{"id":44619,"date":"2022-04-29T10:53:31","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T14:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/?p=44619"},"modified":"2022-04-29T10:53:55","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T14:53:55","slug":"sharpen-your-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2022\/04\/29\/sharpen-your-edge\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharpen Your Edge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Devin Fedor, AVP, HR Operations &amp; Organizational Effectiveness at Mary Washington Healthcare<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"longdesc-return-44620\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-44620\" src=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2022\/04\/knife-1383834_640-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"knife and sharpening tool on wooden cutting block\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" longdesc=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw?longdesc=44620&amp;referrer=44619\" srcset=\"\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2022\/04\/knife-1383834_640-300x199.jpg 300w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2022\/04\/knife-1383834_640.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Years ago, my husband gifted me a set of high-quality kitchen knives. The first time I used them, I could tell they were superior.\u00a0 The knives had a good weight, a sharp edge and cut any food with ease if I picked the right one for the job.\u00a0 Over time they lost some of their shine and started to become dull.\u00a0 The knives still cut well, but not like that first day.\u00a0 So, I took out the sharpening tool and voila! The knives just needed some time and attention with to reach their full potential.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The same holds true with people.\u00a0 We are all born with certain talents.\u00a0 Things we are naturally good at, require less effort for us than others, and are worthwhile for us to develop or strengthen.\u00a0 There are many assessments you can take to help you uncover your talents. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gallup.com\/cliftonstrengths\/en\/252137\/home.aspx?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=us_strengths_branded_cs_ecom&amp;utm_term=strengths%20finder&amp;gclid=EAIaIQobChMIweeWmrW39wIVR8vICh3BMg42EAAYASAAEgJrAvD_BwE\">CliftonStrengths<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marcusbuckingham.com\/gift-of-standout\/\">StandOut<\/a> are two of my personal favorites.\u00a0 \u00a0Even without an assessment, a little self-reflection can reveal what you are good at and enjoy most.\u00a0 Still struggling?\u00a0 Try these reflection questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What do others say you do well?<\/li>\n<li>What do you love doing?<\/li>\n<li>What activities bring you energy?<\/li>\n<li>What are you doing when you feel most in \u201cflow\u201d?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Understanding your talents is the first step.\u00a0 Next, comes making the investment to develop those talents and maintain them as strengths.\u00a0 Just like the knives, you must continuously sharpen your edge. Here are some ways to build intentionality into that process.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Set personal and\/or professional development goals for yourself. Bonus points if you make them SMART.<\/li>\n<li>Set up a support system. Sharing your goals with other people and leveraging tools to track them builds accountability.<\/li>\n<li>Seek out opportunities to practice. Repetition builds skill and confidence.<\/li>\n<li>Find inspiration in new and unique places. Learning from other people and experiences keeps things interesting.<\/li>\n<li>Reward yourself for accomplishments. Even small achievements deserve recognition and help you stay motivated.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Talent alone is rarely enough.\u00a0 As high school basketball coach Tim Notke famously said, \u201chard work beats talent when talent doesn\u2019t work hard\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Devin Fedor, AVP, HR Operations &amp; Organizational Effectiveness at Mary Washington Healthcare Years ago, my husband gifted me a set of high-quality kitchen knives. The first time I used them, I could tell they were superior.\u00a0 The knives had a good weight, a sharp edge and cut any food with ease if I picked [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":44620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"umw_cb_additional_links":[[]],"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"sidebar-content","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_advisory_expires_time":"","_advisory_meta_include":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-44619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blog","8":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.9 (Yoast SEO v26.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sharpen Your Edge - Leadership Colloquium at UMW<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2022\/04\/29\/sharpen-your-edge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sharpen Your Edge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Devin Fedor, AVP, HR Operations &amp; Organizational Effectiveness at Mary Washington Healthcare Years ago, my husband gifted me a set of high-quality kitchen knives. 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