March Reflection: Your Q1 Strengths Check-In

Three months into the year. Time to take stock.

Not in a high-pressure, year-end-review kind of way. More like a genuine check-in with yourself. The kind where you step back from the busyness long enough to ask:

Is how I am spending my time actually working for me?

That is what this post is about.

The gap most leaders do not see.

In my work with leaders across healthcare, higher education, and nonprofits, one of the most common patterns I run into is this:

smart, capable people who are working incredibly hard but feeling strangely depleted.

Not burned out in the dramatic sense. Just... flat. Less motivated than they expected to be by this point in the year. Working harder than feels sustainable.

When we dig into it together, the root cause is usually the same. Their biggest responsibilities are not well-aligned with their natural strengths.

They are managing tasks that someone else on their team would find energizing. They are leading projects that require a skillset that does not come naturally to them. They are saying yes to things out of obligation rather than out of genuine capacity.

None of this is a character flaw. It is just misalignment. And misalignment, left unaddressed, compounds over time.

The good news: three months in, you still have nine months left. Course corrections made now have real leverage.

Three reflection questions for Q1

Before we get to the exercise, start here. These are questions I use in coaching sessions when a leader wants to recalibrate.

Take your time with them. Do not rush to the "right" answer.

1. When did I feel most like myself at work this quarter?

Think about a specific moment. A conversation, a project, a presentation, a problem you solved. What were you doing? What made it feel energizing rather than effortful?

That is a signal. That is a glimpse at where your strengths were fully engaged.

2. What did I keep putting off or dreading this quarter?

Not things that were logistically hard. Things that felt like a drain before you even started them. If you had the same sinking feeling every Monday morning about a recurring responsibility, that is worth paying attention to.

3. Where am I the version of myself other people count on?

This is the alignment question. Where do people come to you, not just because of your title, but because of who you are? Where does your contribution feel genuinely irreplaceable?

Those answers point toward your highest-leverage zone.

The Q1 alignment exercise

Here is a practical way to turn those reflections into something actionable.

Step 1: List your top five responsibilities from Q1. Not your job description. The actual things you spent meaningful time on.

Step 2: For each one, rate it on two dimensions:

- Strength alignment (1-5): How much did this draw on your natural talents?

- Energy impact (1-5): Did this responsibility leave you energized or drained?

Step 3: Look at the pattern. Responsibilities that score low on both dimensions are your misalignment signals. They are not necessarily things you can eliminate, but they are worth examining. Can they be delegated? Reshaped? Supported differently?

Step 4: Pick one thing to shift. Not five. One. What is the single highest-leverage move you could make heading into Q2 to bring your work into better alignment with your strengths?

This exercise takes about 20-30 minutes if you do it honestly.

I have seen leaders completely reframe their second half of the year from insights that came out of a single sitting with these questions.

A note on course corrections

One thing I want to be clear about: noticing misalignment is not a reason to panic or to blow up your current role.

Most of the time, meaningful course corrections are smaller than people expect. A conversation with your manager about redistribution. A shift in how you are showing up to a project. A decision to stop volunteering for things that drain you when there is someone else who would genuinely thrive in that role.

Strengths-based leadership is not about only doing what comes easily. It is about knowing where your energy is best invested, and being intentional about protecting that capacity.

If this check-in surfaces something bigger, something structural that you want to think through more carefully, that is exactly the kind of conversation I have with leaders every day. Sometimes a fresh perspective on your own landscape is all it takes to see the path forward clearly.

Where do you go from here?

Take the exercise. Sit with the three reflection questions. Pick your one shift for Q2.

And if you want to go deeper, I am always open to a conversation. The work I do with leaders, whether through individual coaching, team development, or organizational planning, is built around one core idea: the process has to be the product. The way we work together should itself model the principles we are trying to build.

That starts with knowing your strengths. And knowing how to put them to work.

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