Anna Verghese in a doorway

In my blog post last week, I touched on the concept of a skills audit – or in other words, an exercise to help you to know your strengths and weaknesses. Because when you do, you can fill those gaps, and in doing so, build an amazing team around yourself. So today I thought I would share with you a little about my own, and Chloe’s and my, journey.

Know yourself

It can be hard to know where to start with this, but a good place is understanding your personality type. There are myriad tools out there to analyse this, including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and DISC profiling – we actually touch on the latter in our Personal Branding module.

I remember some years ago, when I worked for a large organisation, we did one such analysis. It was a useful exercise in itself, but once we’d finished, I remember the trainer splitting the personality types into groups, and allocating a corner of the room to each group. So if you were of type A or B, you went to one corner, C or D to a second, and so on. I remember that everyone on the team went to one of two corners. Except me. I was tbe only one in my corner. And on the opposite side of the room from everyone else.

Read into that what you wish, but from my own standpoint, I learned two things. Firstly, that it was ok to be me, and that I was comfortable within my personality type. But secondly, the exercise reinforced the idea that teams need balance.

Finding that balance

The team at my old place of work was very imbalanced as the description shows, but the Tabono team is the exact opposite. Chloe and I create balance. Where her strengths are very people focussed, empathetic and creative, mine are very practical and detail-oriented. She brings spontaneity and enthusiasm. I bring calmness and observation. We are both great askers of challenging questions, calm and patient listeners, and huge supporters of those with whom we work.

In knowing ourselves, and each other, as well as we do, we create Tabono’s greatest strength – our partnership. As we’ve said before, our business could not exist without each other.

More than just us two

We knew from the beginning that we had a great partnership. But as a partnership, we still needed to follow the same process – know your strengths and your weaknesses.

We knew from the beginning that we wanted to be a ‘one stop shop’ for supporting small business owners with both their commercial goals and their wellbeing. But if we were going to truly achieve this, we knew there were still gaps to fill.

And so the Tabono Experts team was born. With them they bring expertise in all of the areas that Chloe and I couldn’t provide ourselves, to the standard to which we wanted to deliver.

So there you go – the three ‘layers’ of the Tabono team. Chloe and I as individuals, our partnership and our wider team of experts – constructed through knowing the strengths, and weaknesses, at each level.

Know your strengths

So where do you start with knowing your strengths and weaknesses? You don’t necessarily have to spend time ‘analysing’ yourself in the formal sense. Although if you can, completing a DISC profile or similar, can be a fascinating process. Just start by reflecting, and writing things down. Make a list or two. And if you can, ask those who know you best!

Then once you know your strengths – celebrate them and be proud! And when you know your weaknesses, don’t let them hold you back! Just because something isn’t a strength, it doesn’t have to hold your back. Take some training. Get some advice. Learn. Or, as we did, find someone that brings you balance.