5 Signs You’re Not Playing to Your Strengths — And How to Get Back on Track
- Dilek Süzal
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Ever felt exhausted by tasks that should excite you? Like when a new client inquiry lands in your inbox… and instead of feeling energized, you want to avoid it?
You're likely out of alignment with your strengths.
In my coaching programs and team coaching sessions, I’ve met incredible professionals; smart, kind, highly capable...surprisingly operating far from their natural talents.
Problem: Many professionals become excellent at things they’re not truly gifted in and forget their brilliance.
They mistake competence for calling. They confuse performance with passion. And it slowly drains them.
Solution: Rediscovering your strengths, not the ones others admire, but the ones that light you up inside.
I always start my career coaching program with a personality assessment test for instance.
As Steve Jobs famously says in his Stanford Commencement Speech: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
Architecture taught me structure, creativity, and vision, but my real strength was helping people redesign their lives, not just their buildings.
Coaching gave me a way to live in that zone of genius every day. That’s what I now help others rediscover for themselves.
Here are 5 powerful signs you may be off-track (and how to realign):
🔹 #1 Your Energy Is the First Clue
If a client request makes you sigh instead of smile, that’s not just stress, it’s misalignment. True strengths create fuel, not fatigue!
🔹 #2 You “Can” Do It, But You are Worried
You’re praised for being reliable, fast, thorough, but the work feels heavy. You’ve outgrown your role or never truly belonged there to begin with.
🔹 #3 You’ve Forgotten What Feels Easy
When was the last time you felt like something was flowing effortlessly? If everything feels like a push, you may be pushing in the wrong direction.
🔹 #4 You Overcompensate with Overworking
When we’re outside our strengths zone, we often try harder to prove ourselves. It’s a loop of burnout masked as ambition.
🔹 #5 You’ve Lost the Spark of Curiosity
Your mind isn’t lighting up. You no longer ask: “What if?” That is usually found where ideas excite, not exhaust.
2 Tips to realign:
Take a blank page and finish this sentence:
“People come to me when they need someone who can…”
Think of 2 compliments you've received often and ignored. 😊
Maybe it’s:
“You explain complex things so clearly.”
“You ask questions based on facts no one else dares to.”
💬 Whether you’re a leader, entrepreneur, or in transition: Rediscovering your personal strengths can change everything, energy, focus, fulfilment.
If any of these signs resonate, that means there is room for growth towards your zone of genius. Let’s Talk!
Please share this blog post, if you know someone who will benefit from it!
Warmly,
Dilek
Official Collaboration Partners:
★ Lead Coach at the global coaching platform BetterUp based in USA.
★ Executive Coach and Trainer at SparkUs based in Turkey and Netherlands.
★ Impact Partner for coaching, training & facilitation projects at leadership experts Think Beyond Group based in Austria.
★ Leadership Coach at Percoms AG, based in Switzerland.
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