Step 1

Create an email list of 10-50 people who have known you from different areas of your life and for different lengths of time. Include friends, colleagues (past and present), family, and other community members (i.e. aunts & uncles, college roommates, neighbors who you socialize with, people you share hobbies with, old bosses, teenage children, fellow board members, direct reports, etc.).

Step 2

Create an introductory paragraph similar to the one below. We have learned that our clients get a high ratio of participants when they state a specific time and date to receive responses.

<aside> <img src="/icons/mail_gray.svg" alt="/icons/mail_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Subject Line: A quick request to help me understand what I'm really good at

Hello!

Short version: I'm writing to ask if you'd be willing to take a few minutes to fill out a survey to help me better understand what I'm uniquely good at. If you're willing, I'd like to get all the responses in by the end of Friday April 22nd so I can use Saturday the 23rd to reflect on the responses. Here's the link to the survey (15 minutes should be more than sufficient): https://forms.gle/D7AwC7Dkm8je3yMy6

Long version: I've been reading The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership this year. Commitment eight is about "excelling in your zone of genius," based on concepts from The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks (graphic below for more context). The authors of the 15 commitments recommend sending a survey to 30-50 people who know you from different areas and times of your life to get an idea of where your "zone of genius" is, and before I try using it with clients I wanted to pilot it myself.

Whether you fill the survey out or not, thank you in advance for even reading my email!

Cheers,

Andy.

</aside>

Step 3

Use the following questions

  1. What am I doing or talking about when you experience me MOST energized and happy?
  2. When you experience me at my best, the exact thing I am doing is __________________.
  3. What do you see as a special skill I am gifted with?
  4. What are your three favorite qualities you see in me?
  5. What reliably shows up in the room when I do?
  6. How have I most contributed to your life?
  7. What bad habits do I have that you think are worth addressing?
  8. What would you miss most about me if you couldn’t work with me anymore?

Step 4

Organize the responses by question so you are easily able to see themes.

Step 5

Thank everyone who participated and consider sharing something you have learned from the exercise with them