Be Your Best: ‘Listening to my own advice is focus’

Aoife Kelly (34),

PR director

The findings of the first module have given me some food for thought.

According to the research my strongest character attribute is perspective, I have a lateral view of the world ‘beyond my years’ according to the findings.

I figure that has surfaced to the top of my strengths because I try to live by feeling the fear and doing it anyway. It can have its pitfalls that’s for sure, but endeavouring to take a less-walked road has helped me develop a broad outlook.

There’s an expression by Ralph Waldo Emerson that says “Nothing can bring you peace, but yourself”, for me that’s often counterintuitive.

When life blows up in my face, I might have a great perspective on how to handle the situation, but I will inevitably call or meet a loved one, because I enjoy the comfort of sharing the situation with someone I trust.

Whereas if I could learn to sit it out and try to go with my own advice then I would be playing to my main strength, which is what this programme is focusing us on doing.

Maybe there is a greater peace in taking time to sit in the problem and working out what is best and sticking with it. Easier said than done, but to stick with the programme I will try it out!

My next strongest attribute is humour, this is where I should insert a funny joke, but my wisdom is telling me not to! I really believe that there is a place for humour in all facets of life. We can all take ourselves, our careers and our views too seriously at times.

I think humour is a key component in chemistry, the better you can get on with people then barriers drop and better business can happen.

Take Richard Branson for example, he knows when to allow humour into his professional life and it hasn’t served him badly.

My third key attribute is social intelligence, I think I developed this from my time working in the music industry. I’ve seen seasoned TV producers and journalists go weak at the knees because Danny from The Script has walked into the room.

My role in a situation like that would be to quickly put everyone at ease so that conversation can flow and everyone can relax. The more relaxed I am in a social situation where I am the lynch-pin, the better the outcome for everyone.

So for the next week, I will be looking at appreciating my perspective, humour and social intelligence. I will be taking time to sit with a problem so my intuition comes through and I’ll stick to that plan of action only. I’ll have no one to blame but myself if things go horribly wrong!