Date · Thursday, 7 May 2026, 15:00 to 16:05 CEST
Hosted by · IOM, UNOG, and IMO
Session page · UNOG learning
Speakers
- Katarina Posa · Career Development and Transition Expert, IOM · Bio
- Jesús Guerrero · Chief, Management and Communication Unit, Centre for Learning and Multilingualism, UNOG · Bio
- Mirka Packard · Head of Organisational Development, IMO · Bio
What if your greatest career advantage lies in understanding and using your strengths more intentionally? This interactive session will help you discover your key areas of strength, including what you do well, what energises you, and where you have untapped potential. You will gain deeper self-awareness of your realised strengths, emerging strengths, and areas for development, and learn how to apply these insights to make more informed career choices. The session will provide a practical starting point to leverage your strengths more effectively and unlock greater impact in your career.
Key takeaways
- A strength requires all three: energy, consistent performance, and active use. Something you do well but that drains you is a learned behaviour, not a strength, and overusing it leads to burnout.
- Unrealised strengths (good at, enjoy, not using) are your most actionable growth lever. They require no new skill-building, just a platform. Find one and use the 24-question coaching sequence to activate it with a specific first step and a date.
- Do not invest heavily in weaknesses. Delegate them, find complementary partners, or manage them minimally. Energy is better spent deepening and deploying strengths.
- Do not wait for your manager to raise the conversation about your strengths. Take the lead: ask where you add the most value, how you can do more of it, and what direction they would recommend if you are considering a move.
- If your current role does not provide a platform for your strengths, look outside the immediate job: volunteer for task forces, raise your hand for projects, or propose to partner with someone on work where your strength is relevant.
Mirka Packard
Mirka introduced a precise and practically useful definition of strength, one that reframes a common assumption. A strength is not simply something you are good at. It sits at the intersection of three things: energy (it engages and fuels you while you do it), performance (you do it well, consistently), and use (it is actually part of your day-to-day). Only when all three are present do you have a true strength. This matters because many people invest career energy in things they can do well but that quietly drain them, what Mirka called learned behaviours. These are useful, but overusing them is a path to burnout. The diagnostic tool she offered is a four-quadrant Strengths Profile: realised strengths (good at, enjoy, currently using, your sweet spot), unrealised strengths (good at, enjoy, but not currently using, your untapped potential), learned behaviours (good at, use, but draining), and weaknesses (not good at, don’t enjoy). She ran a guided self-reflection exercise with seven questions to help participants begin mapping their own profile, covering what they do well, what colleagues notice, what people come to them for, what makes work feel energising, what makes time pass quickly, what challenges they are drawn to, and what tasks drain them even when they perform them competently.
Katarina Posa
Kata’s contribution was a structured 24-question silent coaching sequence focused entirely on a single unrealised strength, something the participant is good at and enjoys but does not yet have a platform for. The sequence is designed to move from identification to commitment in one sitting. It starts by naming the strength, then asks what would change if it were used more consistently, where in the current role it would add the most value, where it is already showing up in small ways, and when it has worked before. From there it shifts to planning: what would using it look like next week, what is the smallest possible first step, what might get in the way, and who could help. The sequence ends by anchoring commitment: rating current use on a scale of 1, 10, identifying what would move it one point higher, naming the one action to take, and setting an exact date and time for taking it. The design is deliberate, ending with a baby step and a concrete when, not an aspiration. Kata also offered a broader career reflection: realised strengths need to be actively fed and used more intentionally, while unrealised strengths need activation, and the 24-question sequence can be repeated for each one separately.
Jesús Guerrero
Jesús closed the session by addressing what participants can do when structural constraints limit their ability to use their strengths. His advice on learned behaviours and weaknesses was direct: do not invest heavily in improving what drains you. Delegate when possible, seek people who complement your gaps, and form working partnerships where each person’s strengths cover the other’s weaknesses. For finding opportunities to use strengths more broadly, he pointed to three levers: volunteering for task forces or projects that align with your strengths (even without a formal role change), partnering with colleagues in ways that let you contribute from your strengths, and spotting gaps in your current work where an unrealised strength could add value. On the conversation with supervisors, his advice was concrete: take the lead rather than waiting for a performance review to surface this. Ask specifically where you are adding the most value and how you can do more of it, what opportunities would allow you to use your strengths further, and, if considering a career move, what roles or directions the supervisor sees as a good fit. He also shared resources for further self-assessment, including the Strengths Profile Free Starter assessment and career-specific and personality tools.
Frameworks and models
| Name | What it stands for | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Strengths Profile (Four-Quadrant) | Realised Strengths, Unrealised Strengths, Learned Behaviours, Weaknesses, with the Strength Formula (Energy x Performance x Use) absorbed as the diagnostic | Use the seven reflection prompts; map each ability into one quadrant; focus career energy on realised and unrealised strengths; delegate or partner around learned behaviours and weaknesses |
| Strength Formula (absorbed into Strengths Profile, no separate framework page) | A strength = Energy x Performance x Use. All three must be present | (Considered for promotion to a framework page but not promoted: it is the operational diagnostic at the heart of the Strengths Profile and is absorbed into that page rather than duplicated.) |
| Silent Coaching Sequence | A 24-question self-coaching protocol designed to activate one unrealised strength: identification, context, planning, then a committed first action with an exact date | Pick one unrealised strength from the Strengths Profile. Work through the 24 questions in writing in one sitting (~30 minutes). The repetition in the last three questions forces a precise action-with-date |
Resources
| Resource | What it is / What it’s for | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Strengths Profile Free Starter Assessment | A psychometric tool to identify your realised strengths, unrealised strengths, learned behaviours, and weaknesses. Useful as a follow-up to the session’s self-reflection exercise to validate or deepen your profile | https://www.strengthsprofile.com |
| Career assessments | Tools to check alignment between what you enjoy, what you are good at, and the careers you are considering, useful at any career stage | Shared in session chat; to be confirmed in slides |
| Personality assessments | Online tools (e.g. MBTI, 16PF, EQ) to deepen self-knowledge in support of career decisions | Shared in session chat; to be confirmed in slides |
Last updated 2026-05-10.