I recently took the www.strengthsfinder.com online assessment. The assessment was associated with the Strengths Finder 2.0 book. The system presented by the book gave me a lexicon to name my strengths. By giving my strengths names I can see them as tools rather than as amorphous capabilities that I innately exercise.
By understanding what my strengths are I can refelect on when it is best to use one or another of my strengths with intention. Purposeful exercise of personal strengths is a personal goal of mine--I don't think the strengths finder model necessarily prescribes such mindfulness.
The easiest way for me to think about my strengths is that they are behaviors I do without hesitation, naturally, everyday, with near-perfect execution. The Strengths Finder model asserts that all people have such strengths.
By understanding what my strengths are I can refelect on when it is best to use one or another of my strengths with intention. Purposeful exercise of personal strengths is a personal goal of mine--I don't think the strengths finder model necessarily prescribes such mindfulness.The quick version of the history is as follows:
"Based on a 40-year study of human strengths, Gallup created a language of the 34 most common talents and developed the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment to help people discover and describe these talents. "
My next step was to review the report provide by the assessment and seek out a coach who could guide me in applying the results of the assessment. I learned my combination of strengths is a 1 in 33 million result. There are probably more common combinations as there are probably more rare combinations.
"Based on a 40-year study of human strengths, Gallup created a language of the 34 most common talents and developed the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment to help people discover and describe these talents. "
My next step was to review the report provide by the assessment and seek out a coach who could guide me in applying the results of the assessment. I learned my combination of strengths is a 1 in 33 million result. There are probably more common combinations as there are probably more rare combinations.
In the assessment my top 5 strengths in order from 1-5 are as follows:
- Strategic
- Futuristic
- Self-Assurance
- Ideation
- Activator
In the end, what I like most about the process is that the very obvious premise is deeply appealing. Why try and improve people's weaknesses rather than improve their strengths? Isn't every moment spent investing in a person's strengths a greater return on outcome for them than the hard slog to make gains in an area out of tune with the individual?
With my coworkers, with my family, my strengths or theirs--aren't these worth spending more time on than weaknesses?
