Visible Strengths: Capitalize on Strengths, Contribute Value, and Communicate Results to Accelerate Your Career

By Mary Mosope Adeyemi

Have you ever wondered what it takes to have a fulfilling and successful career? Imagine if you could get all that information without trial and error. Mary Mosope Adeyemi's Visible Strengths sets out to help you achieve just that.

If you cut through the echo chamber of mainstream career (and

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Degree Press
• Release date: Sep 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885046985

Book preview

Visible Strengths

Capitalize on Strengths, Contribute Value, and Communicate Results to Accelerate Your Career

Mary Mosope Adeyemi

new degree press

copyright © 2022 Mary Mosope Adeyemi

All rights reserved.

Visible Strengths

Capitalize on Strengths, Contribute Value, and Communicate Results to Accelerate Your Career

Unless otherwise indicated, Bible verses are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved

ISBN

979-8-88504-582-7 Paperback

979-8-88504-927-6 Kindle Ebook

979-8-88504-698-5 Digital Ebook

To my father, Chief Fidelis Adesoji Olufemi Adeyemi (of blessed memory).

You are one of the most significant influences in my life. As I sat to write each chapter of this book, the stories and lessons kept leading me back to you.

Thank you for loving me, teaching me, sacrificing for me, listening to me, and modeling everyday leadership. You were a true reformer, and your legacy lives on in me. I wish you were here to see your baby girl fly, but I know you are with me in spirit.

This book is a homage to you. Continue to sleep well.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter One

My Visible Strengths

Part 1 Capitalize on Strengths

Chapter Two

Discover Your Strengths

Chapter Three

Discover More Strengths

Chapter Four

Clarify What Matters

Chapter Five

Manifest Your Vision

Chapter Six

Play to Your Strengths

Summary:

Capitalize on Strengths

Part 2 Contribute Value

Chapter Seven

Define Value

Chapter Eight

Deliver Value

Chapter Nine

Mind Your Manners

Chapter Ten

Deliver Together

Chapter Eleven

Own Your Power

Chapter Twelve

Respond to Self-Doubt

Chapter Thirteen

Prioritize Your Health

Summary:

Contribute Value

Part 3 Communicate Results

Chapter Fourteen

Market Yourself

Chapter Fifteen

Be Visibly Valuable

Summary:

Communicate Results

Conclusion

Continue the Cycle

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

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Introduction

The beauty of your career is the journey of figuring out what you are uniquely gifted at and how you can use it to add value to others in a brilliant, bright, and sparkly way.

—Mary Mosope Adeyemi

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Have you ever wondered what it takes to have a fulfilling and successful career? Have you ever wondered how others have achieved this in their careers?

Imagine if you could get all that information without trial and error. This book sets out to help you achieve that.

Before we begin, I would like you to consider three questions about your career:

1. Is your work crafted around your natural gifts and talents?

2. Can you use those talents to solve problems for the people and organizations you serve?

3. Do the relevant people know that you exist and are worthy of their attention and sponsorship?

If you answered yes to these questions, consider yourself lucky. If you answered no, don’t worry. That response is more common than you might think.

If someone had asked me these questions fifteen years ago when I started my career in finance, my answers would undoubtedly have been a combination of somewhat, sort of, and unlikely! Yet, by turning those answers into yes, yes, and yes, I have grown in my career to become an executive director at a leading investment bank—proof of what timely intervention and support can do.

A whole new world opens up when you leave the petri dish of the formal education system. The ten- to twelve-week terms, assignments, open-book exams, self-selected project teams, meritocratic grading systems, and mandatory spring and summer breaks are left behind. The time has come to generate a return for the years of academic investment and create economic pathways.

Everyone faces many decisions about the type, style, quality, pace, and location of the careers they pursue. Some will go for what brings excitement and fulfillment, some will join only innovative or sexy industries, some will follow their peers and friends, and others will go for what will bring them the most financial gain. Whatever the case, those decisions need to be made with some intentionality to give oneself a fighting chance at success.

Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Many begin their careers with little preparation, only to find themselves in one of these scenarios:

1. By a stroke of luck, they land in the perfect spot. They are growing, delivering, and earning. It all worked out.

2. On the surface they are doing well, but they lack fulfillment. They are in a job that affords them the life they want to have. Yet, every day, they can’t connect with their why, impact, or how they are growing. They are not happy but are trapped by the feeling that there is no way out.

3. Nothing is working. They have tried and failed at many career options and hit a dead end. Neither their work nor their money is satisfactory.

Whichever scenario you identify with, you always have the opportunity to accelerate, reposition, or fully reset your career. If you are doing well, you can do better. If you are not doing as well as you would like, you can get back on the right track.

A Little Bit about My Career Path

I started my career in 2006 at the age of nineteen with great ambition and motivation to excel. Early on, I identified that the most straightforward pathway was to get excellent grades in school and secure good work experience. So, while studying for my undergraduate degree in Accounting and Finance at Lancaster University, I secured a summer internship at Deutsche Bank and began my first foray into banking.

A couple of years later, after completing my master’s in management at Imperial College Business School, I accepted a full-time role as a credit analyst in the London office of Bank of America (BoA) right in the middle of the 2008 global financial crisis. I came in with bright eyes and a bushy tail, ready and excited to start my ascent up the proverbial career ladder.

Unfortunately, it didn’t take long before that excitement wore off. I slowly realized that my technical competence and work hard strategy were not fully translating into the perception others had of me at work. Surrounded by high-achieving type-A professionals, I was not standing out. Although I was doing good work, I repeatedly received feedback that I was not visible but couldn’t understand why.

Especially as a Black woman working in a predominantly white and male industry, I was convinced I was hyper-visible by default. So why couldn’t they see me?

After unsuccessfully doing everything to be seen, I inevitably internalized this feedback as code for: we don’t see you because you are Black or not like us. Eventually, I believed that people like me could not be successful in these types of organizations.

Years later, with strengths coaching and the support of a key sponsor, I learned the pivotal lesson that the visibility I sought was not just about being physically seen. Instead, that visibility was about using my strengths to add value and then communicating this value to others.

Getting this support and gaining this awareness when I did was game changing. I was happier, more energized, and more productive when I started operating in my strength zone. When I started focusing on adding value, I built my credibility and people cared more about me. When I began sharing my results, many more opportunities came my way.

My career success accelerated because I made my strengths visible.

The Evidence

Still, I reflect on my career with awe and wonder how that confused young girl stayed on the path and grew into a seasoned professional. Like many, I used to think that a career was something that happened to you rather than something you created on purpose. Thankfully I know better now, but I often wonder how many professionals do not.

This curiosity and interest led me to spend thousands of hours developing, executing, and managing talent recruitment and training and development programs along with working in my functional role as a risk manager.

My experience then ignited a burning passion that became viSHEbility, a social-first organization I founded in 2018 whose mandate is to improve outcomes for professionals in the marketplace through inspiration, coaching, community, and advocacy.

Through my work, I have had the privilege of speaking with, recruiting, managing, mentoring, and coaching thousands of professionals, especially early careers.

In this book, early careers include those in the first five years in the workplace, those transitioning to new career fields, and those stepping up into an elevated role. By age, these individuals will fall into the millennial (born between 1981–1996) and Gen-Z (1997–2012) generations, which are signaling significant dissatisfaction in the workplace.

This group of individuals repeatedly asks questions such as: How do I discover my strengths? How can I gain more confidence? How can I grow my network? How can I be more visible in my workplace? How can I be paid more?

In 2019, I surveyed three hundred early career professionals across diverse sectors to determine their top career challenges. Their responses were consistent and instructive, and their struggles are organized into four categories here:

1. Clarity: they lack clarity on what path to take toward and through their career

2. Confidence: they lack the confidence to articulate their strengths or present their work in a way that attracts new opportunities

3. Community: they lack the sticky and sustainable relationships necessary for progression in the workplace

4. Coaching: they lack access to personal development programs that prepare them for the workplace and equip them with strategies to succeed

The Visible Strengths Philosophy

You’ll get no shortage of advice on finding fulfillment and success in your career. Every time I have spoken with high-achieving people, their responses have varied as widely as their experiences and present priorities. They say: Find your passion, do only work that you love, try new things, exceed expectations, network, find a sponsor, be visible, and much more.

As helpful as their advice is, it can also be overwhelming and may not be applicable or transferable across industries, jobs, and experience tiers. This got me pondering: What through-line career advice can professionals apply in all circumstances?

What I found has transformed the way I see the future of career success. To find fulfillment and success in your career, you should apply what I have coined as the Visible Strengths Philosophy.

1. Capitalize on strengths: Leverage your strengths in everything you do. They are your most significant area of opportunity because you start with what comes most naturally to you. Unfortunately, according to Gallup, only four in ten people at work believe they are in jobs where they get to do what they do best daily.

2. Contribute value: Solve problems and you will always be in demand. You must understand what is considered valuable to those you serve and deliver those relevant results consistently and innovatively. No one can argue with value.

3. Communicate results: Work doesn’t speak; people do. You need to master the art of telling others the story of the work you are doing or have done, how you have done it, and why it is the solution to their most pressing problems. Communicating results is the key to being recognized and adequately compensated for your work. You cannot empower, influence, or rise to significance if you are not visible.

If you can cut through the echo chamber of the career and business advice you have received, you will realize that at any stage of your career, in any industry, and in any seat you occupy, it all boils down to these three elements: strengths, value, and visible results.

I have leveraged this three-step process to execute transactions and projects and foster new business and personal relationships. Then, I realized that it was repeatable, transferable, and most importantly, scalable to a broader philosophy. This process is more than a tool. The Visible Strengths Philosophy is a mindset you should adopt for how to execute your career.

As our pace of life accelerates and the modern world of work evolves, an increase in the demand for a portfolio career is expected. More than half (52 percent) of Gen-Z are expecting to have multiple careers during their working life, with 43 percent viewing a portfolio career with several jobs or employers as a desirable way to live. (Henley Business School, 2019)

Portfolio careers offer the opportunity for people to operate across diverse industries, geographies, and contract types because they seek to acquire new skills, explore new options, enjoy new experiences, and open up multiple streams of income.

Consequently, adopting the Visible Strengths Philosophy will empower you to break through all mental limitations you may have placed on what you can do or where you could work. You would become more agile and better respond to the ever-changing work landscape. You would be free to move between departments and organizations, roles and professions, countries and continents, because the formula remains the same. Whether you apply it to achieve such success is up to you.

Who Is This Book For?

Over the years, I have taught the Visible Strengths philosophy. I have seen it positively impact professionals working at some of the most prestigious companies in the world, such as McKinsey & Company, Accenture, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Lazard, IFC, and Barclays, among many others.

I have hosted and listened to hundreds of interviews and conversations with some of the most seasoned career and business professionals and read mountains of career books and articles. The insights I have gained and my personal experiences contribute to over 10,000 expert hours that form the basis of this book.

I have written Visible Strengths for you, the determined and ambitious early career professional who does not want to follow the trial-and-error approach in their career. This book is for you who want to build your credibility quickly in the workplace while remaining authentic to yourselves. I wrote it for you who want to use every opportunity to shape your careers by telling the story of who you are and how you serve; for you who want a diverse and exciting career that grows you, provides for you, and inspires you to continue reaching higher heights; for you who want an excellent career, not a mediocre one.

I have also written Visible Strengths for you, the seasoned professional who wants to accelerate, reposition, or fully reset your career. Let this book remind you how you can continue to show up powerfully.

I welcome career coaches and counselors to leverage this book for mentoring, teaching, and coaching. Take from it or add to it; just know that I am grateful you are an advocate of Visible Strengths.

I also encourage employers and managers to use this book to coach and guide your junior and mid-level employees who embody the highest risk of leaving organizations. According to Deloitte’s Global 2022 Gen Z and Millennial Survey, Four in ten Gen Zs and nearly a quarter of millennials would like to leave their jobs within two years, and roughly a third would do so without another job lined up. With an overemphasis on executive coaching, the opportunity for early-career intervention for the junior talent pool is often missed. If you invested in them only a fraction of the time and money you do for your executives, you would build a bench of self-aware, engaged, productive, confident, and valuable talent motivated to help your organization achieve its goals. You would also save yourself and your company tremendous chaos and cost due to turnover and hiring replacements.

Finally, entrepreneurs can apply this book’s philosophy and principles. You can learn to use your strengths in your business to visibly add value and attract new customers, suppliers, advocates, sponsors, and much more.

I hope that at the end of this book, you will receive three things: clarity on your path, confidence in your choices, and the courage to define your success and step into what you want to achieve.

Wait, Before You Jump In: The Visible Strengths Virtual Hub

As a thirty-five-year-old woman writing this book in 2022, I recognize that while I have some nuggets to share today, I still have much life to live and much to learn. The thoughts and advice in this book will be impactful and transformational, but I am open to how these may evolve. I may want to add to my findings or change my mind on some things. Who knows?

I have created the Visible Strengths Virtual Hub to leave room for this growth. This space will host many resources to deepen your learning on the topics explored in each chapter, including:

•Worksheets for each chapter

•Book and podcast recommendations

•Blog posts and articles

•Interview clips

•Events

•Signposts to other helpful content and much more

The goal of the virtual hub is to create a living evergreen book that honors your growth and mine. As psychotherapist and author Diane Barth said, The point of success is not about achieving a one-time goal. . . . Instead, it is a feeling of accomplishment that should propel you to continue the process.

My success with this book is that you learn enough to recognize that the journey doesn’t end here. Instead, your journey is only beginning! When you stick with it through the ups and downs, you will realize that the beauty of your career is the journey of figuring out what you are uniquely gifted at and how you can use it to add value to others in a brilliant, bright, and sparkly way.

So, what are we waiting for? Let’s capitalize on your strengths, contribute value, and communicate your results.

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Chapter One

My Visible Strengths

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

—Arthur Ashe

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Have you heard the phrase, Use what you have?

This statement means different things to different people and is often used to let someone know they already have something within reach which can be used to solve a problem.

Use what you have is one of my favorite statements because it is an instruction with a promise. It instructs us to look within and around ourselves for the necessary tools. It also holds a powerful promise that if we only learn to identify and apply these tools, we are already well on our way to fixing what is broken around us.

Similarly, Visible Strengths is an instruction with a promise, instructing you to identify your strengths and make them visible through the value you create. That instruction holds the promise that when you do this, you will unwrap the career of your dreams.

At least, that has been my experience.

Home Life

I was born in June 1987 in Lagos State, Nigeria to a middle-class family.

My father, Chief Fidelis Adesoji Olufemi Adeyemi, was an accomplished man. With an undergraduate degree in Business Administration, a postgraduate degree in Public Administration, and a range of executive programs in public finance and development studies, my father valued academic proficiency in himself and others.

After a brief stint in the private sector as a consultant, my father moved to public service in 1970 as a junior administrative officer. Although my father stayed loyal to the public service, he built a dynamic and multifaceted career spanning twenty-four years. He worked with the Ministry of Education; the Ministry of Commerce and Industry; the Civil Service Commission; the Deputy Governor’s office; the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs; the Ministry of Health; the Ministry of Establishments, Training, and Pensions; the Plans, Programmes, and Budget Bureau; and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development. He served at various times and in numerous capacities, learning on the job, gaining experience, and adding immense value.

In recognition of his track record of exceptional delivery, he was appointed as Secretary to the Lagos State Government and Head of Service in 1994,