In my experience working with many career clients, I’ve notice how good it feels to people when we land on just the right word for a strength of theirs.  And conversely, I’ve notice how vulnerable and ‘naked’ people feel when they cannot name and describe their strengths, especially when it comes to communicating to prospective employers, for example, in interviews or resumes. So it fascinates me when I find a gem that helps you name and clarify a strength, like this piece on the humble strength of humility,  from Positive Psychology News Daily of June 8, 2010:

‘One of the leading researchers of Humility, June Price Tangney at George Mason University, describes Humility as a rich, multi-faceted construct characterized by the following qualities:

  • An accurate assessment of oneself, including both strengths and weaknesses — neither unduly favorable nor unduly unfavorable
  • An openness to new information, including ideas that contradict former opinions
  • An ability to keep one’s own place in the world in perspective. David Myers points out that humble people are less inclined than the normal population to self-serving biases.
  • An ability to forget oneself, to move out of the middle of the frame’

Wouldn’t a prospective employer be attracted to an individual who exhibits these four points? So in your next interview, when the interviewer says, ‘tell me about yourself,’ woudn’t it be great to respond with a few of these points?

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