Freelancing is often sold as freedom, but many L&D professionals find themselves quietly battling self doubt, decision fatigue, and the pressure to do everything themselves. In this piece, strengths practitioner Maria Salkeld explores why the problem is not your strengths, but how your business is built around them, and how a strengths based lens can help you work with who you are, not against it.
Freelancing often promises freedom, flexibility, and choice.
But it can also bring decision fatigue, self-doubt, and the quiet pressure of doing everything yourself.
How often do we pause to ask whether the way we are building our business plays to how we do our best work?
Many L&D freelancers step into self-employment carrying habits formed in corporate roles, where attention was often drawn to what was missing, risky, or not yet good enough. That way of thinking can quietly follow us into our own business, shaping decisions without us noticing.
A strengths-based, positive mindset shifts that perspective.
It helps you move from managing perceived limitations to working consciously with what already enables you to do your best work, and this is where understanding and applying your strengths can change the experience entirely.
Why strengths matter when you work for yourself
When you are employed, structure and momentum are often built in. When you work for yourself, you become the structure.
Your energy, focus, and decision-making shape your business every day. Strengths awareness helps you understand how you naturally operate at your best and what sustains you over time.
This is not about improving yourself or fixing gaps. It is about designing a business that works with who you are.
What I mean by “strengths”
When I talk about strengths, I am not referring to skills, roles, or personality types or the typical dictionary definition of the ‘things we are good at’, but Strengthscope’s definition.
Strengths are the underlying qualities that energise us and that we are most likely good at, or have the potential to become good at.
They are the activities that energise you, that you are drawn to, where you most likely perform well, and hopefully use regularly (if you aren’t using them regularly, then that is a potential area for further exploration).
Energy is the key differentiator. Many freelancers can do lots of things. That does not mean those things are sustainable.
Strengths sit where energy and performance meet. When your work aligns with them, confidence and resilience tend to follow.
Spotting your strengths without a tool
You do not need an assessment to start noticing your strengths in action.
Ask yourself:
- What work gives me energy even when it noticeably stretches me?
- What do people consistently value or rely on me for?
- What feels instinctive rather than effortful?
- When I review my client feedback, what themes emerge about the way I work?
Strengths in action as a freelancer
In my own work, I know that I am energised by future-focused thinking, generating ideas, and helping others see new possibilities. I am also naturally drawn to building relationships and creating environments where people feel safe enough to think well.
That shows up in how I design work, how I facilitate, and how I approach conversations with clients. It also influences the kind of business I am building. One that prioritises depth, trust, and meaningful change over volume or speed.
For another freelancer, strengths might show up as a strong drive to deliver results, a natural decisiveness, or an ability to bring structure and clarity to complex work. Each of these strengths lends itself to different business choices.
There is no single right approach. The key question is whether the approach and blend you are using fit how you do your best work, and you at your best!
When strengths go into overdrive
Every strength has a shadow. Under pressure, the qualities that usually serve us can become overused and can lead to unintended negative consequences, for example:
- Future-focused thinking can tip into overthinking or delaying decisions.
- A strong relationship focus can slide into people-pleasing or blurred boundaries.
- A drive to deliver can turn into overcommitment and exhaustion.
These patterns often emerge when uncertainty rises or when you are carrying too much on your own. They are not flaws but signals that need attention. Over time, they can also quietly become embedded in how we structure our work, our offers, and our boundaries.
Working with the edges of your strengths
Awareness creates choice.
A few simple practices help keep your strengths working for you rather than against you:
- Notice what you default to when things feel tense or unclear.
- Name the impact on your energy, your clients, or your business.
- Choose: When you approach a new task, no matter how small or big, start with the question, ‘What energising and natural strengths can I lean into here?
- Introduce small counterbalances, such as clearer decision rules, firmer boundaries, or inviting challenge rather than reassurance.
The aim is not to dampen your strengths but to know what they are and to use them intentionally.
A final reflection
Freelancing asks a lot of us. Not only technically, but emotionally and energetically.
Knowing your energising strengths gives you language for who you are at work, permission to build differently, and steadiness when things wobble. Sometimes the work is not about becoming more confident or capable, but about reshaping the way your business supports who you already are.
Author bio
Maria Salkeld is the founder of Quirky Bird Strengths. She works with L&D and HR leaders, leadership teams, and self-employed professionals to build confidence, clarity, and sustainable impact through a strengths-based lens. With over 20 years of experience in leadership development, strengths practices, coaching, and team effectiveness, Maria brings a practical, human approach that helps people work with who they are, not against it.
