Bite-Sized Training

Finding Your
Unique Strengths

Mind Tools Ltd, 2007-2011. 1

 Finding Your Unique Strengths Bite-Sized TrainingTM | Mind Tools

Finding Your Unique

Strengths
Bite-Sized Training
This e-book is published by:

Mind Tools Ltd.

Copyright Mind Tools Ltd, 2006-2012. All rights

reserved.

Version 1.3

This e-book is protected by international copyright

law. You may use it only if you are a member of
the Mind Tools Club. If you have any queries,
please contact us at
members.helpdesk@mindtools.com.

Cover image iStockphoto/ermingut

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 Finding Your Unique Strengths Bite-Sized TrainingTM | Mind Tools

Contents

1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 4

2. Understanding Uniqueness ........................................................................................................... 5

3. Determine the Competencies that People Value ........................................................................... 6

4. Rank Yourself against Others ....................................................................................................... 9

5. Your USP .................................................................................................................................... 13

6. Build and Market Your USP ........................................................................................................ 15

7. Key Learning Points .................................................................................................................... 17

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 Finding Your Unique Strengths Bite-Sized TrainingTM | Mind Tools
1. Introduction
This is the third of our Bite-Sized Training
sessions focused on helping you make the most
of who you are at work and in your life. These
sessions are designed to apply useful business
strategy tools to your personal life, and by doing
so, help you make the most of the opportunities
open to you. Our first session used SWOT
Analysis to look at your strengths and the
opportunities open to you. The second session
used PEST Analysis to screen these
opportunities.
In this session we look at USP (Unique Selling
Proposition) Analysis, a tool commonly used by
businesses when they are trying to determine
how to market their products and set themselves
apart from the competition. Here, youre going to
analyze your strengths further to see how you can
differentiate your skills and talents from other
people doing the same job or looking for the
same type of work. By doing this, you can make
yourself and your skills uniquely valuable, and
command the rewards that come with this.
Note:
The SWOT Analysis, PEST Analysis and USP
sessions help you make the most of who you are.
Youll also need to have well crafted personal
goals to motivate you to achieve your personal
strategy. Read our article on Goal Setting so you
know where were going. Youll find this here.
As you found out in your SWOT analysis, you
have some core strengths that have probably
contributed to the career choices you have made
up till now, and to the types of opportunities you
are interested in pursuing. The reality is, though,
that many other people have very similar
strengths. For example, its not uncommon to find
other people who communicate really well or who
are strategic thinkers. If you look a bit harder, you
will probably be able to find a few other people
with similar skills and abilities to you. And, its
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altogether possible that some of these people will
do these things better than you.
To be the very best at anything whether it is
computer programming, writing advertising copy,
counseling, or playing sports takes an incredible
amount of focus, determination, sacrifice, and a
whole lot of natural aptitude. And even if you are
the best at one thing, that does not necessarily
mean you will have the opportunity to make a
living doing it, or even want to.
Its much better, and easier, to be the best in the
industry across a range of dimensions. This is
what USP analysis focuses on: How do you make
yourself stand out in a sea of common traits and
factors? When it comes right down to it, any one
of your strengths, skills, talents and abilities is not
what make you unique; its how and where you
use and combine these things that make the
difference. Deciding exactly how to package your
strengths, and tailor them to the opportunities you
are seeking is the whole point behind a personal
USP analysis.
This Bite-Sized Training session focuses on
the essentials of conducting a personal USP
analysis. In one hour, you will have learned how
to:
Determine what employers or customers
(if youre self employed) value the most.
Assess yourself against people around
you, using the same dimensions.
Identify a competitive position that builds
on strengths that matter.
This lesson on USP Analysis will give you tools
that you need to look at your strengths across
multiple dimensions, and come up with a great
and marketable USP that you can then use to get
the career of your dreams.
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2. Understanding Uniqueness
Think about when you last bought something
expensive (perhaps a car.)
Did you go into the first showroom you saw and
buy the cheapest product you could find? Or did
you think carefully about what you wanted,
research the market, choose the product that
most uniquely suited your range of needs, and
then try to get the best price?
OK, so some people will buy on cost only, and
may then rue the consequences. But many others
will find the product that best fits what they want.
And while its brutally difficult for businesses to
make a profit by competing on price alone, its
much easier to make a profit by offering a higher-
priced product that uniquely meets someones
needs. This is why being unique is such a highly
valued attribute.
For most businesses, their uniqueness comes
from their core competences. The people who
defined this relationship the best, C. K. Prahalad
and Gary Hamel, argued in their 1990 paper from
the Harvard Business Review, The Core
Competence of the Corporation, that core
competencies are some of the most important
sources of uniqueness: They represent the things
that a company can do uniquely well, and that no-
one else can copy quickly enough to affect
competition.
To determine that a competence is indeed a core
one, it must be:
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Relevant to the consumer.
Difficult to imitate.
Widely applicable across a number of
markets.
OK, so this applies to businesses. But how does it
apply to individuals? The answer is that its the
person who most uniquely suits the role who gets
hired. And its the person whose unique and
irreplaceable skills help an organization the most,
who can command the highest rewards. (In some
companies, the top salesperson routinely earns
more than the CEO.)
Now, when we apply this definition to our
personal uniqueness, you can see that it
becomes much harder to do. That is why we need
to look at our personal competencies as a
package. So, for us to be unique, we need to
define a set of competencies that we can
leverage to make the most of our life and our
career.
Important:
Before you proceed with this lesson you may want
to read through our short articles on Core
Competence and USP Analysis. This will give you
a more in-depth understanding of the conventions
of these two tools.
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3. Determine the Competencies that People Value
The first step in USP Analysis is to determine
what the people making the decision value.
Applied to ourselves, these customers are the
gatekeepers to the opportunities we want to
pursue. These people will value certain skills,
knowledge and abilities, which we can gain
through employment in a certain field or industry,
or though self-employment or returning to school
and retraining.
However, before we can look at these, the first
step is clearly to decide what opportunities are
attractive to us.
Identify Opportunities Using your PEST
Analysis
If you have already completed the Personal
SWOT Analysis and PEST Analysis we looked at
My Top Three Opportunities are:
1.
2.
3.
Brainstorm Valuable Characteristics
Your personal USP will be the package of skills
and talents that you bring to the table. You wont
know what sort of package to bring, or develop,
unless you analyse what is it that makes people
successful in the roles you desire, and unless you
look at the things that your customers want.
Look at people who are currently working in the
position or field:
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in previous sessions, you will have identified a
number of good opportunities.
(If you havent done a PEST Analysis, we highly
recommend you set aside time to work through
that session. For now, however, use an
opportunity that you are excited about and that
you believe is viable given your economic and
socio-cultural reality.)
Choose the top three opportunities you should be
considering and, if youre currently employed,
make sure that your current position is one of
them. (We suggest this because your current job
can be used as a baseline against which you can
evaluate options that you are not familiar with.)
Write down the opportunities you are going to
analyse here:
What skills and personal qualities do they
possess?
What skills do they value?
What skills should they value?
What skills set apart the people who excel
in this field?
What skill set does the organization they
work for value? If you have a particular
employer in mind, try to find out what
specific competencies the hiring
managers look for.
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It is critical that you identify the most valuable
characteristics, so spend a sufficient amount of
time on this stage. If you are analyzing yourself
based on factors that the employer, or industry
doesnt value, then you are wasting your time: If
no one cares that you can write well, then dont
include it as a valuable characteristic.
Action: Use the brainstorming template below to
record your ideas.
Start with the first opportunity and then move on
through the USP analysis. Then, when you have
Opportunity #1:
Likely Valued Characteristics
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more time, you can come back and do the same
for the other opportunities.
Note:
For now, record your best guess given the amount
of knowledge you have or the research youve
done on the opportunity. After this session, get
more specific information from direct sources. Talk
to people working in the job or company, go on
information interviews, look at company websites,
and so on.
You may also want to complete a USP Analysis for
other opportunities you identified in the PEST
analysis, or from elsewhere.
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Opportunity #2:

Likely Valued Characteristics

Opportunity #3:

Likely Valued Characteristics

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 Finding Your Unique Strengths Bite-Sized TrainingTM | Mind Tools
4. Rank Yourself Against Others
Now that you know what characteristics and
competencies are valued for the opportunities you
are interested in, you need to know how your own
talents measure up. Remember, this exercise is
designed to figure out how you can best market
yourself using a combination of skills.
This doesnt mean you have to be the best at any
individual thing. What it means is that you need to
understand and develop what youre good at, so
that you can firstly pick the opportunities most
likely to suit you, and secondly concentrate on
building your skills to give you that unique edge.
As you go through this exercise, its really
important that you remain objective and simply
concentrate on evaluating yourself and others
against the actual skill or attribute being analyzed.
You dont want to get personal. This really isnt
about being better than anyone else its about
marketing yourself in the most effective way and
working to add extra product features to make
your USP truly unique.
Its also important to remember that when you
encounter a skill where you are not ranked highly,
this does not mean you cant be successful at the
opportunity, and nor does it mean you cant
pursue the opportunity. What it indicates is that
you need to have a well-thought-through strategy
for dealing with this. Perhaps you should
emphasize the combination of skills you have and
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other areas where you excel, while also setting a
goal to develop further skill in your weaker area.
Perhaps you need to make sure you bring
someone else in to counter your weakness. Or
perhaps you should focus on part of the industry
where the weakness doesnt matter.
Action: Determine the top five to eight valuable
characteristics for the first opportunity that you
identified in your brainstorming. Make sure that
you include technical skills as well as soft skills
and attitudes. Then give scores out of ten (where
1 is poor and 10 is excellent) for these top
characteristics for yourself, for average people
in the field, and for two identified high performers
at the job. Record the characteristics and the
scores on the table on the next page.
Remember to make your judgment as objective
as possible, and try to see yourself, and the other
people, from the employers perspective.
Complete this for the first opportunity now, and
come back to complete the others later.
Tip:
You can use gut instinct or use decision-making
tools. Grid Analysis and Paired Comparison
Analysis are ideal here.
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Opportunity #1:

Score (10=excellent/1=poor)
Characteristic
High High
Average
You Performer Performer
Person
1 2
1

Opportunity #2:

Score (10=excellent/1=poor)
Characteristic
High High
Average
You Performer Performer
Person
1 2
1

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 Finding Your Unique Strengths Bite-Sized TrainingTM | Mind Tools

Opportunity #3:

Score (10=excellent/1=poor)
Characteristic
High High
Average
You Performer Performer
Person
1 2
1

Graph the Results

Now, get a visual view of your results by plotting a
bar chart of the rankings for each characteristic
within each opportunity onto a bar chart.
Action: Print out the next page. Use one chart for
each opportunity. Record the characteristics for
your first opportunity on the first bar chart. Then,
plot your scores and the scores of the other
people you evaluated. Use different colors for
each person.
Note:
The example in our article on USP Analysis shows
you how to do this effectively. Click here to read
this article.

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Opportunity #1

10

Score out of 10
8
6
4
2
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Characteristic

Opportunity #2

10
Score out of 10

8
6
4
2
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Characteristic

Opportunity #3

10
Score out of 10

8
6
4
2
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Characteristic

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 Finding Your Unique Strengths Bite-Sized TrainingTM | Mind Tools
5. Your USP
The graph you have just completed shows how
your skills and abilities rank compared to those of
people who are successful in the position,
industry, or company that you want to be in. By
analyzing your scores against these benchmarks,
you can quickly determine how competitive you
currently are, and where you need to develop
further skills in order to improve your position.
Areas Where You Areas Where You
Are Top Ranked Are Well Ranked
Now look at the common characteristics
(competencies) listed. Some may be highly
developed, some may need work, and some may
be present weaknesses. That is OK. Remember,
this is all about packaging and you work with what
youve got and make a plan to add essential
elements later.
Develop your USP Statement
You are now in a position to start writing your
USP statement.
Action: Start with the list of areas where youre
top ranked. These are the obvious competencies
you should stress in your USP. You can then
move to the other characteristics you ranked
highly in and ask yourself:
Which of these reinforce areas where Im
top ranked?
Do any of my strengths counteract my
areas of weakness?
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Action: Use the table below to record the results
of your analysis using the opportunity that youve
been working on. Identify the characteristics
where you are more highly ranked than anyone
else. Identify characteristics where you score
well, and finally identify areas where others score
more highly than you.
Areas of
Weakness
Next, look at your areas of weakness. Being
realistic, will they severely impact you (in which
case should you consider other opportunities?) or
are there things you can do to neutralize them?
Beyond that you need to look closely at the highly
ranked competencies of your benchmarks and
identify those areas where you can further
develop your skills.
For example, if Joan and Barry are both creative
thinkers and that is not a well defined strength of
yours, you need to ask yourself:
Can I be successful without being highly
creative?
If I cant, then how do I go about
developing my creative abilities?
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Action: Spend a few minutes pulling these points
together into a clear and simple USP statement
for this opportunity and record it below. Then look
at the USP, and think about what sort of
organization would be looking for someone with
that USP.
Here is an example:
I am an effective communicator who excels in
understanding the needs of customers in the ABC
industry, communicating those needs clearly and
accurately, and guiding the development of
effective solutions to those needs.
My USP:
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Tip 1:
If youre in the great position of choosing between
good USPs, think about which one is most
sustainable. A good way of doing this is to look at
each one using the tests for core competences,
based on relevance; difficulty to imitate; and
breadth of application. (You can read more about
core competences in this article.)
Tip 2:
Before you finalize your USP, make sure that it is
realistic. Put yourself in the minds of the people
who are the gatekeepers of the opportunity, and
ask whether it stacks up as something that will
matter decisively to them. Secondly, make sure
that the USP genuinely suits you, and captures the
essence of who you are. People will see through
you quickly if youre a fake.
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6. Build and Market Your USP

Youve now got an effective sales pitch and
youre confident in your ability to make your
career goals a reality. But just like any business
out there, new competitors can come out of the
woodwork, and current competitors can adjust
their own USPs to compete with you.
Developing a USP is not an end point; it is just
the beginning. From here you need to identify
how you will continue to build your USP and keep
your position strong and viable. This may include
activities like:
Professional development.
Further education in the area.
Consulting to build experience.
Freelancing, to experience the problem in
different situations.
Continual surveying of the valued
characteristics.
Action: Take some time now to identify one or
two USP-building goals you can start working on
right away, and record your thoughts in the box
below.

I will build my USP by:

Aside from building your USP, you should have a Job fairs.
plan to market it and make the greatest use of it. Seminars.
Its no good for you to know your USP is well Mentoring.
suited to a certain career or industry if the
organizations hiring dont know it as well.

Action: Take a few minutes to identify ways you

can start marketing your skills to the people in a
position to hire you or help move you forward to
your ultimate career goals: Ideas include:

Networking.
Informational interviews.

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I will market my USP by:

Finally, go back and repeat this exercise for the strongest? This may help you to choose between
other two top opportunities you identified. You opportunities, because you are most likely to
can then compare the USP statements you have succeed with the opportunity for which your offer
developed for each of the opportunities. Which is is strongest.

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7. Key Learning Points

USP Analysis is a great tool for determining how
you can market your skills and abilities in a way
that is unique, compared with other people
interested in the same career as you.
By going through this exercise you should have a
greater appreciation for what makes you who you
are, and what combination of skills, knowledge
and attributes you possess that you can capitalize
on to make yourself stand out in a crowd.
The process of the analysis makes you aware of
your competitors positioning as well; something
you need to scan on a continual basis. If you view
a USP as a dynamic statement that changes as
you change and that requires continual
development and improvement, you are in a great
position to keep yourself ahead of the pack and in
prime position for the career of your dreams.

You dont have to be the best at any one thing,

what a USP aims to do is make your skill package
more desirable than your competitors.

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