Re-Release What Do Your Strengths Need to Thrive and to Survive? (podcast)

Welcome to the next installment of the Leadership Vision Podcast, where we share our expertise in the discovery, practice, and implementation of StrengthsFinder.

Hello everyone. It’s Carrie Jones and we’re taking a break from new podcast episodes over the holidays and also to help Nathan’s voice recover from his tonsil surgery. Now, between you and me, I personally was looking forward to hearing him sound like his six year old son, or perhaps even Donald duck, but apparently he wants to remain professional, so is asking us to help out in the meantime.

Rather than going quiet for a month, we decided to re-release some of our favorites from the archives. One of my favorite podcast episodes was what do your strengths need to thrive and to survive? By my colleague Brian , which came out in June of 2018. As I was scrolling through the archives, this episode nearly jumped off my screen. It felt particularly relevant during this time of year when people are navigating the holidays or just closing out another calendar year. Many of us can feel like we are trying to find a balance between thriving and surviving.

This episode really spoke to me because Brian does a tremendous job helping us understand the inextricable link between thriving and surviving. One cannot exist without the other. Brian’s use of his own Strengths really helped me to think specifically about how my own strengths show up when thriving and or surviving.

As you listen to it today, perhaps for the second time, pay attention to the questions he poses at the end. I don’t want to give anything away, but his challenge of asking someone we know to help us better understand ourselves and our strengths. Seems like a great conversation you could have over the next few weeks. We’ll be back with new episodes on January 13th of 2020 in the meantime, enjoy.

Thriving vs Surviving

Brian defines thriving as that sense when things in life are going great.

We feel like we’re coming to life, our relationships are healthy, and we seem to be living a life that is just who I am. We don’t have any sense of discontent with what it is that we’re trying to do. We understand where we are, the people that are around us, and we truly have that sense of enjoyment to the things that we’re doing and the people that we are with.

The idea of surviving is more of that sense that you’re hanging on. When difficult situations arise, we may feel stuck and unaware of the next step.

To survive is not knowing what’s next. To survive is to face something that we think is insurmountable, that we would say ‘I can’t get through this, I’ve tried. I don’t know how to do it.’ And also that fear that if we make the wrong move something worse might happen. That’s what we’re faced with [when we] survive.

Thriving mode and surviving mode; two key concepts. In this episode, Brian will share how Strengths can point us towards what we need to thrive; to keep the good times rolling, and also what we need to survive; to keep putting one foot in front of the other to get unstuck when those inevitable life challenges arise.

Two Questions for Reflection

After listening to this episode, ask yourself these two simple questions:

1. What do I do when I’m thriving?
2. What is it that I need to survive?

After you’ve spent some time wrestling with those, find a friend, partner, or family member and ask them what you are like when you are thriving. Ask them what you do when you’re trying to survive and how you appear to make it through.