Page 12 - index
P. 12
RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS
Should we forget the New Year’s resolution?
One of Aurecon’s latest Just Imagine more time trying to uncover our personal strengths and
blog post by Aurecon CEO, Giam not waste valuable time and effort on things that take
Swiegers, argues that the best thing us away from doing what we were made to do.
you can do for your career and com- When we focus on leveraging our natural talents, we
pany this year is to focus on your play to our strengths and exhibit our greatest potential.
strengths.
Ever heard of the world’s best juggler? Mikhail Ruden-
Come 1 January and most of us feel
Giam Swiegers ko, born during the 1950s in remote Ukraine, had a
pressure to make resolutions to improve passion for juggling and juggled professionally as well
something which, frankly, we usually as taught the same. In 1978, he started to practice with
weren’t any good at to begin with. “Take up playing the 12 balls and achieved a personal best of 16 catches
ukulele”; “Become a better cook”; “Improve my garden- (each catch with two balls). The ‘official’ record for the
ing” … By 17 January, you’ve usually lost all momen- most balls juggled was set by Alex Baron (11 balls) in
tum and once again regressed. If this sounds like you – 2012 – no one has been able to top Rudenko’s feat.
please stop feeling guilty immediately. In fact, you Interesting, he has been quoted as regretting that he
should actually feel pretty smug. Focusing on what you wasted his time and energy on juggling with other
aren’t good at is a waste of time at best. If you work on props and if he could start from the beginning again,
your strengths you might be brilliant; but if you work on would practice using only small balls. If someone had
your weaknesses, you may only ever be average. And told him what he was doing was impossible and that
who wants to be average at anything?
the world record one day would be only eleven, I be-
Discover your strength lieve he would have replied “nobody told me it was im-
possible”. He had simply done what came naturally.
Historically, we’ve been programmed to think that ‘good
parenting’ is telling your children: “You can be anything Diversity not consistency
you want to!”…or is it? Modern wisdom (and psycholo-
gy) now seems to suggest the exact opposite. Have you ever been part of a team that just doesn’t
work despite the best efforts of everyone around the
Well-known psychologist Dr Martin Seligman, who table? Or maybe you’ve experienced the opposite – a
coined the phrase ‘Positive Psychology’, believes that team able to deliver time and again with everyone ‘on
for a person to be truly happy and live a life that is the same page’ and consistently motivated. In the
meaningful, you must understand what your personal 1970s, management psychologist Dr Meredith Belbin
strengths are in order to use these to reach your full discovered a way to predict the success of teams. His
potential. If we took Seligman’s advice, we’d spend far research involved business simulations which divided
12 January 2017 - Digital Marketing Trends & Predictions
Should we forget the New Year’s resolution?
One of Aurecon’s latest Just Imagine more time trying to uncover our personal strengths and
blog post by Aurecon CEO, Giam not waste valuable time and effort on things that take
Swiegers, argues that the best thing us away from doing what we were made to do.
you can do for your career and com- When we focus on leveraging our natural talents, we
pany this year is to focus on your play to our strengths and exhibit our greatest potential.
strengths.
Ever heard of the world’s best juggler? Mikhail Ruden-
Come 1 January and most of us feel
Giam Swiegers ko, born during the 1950s in remote Ukraine, had a
pressure to make resolutions to improve passion for juggling and juggled professionally as well
something which, frankly, we usually as taught the same. In 1978, he started to practice with
weren’t any good at to begin with. “Take up playing the 12 balls and achieved a personal best of 16 catches
ukulele”; “Become a better cook”; “Improve my garden- (each catch with two balls). The ‘official’ record for the
ing” … By 17 January, you’ve usually lost all momen- most balls juggled was set by Alex Baron (11 balls) in
tum and once again regressed. If this sounds like you – 2012 – no one has been able to top Rudenko’s feat.
please stop feeling guilty immediately. In fact, you Interesting, he has been quoted as regretting that he
should actually feel pretty smug. Focusing on what you wasted his time and energy on juggling with other
aren’t good at is a waste of time at best. If you work on props and if he could start from the beginning again,
your strengths you might be brilliant; but if you work on would practice using only small balls. If someone had
your weaknesses, you may only ever be average. And told him what he was doing was impossible and that
who wants to be average at anything?
the world record one day would be only eleven, I be-
Discover your strength lieve he would have replied “nobody told me it was im-
possible”. He had simply done what came naturally.
Historically, we’ve been programmed to think that ‘good
parenting’ is telling your children: “You can be anything Diversity not consistency
you want to!”…or is it? Modern wisdom (and psycholo-
gy) now seems to suggest the exact opposite. Have you ever been part of a team that just doesn’t
work despite the best efforts of everyone around the
Well-known psychologist Dr Martin Seligman, who table? Or maybe you’ve experienced the opposite – a
coined the phrase ‘Positive Psychology’, believes that team able to deliver time and again with everyone ‘on
for a person to be truly happy and live a life that is the same page’ and consistently motivated. In the
meaningful, you must understand what your personal 1970s, management psychologist Dr Meredith Belbin
strengths are in order to use these to reach your full discovered a way to predict the success of teams. His
potential. If we took Seligman’s advice, we’d spend far research involved business simulations which divided
12 January 2017 - Digital Marketing Trends & Predictions
