So many of us live our lives not believing in ourselves, doubting our capabilities.

Maybe we were told at school that we’d never amount to anything.

Maybe someone constantly called us “stupid”. Maybe after a while we believed them and we’re still believing them decades later.

But for some of us someone came along and changed all that. Someone came into our life who believed in us more than we believed in ourselves. Someone saw our strengths, our talent and our potential. He or she brought them to our notice. That person then challenged us to develop them and supported, motivated and inspired us to use our strengths to change the direction of our lives.

You can be that person for someone else. You can change the direction of someone’s life.

This week focus on the strengths of all the people you come in contact with. Acknowledge them. Draw their attention to them. Challenge them to use their strengths to achieve their goals, to be successful.

Follow them up next week, and next month. Continue to encourage and support them.

It’s their strengths that help them to manage, overcome or counterbalance, what challenges them, what they see as their weaknesses. If the focus is always on their inadequacies, what they need to change and improve, many give up. They feel powerless to do anything about their situation.They do not know how. They do not recognise they have the resources within – strengths – to do it.

If you are a manager of people, one of the most important performance leadership skills is being able to identify and focus on the strengths of your people and help them work to them. This way you get high performance and committed engagement. If you focus on their weaknesses you get the opposite.

My Motivational Challenge for This Week

Be the catalyst that helps someone else to recognise their strengths, to believe in themselves and their potential. Lead them to let go of their limiting beliefs and discover their untapped potential and talents. Be the person to change their life.