On a daily basis, I have the great pleasure of working with mission-driven leaders and challenging them to make the impossible, possible. We explore and navigate the most pressing issues in their business, their leadership, and their teams. One of the ways I serve these leaders as their thought partner and guide is helping them establish short and long-range maps. A key tool used in this process is a SOAR Assessment (Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results), which is a great vehicle designed to help organizations evaluate the good, the bad, the aspirational, and future results.
This effective assessment tool can also help individuals examine our successes, potential, dreams, and accountability. Utilizing a personal SOAR offers an internal and external view that may support leveling up your leadership or creating your next professional adventure. Your SOAR assessment can be transformative for personal and professional development in several ways:
Naming Your Strength: By assessing your strengths, a clearer understanding may be gained of your core competencies, abilities, super powers, and geniuses. This awareness allows you to leverage your strengths effectively in various aspects of your personal and professional life. It helps you to focus on what you do best and find ways to apply these strengths for greater soul satisfaction or to achieve goals.
Recognizing Your Opportunities: A SOAR assessment helps you identify areas for growth and improvement. By understanding where there are opportunities for development, you can create actionable plans to enhance your skills and knowledge. This awareness enables you to take proactive steps, capitalizing on opportunities for personal and professional advancement. You might also find where you’ve held back or sabotaged yourself when opportunity shined. Take note and dig in to what led you away from that growth.
Getting Clear on Aspirations: Understanding your aspirations provides a clear sense of direction and purpose. It helps you set meaningful goals that align with your values and vision for the future. (Don’t know what your core values are? Let’s talk!) By articulating your aspirations, you can develop strategies to pursue them effectively, leading to a more fulfilling and purpose-driven life. Don’t let risk aversion or fear of failure hold you back. Take the view of “if failure wasn’t an option, what would you do, where would you go, who would you be?” Get uncomfortable.
Measuring Results: Tracking your progress and measuring results is essential for personal growth and leadership development. This accountability invites you to establish benchmarks and evaluate your achievements over time. By regularly reviewing your results, you can identify areas of success, peak performance, and behaviors that may be preventing forward movement. This practice enables you to make informed decisions and adjustments as needed.
Enhancing Self-Awareness: Self-awareness is a key aspect of effective leadership and personal development. Through a SOAR assessment, you gain deeper insights into your strengths, limitations, values, and goals. This heightened self-awareness enables you to make better decisions, build stronger relationships, and lead with authenticity and confidence. Self-aware leaders are some of the most successful.
Improved Leadership Skills: As you gain clarity about your strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results, you become better equipped to lead yourself and others effectively. By leveraging your strengths, addressing areas of growth, and pursuing your aspirations, you can inspire and motivate those around you to achieve their full potential. Effective leadership starts with self-awareness and personal growth, and a SOAR assessment provides a valuable framework for both.
Curious how you can take a SOAR assessment and up-level your leadership for purpose and impact? Let’s talk.