make any efforts to develop and move forward.

“I am handsome, I am strong, I am smart, I am kind. And I discovered all this myself, ”said the famous Polish philosopher-satirist Stanislav Jerzy Lec.

Loving yourself does not mean giving a damn about others and striving to grab more, even from someone else's garden. To love yourself is first of all to value yourself. And in order to know your worth, you need to determine your merits.

Methodology for identifying and measuring personality strengths

1. Determine what character strengths are

To begin with, let's define what we mean by strengths of character, because each person has his own idea of ​​life values. What character traits we are attracted to in other people, how we would like to see ourselves, what we do not like in ourselves and others, and unhappy - we rarely think about these questions. But by answering them, we can get to know ourselves better.

Who is our hero - a cheerful extreme and the owner of several dozen different businesses, whose credo is expressed in the title of his book "", or creative, or a beloved aunt who has become a volunteer at a children's hospital?

2. We involve friends and family

If we find it difficult to determine our own strengths (excessive modesty does not allow), we can resort to the help of relatives, friends, colleagues, whose assessments we trust. After all, from the outside, as they say, you know better.

Each of them can be asked to think and answer the question, what they like most about us, for what they love and value us. Let them also answer what talents they think we possess.

The answers should not be abstract, but concrete - indicating the situation when they noticed these advantages and abilities in us.

It is best to conduct such a test not "eye to eye", but through e-mail: firstly, our friends will have time to think, and secondly, in the letter they will answer more sincerely.

After receiving all the answers, you need to analyze them and highlight the main thing. For example, most of the respondents will note that we remain cool in stressful situations, instill optimism in other people, are decisive and know how to empathize - which means that we have the traits of a born leader and we have something to respect ourselves for!

3. We remember extraordinary situations and analyze them

Let us recall the unexpected situations in which we happened to find ourselves, and analyze our actions: did we lose control of ourselves or control ourselves, did we try to influence the course of events or retreated in front of unforeseen circumstances, did we show firmness and made the right decision or retreated by shifting responsibility on others.

The more such situations we remember and consider our behavior in them, the more detailed our "portrait" will turn out. Situations are not necessarily extreme, but they must be extraordinary, requiring a quick decision.

But just as badly many know themselves. It is easy to say: “I would be in his place ...”, but when you really find yourself “in his place,” sometimes you do amazing things for yourself. And you recognize yourself - the real one.

4. Using tests

You can also get to know yourself better with the help of tests written by professionals. It is desirable that they contain as many questions as possible.

At first glance, this activity seems frivolous. Obviously, because tests are often found in glossy publications and are mostly joking. Believing these tests is like trusting magazine horoscopes.

A whole army of psychologists is working on the creation of professional tests, so they are used by recruiting agencies that provide high-quality recruitment services. Thanks to such tests, you can get a complete psychological characteristic of each person.

There are professional ones on the Internet: they allow, (IQ), etc. There is also a test to determine the type of personality, temperament, character, properties of the nervous system.

For example, the Cattell test, or 16-factor questionnaire, is a psychodiagnostic technique developed under the guidance of the British and American psychologist Raymond Bernard Cattell. This test, created in the middle of the last century, is considered one of the best - it is still used when recruiting personnel for a company, enterprise and organization. It allows you to determine the main traits and abilities of a person.

With the help of G. Eysenck's test, you can check your intellectual abilities (), which is designed for people aged 18–50 with secondary education (and above).

To understand what we value most, it is worth answering a simple question: there was a fire in our house, relatives and pets are already out of danger (documents too), and we have time left to save one more thing from the fire - about what would we think and why?

5. Leaving the comfort zone

We will never know about our strengths and weaknesses, if not, which we cherish so much. It is in change that we find ourselves.

We strive for stability, but stability sometimes turns into monotony: the same road to work and home, the same people around us, the same situations - life goes on as if on a knock-off, on autopilot, almost at the level of unconditional reflexes.

Well, how can we know what we are really capable of? Maybe we are talented, kind-hearted, resourceful, brave, but we will never discover these qualities in ourselves and will remain an unread book for ourselves if we do not decide to change.

The hero of one film said: "I am afraid of changes ... But I take a step forward, to meet them, because without them it is impossible to grow up and recognize myself - the real one."

Strengths according to Gallup researchers

  1. Adaptability (changing oneself depending on the requirements of the environment, adaptation, flexibility).
  2. Activation (energy to get down to business and get it done).
  3. Analytical thinking (understanding cause and effect, critical thinking).
  4. Faith (the presence of deeply rooted values, ideas, the search for the meaning of life).
  5. Inclusion (helping others to become whole and successful).
  6. Imagination (creativity, originality, new ideas and concepts).
  7. Harmony (ability to find common ground, avoidance of conflicts).
  8. Discipline (organization, ability to fit in time, order and structure).
  9. Achievement (pursuit of goals, productivity, satisfaction with what has been achieved).
  10. Significance (great desire for recognition, hard work).
  11. Individualization (perception of other people as individuals and recognition of their talents, attention to differences).
  12. Intelligence (ability to think in many directions, intellectual discussions, decisions).
  13. Information (active acquisition of knowledge, curiosity).
  14. Correction (recognition of problems and the ability to solve them).
  15. Communication (explanation, explanation, ability to speak well).
  16. Competition (hard work to achieve high results, success, desire to win, comparison with others).
  17. Context (see historical parallels, objectively assess what is happening).
  18. Maximalism (increasing personal and group skill levels).
  19. Learning (enjoying the learning process, focusing on improvement).
  20. Future orientation (focus on the future, the ability to see opportunities, motivation for others to act).
  21. Responsibility (being someone you can rely on, many responsibilities and obligations).
  22. Relationships (establishing close relationships with people).
  23. Positivity (enthusiasm, optimism, excitement, stimulation of others).
  24. Consistency (equal treatment, fairness, concern for good and evil).
  25. Development (see potential in others and help them develop it).
  26. Prudence (making the right decisions, thoroughness, consideration of all options).
  27. Leadership (the ability to cope with conflicts and crises, the ability to take responsibility).
  28. Self-affirmation (self-confidence, independent thinking).
  29. Connectivity (connecting ideas or events into a meaningful whole).
  30. Strategy (seeing the pros and cons, understanding the situation as a whole, developing an adequate action plan).
  31. Focus (prioritization, directional setting, efficiency).
  32. Ability to win over (quickly establishing contact with people, creating groups / relationships).
  33. Ordering (organizing, coordinating, determining the right combination of people and means).
  34. Empathy (understanding others, establishing a supportive relationship).
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Formed from birth. It is influenced by various factors, but it is mainly the environment of the child. How peers and parents communicate with him. He learns, looking at the relationships of other people, picks up significant moments for himself that are deposited in consciousness. And as a result, it is shaped into characteristic features. The formation of a person as a person takes place until about 18 years of age. After that, it is already unlikely that the character will change if you do not put enough effort into this.

Weaknesses and strengths of character

It happens that we think about our character. Some traits interfere in life, do not allow to develop, to be realized in life. In such a situation, it is useful to sit down with a notebook and write down the strengths and weaknesses of your character in a column. This technique helps to sort out life's problems and understand ways to solve them.

Which traits are considered strong and which are weak? Let's figure it out!

Strengths help you move forward with your head held high, despite the prevailing circumstances. These include:

Purposefulness. We constantly set goals for ourselves: someone wants to achieve success at work (career advancement), another sets goals of a financial nature, still others dream of losing weight and set a goal to get the desired figure on the scales. But not everyone reaches the end point, they lack moral, and maybe physical strength to implement their plans. But if you have such a trait in your character, then do not even doubt the success of the tasks.
Perseverance. To fulfill a desire, dream or goal, sometimes determination is not enough, it happens that there is not enough small one, which helps a person to reach the end, complete the assigned tasks and proudly say that it is time to conquer new heights.

Strength of will. This quality usually manifests itself in situations where there is overcoming oneself. A person quits smoking, loses many kilograms, gets rid of addictions and addictions. allows you to cope with desires that do not lead to a positive result.
Organization. It can be difficult to organize your own day at times. Either children are distracting, then problems at work and at home. Everything interferes in solving complex issues, disputes. Organization is easy to develop in yourself by planning for the day or for the week at once. Write down in the organizer by the hour what when, what time, how much time will be spent on each action, and follow the plan strictly. Over time, you will feel that you no longer need to write down, and you can cope on your own, getting used to a regular daily routine.
A responsibility. This is one of the most important and main traits in a person's character. Without it, it will not be possible to create a harmonious family, get a job and work for a long time in a prestigious and highly paid job. Responsibility should be laid with mother's milk, and the well-known saying “we are responsible for those we have tamed” perfectly explains the need for this quality.
Sociability, sociability. These qualities enable a person to develop, find useful contacts for themselves, negotiate, settle conflict situations.

The combination of all these qualities suggests that a person has a strong character. Each of them needs to be developed and improved every day. Self-improvement hasn't hurt anyone yet. Therefore, if you want to achieve everything that you have in mind, you want to have a reliable rear (family, friends, children), then think about improving yourself.

Weak character traits

Pessimism. Being in a pessimistic mood, a person perceives everything in a gray color. This prevents him from implementing plans, hoping for the best, solving problems, and in general life becomes boring, dull, uninteresting and insipid. It seems that there is no way out of situations, but you just need to change the glasses to pink. As soon as the solution is found. Look at the world with a bright look, and then it will seem much more attractive.
Emotionality. interferes with communication between people. This applies not only to family relationships, but also to business ones. How often do we shout in the boss's office, forgetting about ethics. In no case should such behavior be allowed, otherwise the leader will harbor anger at you. Ultimately, you will be reprimanded for any small violation of the work schedule, and there will always be a reason to fire. Therefore, it is undesirable to show this quality anywhere, even with family members.

Envy. Envy is a harmful, destructive feeling that negatively affects the psyche and emotional state. We have noticed more than once how negatively we speak about people who have achieved something in life. The woman bought an expensive car, we believe that she got it as a gift. But few people know that she earned it herself, spending years on the realization of her dream. A rich man married a simpleton - she is with him only because of money, there is no question of any love. Happy family - hide the present behind insincere smiles. And there are a lot of such situations. consciousness, she is like a worm that eats an apple from the inside.
Extravagance, inability to accumulate. Such people are burners of life, they do not know what it means to have no money in their pocket, they spend it on entertainment, drinking, going to clubs, women, etc. This quality is unlikely to help once build their capital, their own fortress, reliable family. In the end, everything can end in disaster.

Weaknesses make a person vulnerable, unable to withstand negative circumstances, so it is important to develop your thoughts, skills, qualities.

How to develop a strong character

Character is a set of qualities that we acquire in the process of life from a very early age. It is not genetically generated, it is not transmitted from father to son and from mother to daughter. Qualities develop, improve or deteriorate before becoming an adult. Of course, this age is relative, in some developed personalities, the character is manifested already at the age of 15-16. Much depends on upbringing, mental development, education.

It takes a lot of work to develop strong character traits. This is the same as getting rid of something that has eaten deep in the brain. I would like to continue doing what I did before, but I have to do it differently. So is there a clear instruction on how to develop a strong character?

First, understand what specific qualities you would like to change in yourself in order to become stronger, so that your mind and body work more productively. Write down the pros and cons of your character, what hinders and what helps, analyze some situations in life in which, in your opinion, you did not behave the way you would like. This will help to gather information together and draw conclusions.
Why is having a strong character important to you and the people around you? First of all, this allows you to achieve all your goals. But if, nevertheless, this did not happen, there was a failure, then you should not despair, you need to continue moving in the right direction.
Empathize. The presence of a strong character does not mean that you are walking over your heads, overstep anyone who gets in your way. The opposite is true. You empathize with the weak, help them achieve their goals, love the people around them. But do help unselfishly, do not expect an answer from those whom you helped.
Naked facts. Strong character means a sober head. Do not start off from emotions, experiences, hints and other relative feelings and qualities. Keep track of pure facts, analyze, turn specific actions in your head, not vague assumptions.
Lead. Do not become, be the one who will adapt to the conditions and lead, that is.


Appreciate what you have. Do you know the saying "it's good where we are not"? She's wrong. Everything you imagine about other people, situations, places is subjective. Appreciate what is in your life. If something does not suit you, then do not look away, do not envy other people (neighbors, friends, celebrities), but improve, correct situations inside yourself, at home, at work, etc.
No cowardice! Take risks, don't be a coward. But the risk must be carefully considered, do not rush into the pool with your head. Without battle, there will be no victories, no gifts that victory should bring.
Do not follow other people's advice. Most likely, in some important issue, you have already subconsciously made conclusions for yourself, decided what to do, but you still ask for advice from loved ones. Do not get fooled by other people's opinions that are opposed to your own, follow the first answer that pops up in your head.

It is not necessary to argue at the same time, stay with your opinion and silently retreat, this is how strong personalities do.
Do good. There is enough evil, violence, pain in our world. Make it a little better, notice only the best moments that happen around, do, do good yourself, help the weak: the elderly, children, animals. Only a strong-minded person is capable of such actions.
Control your mind, thoughts, emotions. You don't have to be for this, take a look at each situation from the outside and reconsider your behavior. Excessive emotionality will never be a supporter of a strong person, these are manifestations of the weak. Showing rudeness, we defend ourselves, which means that we are weak.
Patience. It takes time to achieve your goals, and it takes a lot of patience to wait for the right interval.
Eliminate weak thoughts. We, like gardeners removing weeds from the garden, clear our heads of harmful, weak, unnecessary thoughts in order to clear our minds of unnecessary thoughts. Tune in.
Truth and only truth. Liars are weak, to become strong, speak only the truth. If you are lying to someone close to you, you are lying, first of all, to yourself.
Work hard. "You can't catch a fish from a pond without difficulty." Practice hard, improve yourself, improve yourself. But do not forget about rest, without it there will be no quality work on mistakes.

A strong character is not a panacea for all problems, but it will help to cope with many life situations, from which, it would seem, there was no way out. Learn, develop, become better, and then life will seem like a fairy tale.

15 March 2014