How Your Strengths Give You an Edge, with Nermine Zakhary

Episode 88.   “… imagine  something comes so easily for me and I expect the person sitting next to me to be able to do what I do, their strengths are different than mine. They have other gifts that they bring to the table. So when we have those expectations, there can be some clashes and misunderstandings and  it"s important for us to become familiar with the language of strengths and what to look for and how to appreciate people.” Nermine Zakhary is a practitioner of strengths, helping others strategically apply them to accelerate their performance, energy, relationships, and results!   As a Certified People Acuity Coach™, Nermine coaches individuals and small groups. She also facilitates workshops to teach strengths strategies to clients so they can define their optimal zones -- and thrive there.   This positive approach allows people to own who they are and empowers them to purposefully make their unique and impactful contributions to our world. Nermine shares: “I realized in that moment that I had spent the bulk of my adult life trying to live up to someone else"s expectations and never feeling like I was meeting them.  Or I was always comparing myself to other people and, well, “why can"t I be like so and so?" or “why can"t I do what she does?” and never feeling good enough. And for the first time, it was okay to just be me.” “Sometimes if we"re waiting for someone to notice what our gifts are or the environment to give us an opportunity to contribute, when we"re in this waiting place, we don"t use them at all because no one has invited us to this space with them.” “We"re quick to notice our deficits, we"re quick to notice the areas we need to work on to be better, and not appreciate and enjoy what we do have and what we bring and know the value that we bring to situations and relationships.” “We tend to be in a deficit thinking society. When we’ve accomplished something, we celebrate it for all of 30 seconds. And then we"re quick to see, “what did I do wrong?” “Where can I do better?”  Well, no, wait a second. this is a big accomplishment. We need to slow down and celebrate and take in what is it that worked well? What did we do to make this a successful project? How can we do more of that?” Contact Nermine for more information and to set up a discovery call at Nermine@Strengths-Edge.com. Linda also makes an announcement about the future of this podcast.  What came up for you as a result of this conversation?  Let Linda know by going to Normal-Lies.com and leave a review.   Linda reads every one and every month, she chooses one review to read on air.  Who knows, she may choose yours! If you have a question or a topic you"d like addressed on an upcoming episode, go to Normal-Lies.com and click the contact page to send Linda a message. Or, click on the microphone icon at the bottom right of the page to leave a voicemail.