by Roxana Cardos, 11th July 2022
Strengths Coach, Roxana Cardos, discusses receiving her diagnosis and how knowing her strengths has helped her…
I was diagnosed with Dyslexia late. I had already graduated from 2 universities, worked at IBM, and completed my MSc when I got the diagnosis. Shock- how could I have what they called a ’learning disability’ and complete so many studies?
I, like most people, associated Dyslexia with negativity, e.g. the difficulties in reading and writing. Whilst having this new ‘label’ brought me relief by helping me understand my anxiety, it also brought a cloud of negativity. I was at this stage blind to the many skills that come with this diagnosis. I was lucky to then be introduced to Strengths Profile (back then called Realise2) as it helped me readjust my perception of my new identity.
It wasn’t a surprise that I had Writer and Detail in my weaknesses, as you would expect that from a Dyslexic mind, but for me discussing that with a Strengths practitioner helped me see the big picture. I had Pride and Drive as my top strengths, so I was really pushing myself. I was blown away to see that the assessment spotted the things I try really hard to look natural for me. It’s like someone discovered my hidden secret. Understanding I can re-energise my learned behaviours was a game-changer.
I still remember the surprise of discovering that Time Optimiser and Incubator are my unrealised strengths. My initial thoughts were: “Is that a quality? Really? Doesn’t everyone maximise the time they have? Doesn’t everyone want to produce work they are proud of?” I was taking for granted the things I was doing well and beating myself up for my weaknesses, the things I was working extra hard to hide. Re-energising my weakness and learned behaviours through a Strengths Profile debrief meant lifting the stigma I felt around my Dyslexia diagnosis.
7 years later and Writer is in my Realised Strengths.
How did I do that? Well, it was a journey.
The first thing I had to do was to accept the situation, so I leaned into my strength of Authenticity and Relationship Deepener to have the courage to tell people I have Dyslexia. I also had the chance to use my Explainer strength as other people did not fully understand what being Dyslexic means.
If I think about the beginning of my career, I was avoiding writing long emails for the fear of making mistakes. Unconsciously, I was relying more on my relating strengths or using verbal communication to convey my message, which was ok but there was a heaviness I was carrying with me.
It wasn’t until I had projects that I really cared about that pushed me to overcome my fear of making a fool of myself. I had to find a system for my writing to go into the world.
Let me give you an insight into how I played on my strengths to re-energise writing for me. There were 5 strengths:
1. Mission: The piece I am writing is a puzzle piece from a greater whole I care about.
2. Pride: If it has my name on it, it represents me, so I have to be mindful of the message I am communicating about myself.
3. Planner: As I identified it’s important to me to be of quality, I find the right time in my diary to write, plus I plan in buffer time.
4. Incubator: I know I will take longer compared to other colleagues of mine, but I am kind to myself. I like to write what I want to write, just blurt it out, and then, the next day I edit and make English sense of what I wrote.
Even this blog went through the same steps. I’d like to think I’ve influenced you to think of Dyslexia in a different way, which taps into my mission of changing people’s perception about having a neurodiverse brain. The thought of writing something that could contribute to people’s perception of the neurodiverse brain energises me. How about that for someone diagnosed with Dyslexia?
As a Dyslexic person, working with Strengths Profile over the past 5 years has given me the tools, mindset, and lifehacks to go with my head high in society and say I am Dyslexic, moreover, I am proud of it. In fact, it was the catalyst for me wanting to make a difference in the neurodiverse world. Today, I take Pride in being different and my Counterpoint paired with Catalyst push me to make a difference in other people’s worlds.
Roxana Cardos
Roxana is a speaker, facilitator, coach, consultant, strengths expert and friend on the topic of unlocking your potential and doing what you love. She’s a qualified Business Psychologist and been working with strengths for more than 4 years.
