The Ambitious Nurse | RN, Nursing Career, Nursing Job Opportunities

39 //Strengths Over Weaknesses: How to Leverage Your Core Nursing Skills for Career Success

• Bonnie Meadows • Episode 39

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Are you a nurse feeling stuck, unfulfilled, or unsure about your next career move? Do you crave a purposeful and fulfilling career path? If so, this episode is your compass to navigate the exciting journey of self-discovery and unlock your full potential.

Key Points:

  • Self-awareness isn't just a buzzword – it's the secret ingredient to a fulfilling nursing career.
  • Forget the linear path; your career is an adventure waiting to be explored!


  • Seven Powerful Self-Awareness Tools:
    • SWOT Analysis: Uncover your hidden strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to chart your career course.
    • CliftonStrengths: Discover your superpowers and leverage them to create a career you love.
    • Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): Decode your personality and find the perfect work environment and team dynamics for you.
    • 16 Personalities: Dive deeper into your personality and unlock your hidden potential for career satisfaction.
    • Emotional Intelligence Assessment: Master your emotions and become an influential and inspiring leader.
    • Enneagram: Uncover your core motivations, conquer your fears, and develop a leadership style that empowers others.
    • DISC Assessment: Crack the code of your behavior patterns and become a collaborative superstar.
    • 360 Degree Feedback: Gain valuable insights from those around you and unlock your blind spots for continuous growth.

Choosing Your Self-Discovery Toolkit:

  • Select the tools that resonate with your career aspirations.
    • Finding your overall direction? Explore SWOT Analysis, CliftonStrengths, MBTI, and 16 Personalities.
    • Ready to step into leadership? Dive into Emotional Intelligence, Enneagram, DISC Assessment, and 360 Degree Feedback.

Call to Action:

  • Feeling stuck? Start with a SWOT analysis and gain clarity today.
  • Join the email list for a free guide on the top 5 career-boosting strategies.
  • Don't miss out on the upcoming offer designed to skyrocket your career journey!

Remember: Self-awareness is your superpower. Continuously explore, learn, and grow to create a nursing career that lights your fire. Tune in now and unlock your full potential!


Extra Podcasts Mentioned in this episode:

My Clifton-Strengths Finders Review: Discovering Strengths: How this Nurse Educator Uses Her Talents to Succeed

A walkthrough of how to use the SWOT Analysis: Tired of Searching for the Right Nursing Job? Use these 2 Strategic Tips To Find Your Best Fit As a Nurse With a Master's Degree or Doctorate Degree


Want to continue the conversation? Send me a text right here.

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Grab your free guide today! Click Here


Join me for a **1:1 Nurse Career Clarity Coaching Call**—a 1:1 coaching session where we’ll get you unstuck and find clarity to make the next move in your career.

Speaker 1:

Welcome back. Today I have the privilege of sharing a few self-awareness tools. Now, if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you know I speak a lot to the SWOT analysis. It stands for Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and Threats, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and I believe that that is a very practical way to really work through where you are from a self-awareness standpoint and where your career sits, and it gives you insight into what direction you should take next. And so that's something that I talk about. That is free for you to do. It's easy for you to sit down and do. I will link podcast episodes to this podcast episode in the show notes that go back to how to use a SWOT analysis for building self-awareness and taking the next step in your career. Self-awareness is the key to advancing your career forward with a purpose and not just advancing your career forward with just a job, but really helping you to build out your career path. And one thing that I will say to you because I've done about three or four major pivots in my career One if you're really intentional about your career, it's not linear, it's not just one straight shot of here's where I'm going, because sometimes, even if you get to that once you get to that place of, okay, I'm here and now what, you still get to a now what? Because you live longer, you experience more things, you see more things. You're like oh, I didn't realize I liked that. Oh, I didn't realize I liked speaking. Oh, I didn't realize I liked analysis. Oh, I didn't realize that I liked being in the community. These are things that we learn as we grow and get experience in our career. In our career, self-awareness helps you focus in. It is the key to really developing a career that is purposeful, and so I talk about one of the easiest ways a beginner level to be able to do just a quick awareness, a quick assessment of where am I and where do I want to go. However, there are several self-awareness tools that many of you have heard of them, and I'm going to go through seven of those tools that you can use in order to develop your career, to help you to really find a path in your career, to help you to really find a path in your career.

Speaker 1:

Are you feeling stuck in your current clinical environment? Do you want to make a change in your nursing career, but not sure what to do next, exhausted, burnt out and maybe even ready for different leadership. I'm Bonnie Meadows, a board certified clinical nurse, specialist, influential leader, career coach and well-being coach. Being in the nursing and healthcare profession since 2004, I have felt stuck and unsure about what was next for me. I wanted to be fulfilled in my purpose, to have a voice at the table and to be a resource for others. I kept telling myself I wanted more, but didn't have the direction I needed, until I found clarity and career growth strategies for experienced nurses like me. In this podcast, you will find simple, tactical steps that allow you to gain the clarity you need, solutions for how to grow Even without supportive leadership, and guidelines for setting boundaries at work, so that you can grow purposefully In your career as a nurse With a graduate degree who makes a huge impact in the profession. So get ready To trade your scrubs for yoga pants, pop in those earbuds and let's chat.

Speaker 1:

You will always come back to getting a level of self-awareness. So what happens in our careers? We gain a level of self-awareness, we decide the career path we want, we get a job that lines up with that path, we're working, learning things and we're gaining experience and we're gaining skills, and then we're at a point where we want to move. Sometimes we're ready, sometimes not, but even so, every time you feel the need for a shift or a pivot, that's when it's time to circle back to that self-awareness tool and just say, okay, I realize it is time for me to move. Where is my next step? What is my next step? Where do I go from here? And that's really how you get to that point of using that tool over and over again to really help to set the pace for what it is that you want to do in your career and it can give you. It can also help you to set a long-term vision versus it being a short-term vision of what do I want just for right now versus what do I want a few years from now? Where do I see my career going? Okay, so I'm going to go ahead and jump into it.

Speaker 1:

Okay, the first strengths finders, clifton's strengths finders, and so the focus of strengths finders is to really identify your core strengths, is to more so shift to focus on your strengths and not focus on your weaknesses, and that's one of the things that I talk about a lot. Our bread and butter is found in really finding out our core strengths, that core skill set that we know we do well, because that's what we market as nurses. That's where we find our value, that's where we find our joy, those, as they would say, core competencies that just are embedded in us and that's what we love to work in. When you find your core strengths, then that's the work that you need to be focused in, and not weaknesses. I want you to identify your weaknesses for two reasons. One, it's important to understand where your weaknesses are so that no one else is calling it out and saying, oh well, you do this and then you're in denial the whole time when you know that is your weakness. That happened to me.

Speaker 1:

I personality tests continue to tell me I'm not detail-oriented. I'm like I'm a cardiac surgery ICU nurse. How could I not be detail-oriented? Eventually I realized I was not detail-oriented. What I found out is the test was right I am not detail-oriented. I don't like the nitty-gritty details. When I need to be detail-oriented, I will be. I am very big picture, but I love structure. I'll look at the big picture overall and then I start to whittle down to the level of detail, but it takes me a while. Clinically it's not a struggle. I've learned so much and I've gained so much knowledge to where it's easier for me to whittle down to the problem, especially if it's a cardiac surgery patient. I don't know it all, but I know enough and I have enough pathophysiology to pretty much figure out anything. These days. I like that big picture structure. This was even a sign, and I didn't know it.

Speaker 1:

I would walk into work, get my assignment from the nurse and somebody needs to do a meme on this. Nurse Blake has probably done a meme on it, or whatever the case may be. But the different types of bedside shift report or the different types of nurse reporters, of course there's the storyteller. There's the one who gives you all the details, like they give you a story but they don't give you no details about the patient. Then there's the one who gives you all the details but nothing about where are we going with this patient. And then there are those who are clear and concise. They go through every system and then they tell you where to go.

Speaker 1:

I was that nurse. I'm like what is? When I went in, my goal was what is my big goal? Where are we progressing this patient? What is the goal for this patient? Once I understood the goal was for the patient. Then I knew what my job was. Forget the task, I'm going to do the task. I'm going to do those things because they're much needed for the patient, but me understanding what the big goal was for that patient, is it to move them closer to discharge, preparing for surgery? Have we found something and now we're looking for something else? Do they need to have a bowel movement, like, what is the goal? That's by strength, not? Oh, they had two bowel movements today, and then what? So does that mean they could go home tomorrow? That's what I need to know. That is how I figured out. Yes, that is my weakness.

Speaker 1:

So Strength Finders helps nurses, helps anyone, but as experienced nurses, it helps us to identify our top strengths and leverage them in roles. I'm going to have links in the show notes and to my email list. I did a podcast interview with a coach who talks about the same types of things that I talk about as far as discovering your calling, but hers is very general. Mine is very specific to experienced nurses. She is a strengthssFinders coach. I did an assessment, identified my top five and I will let you know what they are, and then she walked through the assessment with me to just kind of say hey, here's what this means and here's what you should think about. So my top five. The first one is relator. I enjoy or it says you enjoy close relationships with others. You find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal. Very true, nurses are my friends.

Speaker 1:

Belief is my number two strength. You have certain core values that are un friends. Belief is my number two strength. You have certain core values that are unchanging. Out of these values emerges a defined purpose for your life. So that goes back to my basis of Christianity and my love for God, christ, and always wanting to be in God's will in the work that I do. That's just what that's connected to.

Speaker 1:

So the number three is connectedness. You have faith in the links among all things. You believe there are few coincidences and that almost every event has a meaning. Almost every event has a meaning. Now some people can take that to think that I'm a conspiracy theorist or I am always just trying to. I just always make connections. There's no conspiracy about it. I'm always trying to find a link into why something has happened. That's just my critical thinking to me. To me, that is just critical thinking. Like you just got to connect the dots. I'm a dot connector but also a connector of people. I help people connect with each other. I love to do that.

Speaker 1:

Number four is learner Love to learn. You have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve the process of learning rather than the outcome excites you. That is very true. I absolutely love to learn, getting to the goal. Once you get there, it's kind of like okay, well then, what next? That's how I feel. I'm constantly wanting to do something new, wanting to learn. If I've hit that goal several times, I'm ready to move on and learn something else. That's just who I am.

Speaker 1:

And number five individuation. And it says you are intrigued with the unique qualities of each person. You have a gift for figuring out how different people can work together productively. That is where the coaching piece comes in and that is why nurses began to come to me and ask for advice about their careers Because they understood that I connect dots well, because they understood that I connect dots well and they understood that I had a gift for figuring things out. When I coach people, I dig into their unique qualities that they can use in health care and the nursing profession to grow the profession and to grow themselves and to grow the profession and to grow themselves and to grow personally, like it's not just about your career but it's about your professional growth and your personal growth. They go together, and so that's pretty much what my top five strengths are. That is the CliftonStrengths. If you are interested in that one, that's a great one to take. If you want more information on what that looks like in getting an assessment, I'll have the podcast where I got my assessment reviewed linked in the show notes.

Speaker 1:

Okay, next, this is the next, probably most popular one, and it's the Myers-Briggs type indicator. So that is a focus on personality types and preferences, and I was doing a little bit more research on yesterday and didn't realize and for us as nurses, we had to have a little bit of psychology in our nursing program. We all do If we were paying attention, we have to remember Carl Jung, and so this personality, this self-awareness tool, is actually based on Carl Jung's personality types and his theory, and so it helps us by giving insight on how our personality affects work preferences, team dynamics and leadership styles. The Myers-Briggs type indicator helps us, as nurses, to understand which work environments or roles suit us best. So in my profile for Myers-Briggs Type Indicator back in 2011,. My type came out to be ESTJ.

Speaker 1:

So what does that mean? E stands for extroversion, s stands for sensing, t stands for thinking and J stands for judging. Here are the other options. Introversion is the opposite of extroversion. Intuition is the opposite of sensing. Feeling is the opposite of thinking. I am a thinker. Perceiving is the opposite of judging. So that's really just to give you a taste of the test. It can give you an idea of how you work and the ways in which you work, and so then it gives you this huge breakdown. The Myers-Briggs type indicator is definitely one of those tests where you need like. It'll give you a very detailed interpretive report.

Speaker 1:

I took this my first semester in my master's program for nursing leadership. It gave me a good understanding of how I worked. Now, 11, 12, 14. Years later, I have a better understanding. I see who I am in that test, although I don't know if I moved from extroversion to introversion over the years. In looking at the test, it will tell you where you land. Are you more of you know? Are you a lot of extroversion? Are you a little of extroversion? And I land in the slight category. So I am slightly more extroverted than I am introverted. Let's just say that, and that makes sense. I would encourage you to look into that type.

Speaker 1:

The next tool I'm going to talk about is the 16 personalities test. 16 personalities is a free self-awareness tool. 16 personalities uses the Myers-Briggs type and the big five personalities and the big five personalities test. It combines the two. I did a lookup, did some research on well, what makes them, because I remember taking it and it gave me a Myers-Briggs type of answer. Myers-briggs type indicator is based strictly on the Carl Jung's theory. It's formal and it focuses on psychological preferences. The 16 personalities is more of a modern hybrid tool that incorporates the big five traits. It's more of a user-friendly and provides broader insights into personality. It's a more holistic approach and the big five personality traits include openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. So it kind of gives you a more broader psychological scope. So the 16 personalities provides insights into more than just your career, but it can give you insight on different areas of your life. So if you, as a nurse, want something more broader that not only focuses on your career aspect but your personality type in relationships, your personality type in the community or whatever the case may be this.

Speaker 1:

The 16 personalities is a well-rounded tool for self-awareness, and so the 16 personalities says that I am a mediator. So it gives me the name of-A and I took this in 2022. That's when I took this particular exam, or test. It says mediators are poetic, kind and altruistic people, always eager to help a good cause. They approach life with thoughtfulness and imagination, guided by their principal version of humanism. So it put me in the introverted category. That's why I was like well, maybe as I got older, maybe I just got a little bit more introverted. It gives me the label of intuitive I am more feeling than thinking. I am more prospective than judging. This is compared to it a few years ago and I am assertive. So the I is for both the introverted and intuitive.

Speaker 1:

The N is nature, and in nature I have more a value emotional expression and sensitivity, prioritizing empathy and social harmony and cooperation. The P is prospecting You're likely, very adaptable, easygoing and flexible adaptable, easygoing and flexible. And then the A is assertive. So I'm 56% assertive, likely, self-assured, even-tempered and resistant to stress. I live by, I can't be bothered, and you can tell when I'm bothered.

Speaker 1:

So use that particular test to just really help you to get a grasp on how you can use that to develop your career. Because the 16 personalities it helps nurses to reflect on your strengths, preferences, work styles just like the Myers-Briggs test, it definitely helps you in determining your career path. And then it helps you more to align with your natural inclinations. So it brings in just a little bit more to really help you identify and match it with your professional skills but also align with your personal preferences, which that those two together really help to increase your career satisfaction. And that's where you find that joy in work, when you can find a job that matches your professional skills and your personal preferences. That's it, and it can be done. It can be done.

Speaker 1:

All right, let's move on to the next one, the emotional intelligence assessment. I took that one earlier this year. That one is about understanding and managing emotions. It enhances your interpersonal skills and your leadership potential, which is very critical. So if you're one of those people who wants to grow in leadership, this is a very good tool to use because, honestly, it just helps you to figure out how to manage people and not like manage people. But when you're managing people, you're managing a ball of emotions. You're navigating. Emotions is what you're doing. Everyone's human and, depending on how you say something and how you lead people, is going to help them to grow or it's not going to help them to grow. The emotional intelligence assessment shows you how developing emotional intelligence can lead to a more effective communication and job satisfaction. So if you're wanting to grow in leadership and help grow people, the emotional intelligence assessment is a good assessment. And that one, I've found, measures your self-awareness also. So it measures how you are emotionally in tune with yourself, how you are emotionally in tune with other people and are emotionally in tune with other people. And then it measures, like two other things.

Speaker 1:

All right, the Enneagram personality test. This is test number four I've taken. Obviously, I like to know about myself. The Enneagram you've probably heard of more lately than in the past, and this is understanding your core motivators and fears. So you take a test and it will give you a number, and then that particular number pretty much pulls out what is your core motivator. So I am a three, which is an achiever. Wing two, which is someone who likes to help people, and so for us as nurses, it just gives insight into personality dynamics and core emotional drivers.

Speaker 1:

I believe this one is a paid test, but it helps you understand what motivates you, what roadblocks you need to avoid, what's going to hold you back with your personality. So, although it might be great that I am an achiever oh yeah, she's motivated, she's going to do but guess what my roadblock is? I do too much, I'm trying to achieve so much over plan. I have too many goals. I have to figure out how to pull back, and so that's how the Enneagram can guide you in understanding your behaviors under stress and your leadership style. So Enneagram and emotional intelligence assessment, those are two great ones for leadership. I would say the Myers-Briggs 16 personalities and their strengths finders. They are good for overall career direction. The emotional intelligence assessment and the Enneagram personality test is more so once you're in the work.

Speaker 1:

How do I operate in this work, who am I and how do I help lead? So before, but I just wanted to make you aware of them. One is a 360-degree feedback. I actually did that assessment for someone else, so this particular one is when you're receiving feedback from colleagues, supervisors and peers. I wish more leaders would do this at least, like once every three years. It's very important to get feedback so that you're not living in a bubble, thinking that you're this greatness and you're not. I am always afraid that someone's going to tell me something that I think I'm great at and I'm not. This is why I stay on top of self-awareness, because I don't want anybody to tell me who I am.

Speaker 1:

This helps you keep your blinders on If you're really wanting to excel. This helps you to put your blinders. Helps to take your blinders away to really understand how can I do this work better. It provides a well-rounded view of your professional strengths and areas for improvement. View of your professional strengths and areas for improvement.

Speaker 1:

You can use this test to grow your career, because you're now taking an assessment of here's where I am and here's how I can improve, even if you're wanting to improve in the work that you want to do. You might be an ambitious nurse and you like where you are, but you're trying to figure out how can I be better. This is the exam for that, so you're able to discuss honest feedback and it can offer you new perspectives and guide your career development. So this is not necessarily about career advancement, but how can I develop in my career? How can I improve my skill set so that I am then prepared for my next move. I might be good where I am right now, but I want to be prepared for my next move.

Speaker 1:

And then the last one I'm going to talk about is the DISC assessment, and it is mainly focused on behavioral tendencies in a work environment. There are a lot of DISC coaches who help to coach you through this particular assessment, but it helps us, as nurses, understand behavior patterns and work more effectively in teams, which we do a lot of, in teams which we do a lot of. So this tool will pretty much help you in identifying your leadership potential and how do you improve collaboration. So if you're wanting to be in a role such as quality or a nurse practitioner, this is a good test for you to do to help you to understand how do you lead other nurses and patients Soapbox, I believe there are not enough nurse practitioners who think of themselves as leaders. You're not only leading the patient, you're leading the nursing team or, honestly, the entire team the respiratory therapist, the physical therapist, the case manager. They are looking to you for leadership in the care of this patient. You may look at it as, oh, I'm just going to see this patient manager, care and this and the other, but your value is you are a leader in health care, helping to lead the care and coordination of this patient, and so you need a DISC assessment to understand your behavior patterns, how to work more effectively with teammates, help them move succinctly for the patient. It helps you understand how you're leading the patient. Even patients need leadership. So that's it. That's a wrap for the seven tools that we have.

Speaker 1:

Regarding development of your self-awareness, it starts with self-assessment tools. Your self-awareness it starts with self-assessment tools. Pick the most relevant tool based on your career situation. Whether you're seeking a leadership role, needing work-life balance or wanting more autonomy. Those tools can help you to figure that out. I would say, especially the 16 personalities. If you're just really torn between growing versus advancing, growth can mean two different things. If you're torn between do I take this higher level position over here or do I take this lateral position over here, I get skills in both, but which one is going to be better for my life? To me, 16 personalities is really holistic in helping you to understand one how you want to grow and how does that impact how you are personally and what you feel and where you are personally to get that true career satisfaction.

Speaker 1:

And, like I said, if you're at the baseline and you really want to just get a jump start on something, the SWOT analysis will help you with really gaining some career clarity and assess where you are and what actions you need to take. It's not going to give you all the answers, but it'll help you walk through the right questions If you need help with analysis. Swot analysis is something that I use as a tool, as a free tool, in order to help you with understanding who you are as a person, how you can work towards developing your career path, and so if you're wanting more information about it, click the link in the show notes and join my email list. I have a free guide on the top five things that you need to grow your career. Jump on my Ambitious Nurse Insiders list. I give you more information about the SWOT analysis, and then I have a new offer that is coming up that will help you further with that SWOT analysis and helping you to develop and determine your career path.

Speaker 1:

If you're feeling stuck right now, until next time, see you later. Podcast. It brings me so much joy and so much encouragement to know this podcast is helping you. Now go get the career you want and not the one you settle for, and I'll meet you back here next Thursday for another episode. See you soon.

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Bonnie Meadows MSN, APRN, ACCNS-AG

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