Blockers

Instructions Now that you have developed your best-self portrait, you will start to bring it to life. The purpose of Step 5 in this process is to begin to think about the contextual elements that enable or hinder your best-self.

First, you will identify your primary strengths in an attempt to recognize how over relying on those strengths, which may lead to initial successes, can become fatal flaws. You might note that the focus in the RBSE is on your strengths rather than weaknesses – this is by design with research to support it! You will compile your strengths and their implications in Table 4.

Sample Table 4

Second, you will identify the enablers (those things that help) and blockers (those things that hinder) to your best self. Enablers and blockers can be:

• Personal: attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that affect your ability to lever¬age your best self

• Situational: contextual features (e.g., organizational standards, systems, and practices) that promote or inhibit leveraging your best self

• Relational: relationships that either support or undermine your best self

You will compile your enablers and blockers into Table 5 (enablers will be one column and blockers will be another; see the sample Table 5). You should also indicate whether each enabler/blocker is personal, situational, or relational.

Sample Table 5

Third and finally, you will write a narrative that explains in more detail the content of Tables 4 and 5. Your narrative should be 1.5 to 2 pages, double-spaced,1-inch margins, 12-point, Times New Roman (or similar) font.

Frequently Asked Questions Q: How many strengths and enablers/blockers should I come up with? A: As many as you identify! Again, there is no magic number. Rather, your analysis should accurately reflect you as a person and/or the stories you collected.