Bold questions, with a vast array of answers that will get you thinking. For most, the response will be to live a life full of goals and accomplishments, leaving an impact on those we work with, being involved in lasting work that outlives us and leaves a legacy. Whatever stage you’re at in your career, here are a few pointers to help you leave your mark.

Stop and think about what you’re doing – and why

Connect with the strengths of Legacy and Mission. Establish what this means for you in your role currently. How often do you use these strengths? What would it take to increase their use? How can your strengths make you feel as though you are making a difference? Whether it’s Innovation or in contrast Adherence, how can using these strengths support you, as well as helping others to achieve their goals?

Are you focusing on your outcomes and delivering these with your strengths? Or simply doing what always works? How can you get there another way whilst enabling and supporting the organisation?

What do your unrealised strengths say? There’s untapped potential here to unlock further passion and energy. You might not be aware of this, but discovering it could leverage further motivation and be something new to get involved in.

Inspire those you work with

If you’re a manager - how can you use your strengths to role model the future of the organisation? Who can you mentor and what strengths would make a lasting impact to others if they dialled those strengths up?

How can you support and excite others with a longer-term vision based on their strengths profile rather than day job? What do they dream of achieving in the team? Where do they get the best positive feedback?

Don’t lead on auto pilot

If you’re a leader – Are you doing everything well, rather than maximising your realised and unrealised strengths? we often find that senior/experienced individuals have a lot of learned behaviours because of having learnt to be capable in all areas. Whilst this may have got you to where you are now, reflect on whether you need to keep on proving yourself in the low energy areas, what would happen if you stopped using your learnt behaviours? Cross out those learned behaviours you simply don’t want to use anymore. Can you achieve the same results by focusing on your realised and unrealised strengths? This can be a helpful trick to get you to find more energising ways of doing things.

Re-write your leadership statement based on your strengths. Consider ‘What do I really want people to come to me for, and what do I not want them to come to me for?'. Often as a leader, you can become known for your learned behaviours, so it’s important not to get stuck in this area.

If you are involved in succession planning, what are the strengths and weaknesses of the team? Where are the gaps and how could their strengths support them right now to develop and grow?

Do your strengths families show a preference for any particular behaviours? How can your role take on more of this whilst delegating the draining attributes to others?

As you start to look back over your career, consider what strengths will lend themselves towards creating your strengths legacy and help inspire your workforce to develop their own strengths legacy.