For the past few years I’ve maintained an evergreen document on my strengths and weaknesses. Maybe you should too!
Lots of orgs do an annual review or feedback round at this time of year. If that’s the case for you, you’ll be getting lots of written feedback from others and doing your own reflections, so now might be an especially easy time to make one.
Here’s what mine used to look like.
Benefits I’ve experienced:
Stabilises my self-conception and makes feedback less ‘scary’.
Now when I receive feedback, I consider whether it’s broadly consistent with my current document/view, or whether I should update the doc.
This feels like a different orientation than the one I used to have, where whatever feedback just came in would seem like the Central Fact about my performance, such that I’d feel either worthless or legendary based narrowly on the last thing I’d learned about myself.
Saves time.
Whenever I need to state my strengths/weaknesses I’ll pull from the doc or link to it directly, rather than having to rewrite something from scratch. This could be if I’m assessing myself for a feedback round, considering working elsewhere, or helping other people know what I’m like to work with.