tree bearing fruit
| |

Ep. 18 – Playing from your strengths with Johan Oosthuizen

Johan Oosthuizen is an International Coach Federation (ACC) member, a Results-Driven Gallup Certified Strengths Coach (Advance), and a BP10 trained coach.  Johan has more than 34 years of experience of which he spent 23 years as a top Financial Advisor at a major life assurance company and for the last 10 years he has been specialising as a Gallup-Advance Certified Strengths and Business Profile Coach helping financial advisors and other professionals become the best version of themselves.

In the 1950’s a life assurance company asked Dr. Donald Clifton to do research and to determine why financial advisors left the industry so frequently.  The study found that the reason financial advisors stay in the industry, is primarily because they are using their natural abilities and talents.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about talents, strengths, weaknesses and how one can go about becoming the best version of yourself.  Which inevitably leads to greater results and lasting success.

Why should we stop trying to focus on and to fix our weaknesses?

We discuss the difference between talents and strengths.

Where do you start if you want to determine what your talents and strengths are?  Some people intrinsically know, and there are several indicators, but many people have no clue.

Then, once you have determined your talents and natural abilities, what comes next?  How do you turn these talents into strengths?  There is a total of 7 milestones that one would want to reach in order to fully integrate everything you learn and to operate from a place of strength.  We talk about the first 3 milestones that are the starting point and basis for the rest of the milestones.

But is a strength always an advantage?  Do we always use it to our benefit?

People often mismanage some of their strengths and Johan shares which strengths are the easiest to mismanage.

We always hear how unique each one of us is.  Is that also the case when it comes to our talents?

We also discuss successful advisors and if they tend to have a particular set of talents and strengths.  The discussion around this will surprise you!

All of these aspects may seem fluffy or soft to you, so why should you care about getting to know your talents and developing them into strengths?  This is one of the most important questions I ask Johan in the interview.

If you are ready for the journey, should you go at it alone or should you get help from someone who can help you through the journey?  The answer to this was also interesting!

Another key message that we uncovered in the interview is that you don’t have to be the best at everything.  You don’t have to do everything yourself.  In fact, you shouldn’t.  So what is the strategy and answer here?

Another key question is when is it suitable to start a journey to learn your talents and start to turn them into strengths?

We end off the interview talking about different assessments and tools that are available to help you start your journey.

Listen to the episode:

Johan can be contacted via:

If you are interested in determining your Top 5 Talents (or even your full 34) visit:

Author

  • Francois du Toit, CFP® holds a B. Com degree in Risk Management as well as the Post-Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning. He is an avid miniature figure painter with a passion for helping others succeed and for professionalising the Financial Services Industry. He holds the certification of CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® or CFP® in good standing with the Financial Planning Institute of Southern Africa as well as being a registered Tax Practitioner with them and SARS. Francois offers a unique and powerful proposition to businesses employing Financial Advisers and Broker Consultants that leads to significant improvement in production and reduced advice risk. His practical experience, success, technical knowledge and understanding the challenges and opportunities in this field, ensure immediate practical application in the target market. Francois has designed and created very successful online courses for the Financial Planning Institute and has trained hundreds of financial planners, advisers and other trainers for among others Old Mutual, PPS, Liberty, Iress and atWork. His ability to answer questions that relate to practical on-the-ground issues is what sets him apart from traditional trainers who may not have been in practice.

    View all posts

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *