I’m sure at some point in your life you have had someone interview you whether you are a student or a business person. There are two questions the interviewer always asks. “Johnny, what are two of your strengths and two of your weaknesses.” If you are like me you probably gave the cookie cutter answer. Well, I’m anal-retentive and a perfectionist which can go for my weaknesses too. Lucky for me, I am both…haha Trust me they ask this question. I should know because I’ve worked in Human Resources and may soon be returning to the profession soon.
To the point, tonight I was given a really interesting book Now Discover Your Strengths. I’ve only reached Chapter 4 because they make you stop to take a test. They, talk a lot talent. That talent can’t be taught but it is our natural god given gift. We all have different talents and succeed at different task. This book puts the focus on this. How companies should evaluate and treat employees. The book states that you should play on peoples strengths and not change there weakness. Sorta like you can’t teach a new dog old tricks. Think about it. Do you excel at something you aren’t very good at? Probably not. They say you can learn but that you well never do it as well as someone with the natural talent. It is very true. I know there are things I’m ok at but I hate doing them.
They say you shouldn’t focus on your weakness but rather work on your strengths. I agree and disagree with this. I definitely think you should enhance your strengths but if you are like me you have weaknesses you just don’t want. You should take the time to fix them. They do make a great reference to Tiger Woods. Yeah, he has a great long and short game. But, I guess he has problems with bunkers. His team had him focus on bunker. He became better at them but he will never be great. Then they went back to focusing on his strengths which I think is good. I firmly believe that your weakness can hold you back and not let you use your strengths to the best of your ability.
This book even talks about your neurons and brain synapse. When, you are a baby you have an abundance of both but as you get old a huge chunk dies. This has to happen for your brain to grow. This is the process of figuring out what your talents are. Read the book they have facts and I’m just glossing over it.
Now, you have a brief intro to what the book is about but there is much more to all of this. They give you the opportunity to take a Gallup test on your strengths. Anyone who knows anything about Gallup knows they are well founded.
I think this is great and I took the test. Below are my top 5 results:
Strategic
The Strategic theme enables you to sort through the clutter and find the best route. It is not a skill that can be taught. It is a distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on the world at large. This perspective allows you to see patterns where others simply see complexity. Mindful of these patterns, you play out alternative scenarios, always asking, “What if this happened? Okay, well what if this happened?” This recurring question helps you see around the next corner. There you can evaluate accurately the potential obstacles. Guided by where you see each path leading, you start to make selections. You discard the paths that lead nowhere. You discard the paths that lead straight into resistance. You discard the paths that lead into a fog of confusion. You cull and make selections until you arrive at the chosen path-your strategy. Armed with your strategy, you strike forward. This is your Strategic theme at work: “What if?” Select. Strike.
Relator
Relator describes your attitude toward your relationships. In simple terms, the Relator theme pulls you toward people you already know. You do not necessarily shy away from meeting new people-in fact, you may have other themes that cause you to enjoy the thrill of turning strangers into friends-but you do derive a great deal of pleasure and strength from being around your close friends. You are comfortable with intimacy. Once the initial connection has been made, you deliberately encourage a deepening of the relationship. You want to understand their feelings, their goals, their fears, and their dreams; and you want them to understand yours. You know that this kind of closeness implies a certain amount of risk-you might be taken advantage of-but you are willing to accept that risk. For you a relationship has value only if it is genuine. And the only way to know that is to entrust yourself to the other person. The more you share with each other, the more you risk together. The more you risk together, the more each of you proves your caring is genuine. These are your steps toward real friendship, and you take them willingly.
Responsibility
Your Responsibility theme forces you to take psychological ownership for anything you commit to, and whether large or small, you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion. Your good name depends on it. If for some reason you cannot deliver, you automatically start to look for ways to make it up to the other person. Apologies are not enough. Excuses and rationalizations are totally unacceptable. You will not quite be able to live with yourself until you have made restitution. This conscientiousness, this near obsession for doing things right, and your impeccable ethics, combine to create your reputation: utterly dependable. When assigning new responsibilities, people will look to you first because they know it will get done. When people come to you for help-and they soon will-you must be selective. Your willingness to volunteer may sometimes lead you to take on more than you should.
Adaptability
You live in the moment. You don’t see the future as a fixed destination. Instead, you see it as a place that you create out of the choices that you make right now. And so you discover your future one choice at a time. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have plans. You probably do. But this theme of Adaptability does enable you to respond willingly to the demands of the moment even if they pull you away from your plans. Unlike some, you don’t resent sudden requests or unforeseen detours. You expect them. They are inevitable. Indeed, on some level you actually look forward to them. You are, at heart, a very flexible person who can stay productive when the demands of work are pulling you in many different directions at once.
Individualization
Your Individualization theme leads you to be intrigued by the unique qualities of each person. You are impatient with generalizations or “types” because you don’t want to obscure what is special and distinct about each person. Instead, you focus on the differences between individuals. You instinctively observe each person’s style, each person’s motivation, how each thinks, and how each builds relationships. You hear the one-of-a-kind stories in each person’s life. This theme explains why you pick your friends just the right birthday gift, why you know that one person prefers praise in public and another detests it, and why you tailor your teaching style to accommodate one person’s need to be shown and another’s desire to “figure it out as I go.” Because you are such a keen observer of other people’s strengths, you can draw out the best in each person. This Individualization theme also helps you build productive teams. While some search around for the perfect team “structure” or “process,” you know instinctively that the secret to great teams is casting by individual strengths so that everyone can do a lot of what they do well. That is what I’m about.
For more information please visit: https://www.strengthsfinder.com/
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