Matching your business strengths to opportunities

Small business owners have tremendous roles and responsibilities placed on their shoulders. Do you know how to manage your business effectively and are you able to identify your small business strengths? You must be able to identify your strengths and bring them out for certain situations that will allow you to move forward effectively with your business.

Personal Strengths
One strength to identify is the strengths that you have and the ones that are part of your employees as well. Each member of your staff has different skills and talents and together they will bring out the best in you and will create a well-rounded team. After you identify all of the strengths of your employees, meet with them and discuss different ways in which you can bring out these strengths. Come up with goals for each employee to meet and to challenge themselves with. This helps you to show your employees that you trust them and you want to see them grow and develop with the organization.

Validate your strengths
You need to not only list all of the strengths that you have but you need to validate them. Some people think highly of themselves in certain situations until they try to put their skills to the test and they find they are of no match for the situation. By working on your strengths and identifying them early on, you will have a better idea as to what you are actually capable of doing. The best validation of your strengths will come from the people that know you best like your friends and family members. Your employees can help as well but you need to remember that they are going to try and "suck up" so their opinion can't be as honest as one that comes from your spouse or your child. Knowing your true strengths will give you the insight you need to be stronger in your job responsibilities.

Track your strengths
Some small business owners have been able to track their strengths by taking a notebook around with them and to go over their strengths when they feel they have "power" moments. These are times when you know you are leading your employees and you feel good about your position with the company. Write down the strength and the emotion that you felt after the situation happened. This will remind you and help you as you are seeking to uncover the different skills and talents that you have. You will also know which skills you need to turn to when the going is rough at times and you need to work on securing a new client or deal for your company.

Have confidence
After you find out what your different strengths are, you need to have confidence in your strengths and to trust in them in the various situations you will be in. Some of the common things you need to remind yourself of include the following:
1. I am successful at this
2. I volunteer for certain jobs
3. I excel in this
4. I love learning new things
5. I have fun when I do this
As you pump yourself up and remind yourself why you are talented and why you are the leader of the organization, you will have an easier time building up your confidence. Each day you should pick out a new strength and work on developing it. The more you push yourself, the more you will be able to learn about yourself and your company.

The more you have confidence in yourself and in your ability to lead your staff, the wasier it will be to develop a successful organization.