Why difference can be your strength!

Difference is what distinguishes two things from each other. And that is wat you want, being unique! The way in which you give substance to your personal leadership makes you unique. That requires guts. Do you dare to distinguish yourself? In an earlier article we talked about our primairy brain, which protect us against dangerous or uncomfortable situations. Sometimes it is so much easier to ‘hide’ behind the safety of a group.

Discovering

How do you discover what distinguishes you from the others? By focussing on the differences, what makes you different from the other one; there is where your strengths and talents are. Already centuries ago, psychologists made a study of this like Jung and Marston. Eventually behavioural analysis emerged from this studies; they can help you to discover what your preferred behavioural style is, like DISC, MBTI, InSights and MapsTell.

Preference in behaviour

One person is more task oriented, the other person is more people oriented. One is more introvert, the other more extravert. Your behaviour style tells something about talents and competencies that you have and which you can apply successfully to better communicate and work together with others. So do discover what distinguishes you from the other ones and see how you can positively reinforce and use that. This may require some new and different thinking, but once you get engaged you discover how much fun it can be and that you will be able to apply your talents more and more easily.

Added value

Having more insight in your preferred behaviour style and also in those of others, gives you a better understanding of the other one, that you know what is important for him of her and that you can connect more easily. Difference can be very complementary: someone who thinks broadly can use the help of someone that notices the details. And someone who is, by nature, more carefully, can immensely accelerate by someone that is decisive. If you are willing to look further than ‘different’, you will discover that behind the difference there is always at hidden talent. For example: the tactician is a critical thinker who preferably avoids conflict. He is also very good in designing improvement processes and implementing them. On the other hand, the decision-maker is someone who loves speed, competition, clarity, challenge and would like to assert his ‘power’. Especially in teams and working together it is very important to be aware of your own qualities and those of others so you can, in addition to each other, use those optimal.

Personal leadership

The way you lead your path ‘gives away’ your preferred behavioural style. You can look at this as your ‘internal navigation’, that leads you to what you want to achieve. You can also ask others what stands out for them in your behaviour or approach; this will help you to ‘connect the dots’. The better you know your preferred behavioural style, the better you can use your talents and get in connection with other people. Of course you can also make a behaviour analysis, for example MapsTell, giving you even better insight on your unique behaviour and your talents, www.mapstell.com.

Untill next time

 Then more about guts!

Team Being on Mission