While You’re Showing Thanks For Others This Week, Take The Time To Be Thankful For What Makes You Unique, Too

As many of us take time this week to honor what we’re thankful for with our friends and family, it’s important to turn that energy inwards, and ask ourselves – “within my spirit and my journey, what am I thankful for?” Maybe it’s your spark of creativity or your DIY attitude with any problem on your plate, Thanksgiving pun intended, but we must remember to be thankful for who we are, too. This reminded me of an episode of Disrupt Yourself with Alison Levine, a former Goldman Sachs investor-turned-mountain climber.

She had climbed some of the world's highest mountains, but her career path wasn't clear. After completing her MBA at Duke, Alison Levine knew she wanted to work on Wall Street. But, she also knew that she was competing with people that had experience in investment banking and degrees from Ivy League schools.

Instead of thinking of herself as lesser than her peers and giving up, Alison determined to stand out by being different. What traits was she thankful for, within herself? And how would she turn that gratitude into a superpower? Well, Alison had an insatiable love of the mountains. While her classmates would go to Wall Street to visit recruiters during school breaks, she would find herself in the mountains, literally and figuratively. Alison was using this distinction to her competitive advantage. She wrote postcards to the recruiters from the side of the mountain.

Imagine being a recruiter on Wall Street and getting a postcard that says, "This is Alison Levine here from the 20,000-foot camp on Aconcagua in Argentina. I know all my classmates are visiting with you right now, and I wish I could be there, but I'm huddled up in this tent getting ready for a summit bid. I'm looking forward to meeting you when you come to campus and recruit." If you got that postcard, would you forget it? Probably not. Not only did this allow Alison to do what she wanted on her school breaks, but she stood out from a crowded field.

Alison's story of her Wall Street recruiting experience, which you can learn more about on the Disrupt Yourself podcast, is a reminder to consider two of the accelerants on the Seven-Point Framework of Personal Disruption™: Take the right risks and play to your distinctive strengths. Discovering those sources of personal gratitude is one of the clearest ways to hone in on what those strengths are.

By identifying a way to be different, Alison chose not to compete but to create. She knew she wouldn't stand out if she tried to compete against her peers with Ivy League degrees and finance backgrounds. She asked herself, "What can I do to be different? What can I do to separate myself from the rest of the crowd?"

Theodore Roosevelt said, "Comparison is the thief of joy." Comparison can also be the thief of success. Instead of taking the same path and trying to win, Alison lived authentically and stood out by being different and relying on her skills that made her unique rather than better but the same.

How can you stand out – not by being better than someone else – but by being uniquely you in your work and life?

Being different is a valuable tool for competition and an essential component of being an effective teammate.

After Alison's career in business, she turned her attention entirely to mountaineering and the outdoors. Extreme outdoor expeditions require you to rely heavily on a team, and Alison again noticed the importance of having different strengths. On my podcast, Alison shared how she went on two polar expeditions during which she had a sled that weighed more than she did. On her journey to the South Pole, Alison depended on her teammates to relieve some of the weight she was pulling. When they took some of her weight, she initially felt awful for not pulling her weight.

As the expedition went on, Alison realized that no one could be a strong performer in every setting and every environment. She recognized that, while she couldn't carry as much weight as her teammates, she was better suited to build the snow barricade around the tents with the small shovel they packed. Because of her height, using a short shovel didn't hurt her back, and she was able to contribute to the team by building everyone's snow barricade.

Teams only thrive when there is diversity in the strengths and skillsets of their members – and when each team member knows how to lean into those strengths.

Consider an acapella group. If each member had the same vocal range, there would be limited harmony. By identifying and utilizing your distinctive strengths, not only are you able to stand out from your competition, but you also can leverage the full power of a team.

Alison learned a valuable leadership lesson through her polar expedition. "I learned that it's my responsibility to look at weaker people and help them find their sweet spot because everybody has one. And while my strength was not going to be dragging a 150-pound sled across the ice, I did find a place where I could contribute more than my bigger and taller teammates."

As a leader, how can you help each team member identify the one thing they can contribute better than anyone else? This Thanksgiving, how can you help them be thankful for being unique?