The company I work for promotes our own natural talents and helps put us into positions that take advantage of what we're naturally good at. Focus on your strengths, don't waste energy on something you're not good at. That may sound like a no-brainer concept, but I have never worked for a company that helps people discover their talents and then encourage people to maximize those talents. It's an eye-opening process, and (without sounding like a commercial) has improved my productivity, my personal life, my energy, and my sanity.
The testing process is simple: answer 120 rapid fire questions, each having a time-limit of 20 seconds. It's a simple 1 to 5 scale of which statement you agree with (or feel neutral about), but the statements are funky and seem to have no relation to the other. Example:
(I like to learn) 0 - 0 - neutral - 0 - 0 (I miss my friends)
Simple enough, but after 120 questions it feels like it doesn't make any sense. Until you see your final report.
Everyone in our company has gone through this testing system, and every employee has access to see everyone else's top strengths. This might sound weird, but knowing other people's strengths can be an invaluable tool when you want to take a team project to the next level. I'm naturally a 'lone wolf' developer, and usually try to do everything myself, so working with someone that's strong in Connectedness or Includer can help me offload tasks to others. That person will keep me connected to other people, because they're naturally good at connecting people. It's a natural strength that they don't even have to work at.
If you've read this far, you probably want to know what my top strengths are. Here you go...
Your Signature Themes report presents your five most dominant themes of talent, in the rank order revealed by your responses to StrengthsFinder. Of the 34 themes measured, these are your "top five."
- Ideation
- You are fascinated by ideas. What is an idea? An idea is a
concept, the best explanation of the most events. You are delighted when you
discover beneath the complex surface an elegantly simple concept to explain why
things are the way they are. An idea is a connection. Yours is the kind of mind
that is always looking for connections, and so you are intrigued when seemingly
disparate phenomena can be linked by an obscure connection. An idea is a new
perspective on familiar challenges. You revel in taking the world we all know
and turning it around so we can view it from a strange but strangely
enlightening angle. You love all these ideas because they are profound, because
they are novel, because they are clarifying, because they are contrary, because
they are bizarre. For all these reasons you derive a jolt of energy whenever a
new idea occurs to you. Others may label you creative or original or conceptual
or even smart. Perhaps you are all of these. Who can be sure? What you are sure
of is that ideas are thrilling. And on most days this is
enough.
- Learner
-
You love to learn. The subject matter that
interests you most will be determined by your other themes and experiences, but
whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning. The
process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you.
You are energized by the steady and deliberate journey from ignorance to
competence. The thrill of the first few facts, the early efforts to recite or
practice what you have learned, the growing confidence of a skill mastered-this
is the process that entices you. Your excitement leads you to engage in adult
learning experiences-yoga or piano lessons or graduate classes. It enables you
to thrive in dynamic work environments where you are asked to take on short
project assignments and are expected to learn a lot about the new subject matter
in a short period of time and then move on to the next one. This Learner theme
does not necessarily mean that you seek to become the subject matter expert, or
that you are striving for the respect that accompanies a professional or
academic credential. The outcome of the learning is less significant than the
"getting there."
- Achiever
-
Your Achiever theme helps explain
your drive. Achiever describes a constant need for achievement. You feel as if
every day starts at zero. By the end of the day you must achieve something
tangible in order to feel good about yourself. And by "every day" you mean every
single day-workdays, weekends, vacations. No matter how much you may feel you
deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of achievement, no
matter how small, you will feel dissatisfied. You have an internal fire burning
inside you. It pushes you to do more, to achieve more. After each accomplishment
is reached, the fire dwindles for a moment, but very soon it rekindles itself,
forcing you toward the next accomplishment. Your relentless need for achievement
might not be logical. It might not even be focused. But it will always be with
you. As an Achiever you must learn to live with this whisper of discontent. It
does have its benefits. It brings you the energy you need to work long hours
without burning out. It is the jolt you can always count on to get you started
on new tasks, new challenges. It is the power supply that causes you to set the
pace and define the levels of productivity for your work group. It is the theme
that keeps you moving.
- Analytical
-
Your Analytical theme
challenges other people: "Prove it. Show me why what you are claiming is true."
In the face of this kind of questioning some will find that their brilliant
theories wither and die. For you, this is precisely the point. You do not
necessarily want to destroy other people's ideas, but you do insist that their
theories be sound. You see yourself as objective and dispassionate. You like
data because they are value free. They have no agenda. Armed with these data,
you search for patterns and connections. You want to understand how certain
patterns affect one another. How do they combine? What is their outcome? Does
this outcome fit with the theory being offered or the situation being
confronted? These are your questions. You peel the layers back until, gradually,
the root cause or causes are revealed. Others see you as logical and rigorous.
Over time they will come to you in order to expose someone's "wishful thinking"
or "clumsy thinking" to your refining mind. It is hoped that your analysis is
never delivered too harshly. Otherwise, others may avoid you when that "wishful
thinking" is their own.
- Intellection
-
You like to think. You
like mental activity. You like exercising the "muscles" of your brain,
stretching them in multiple directions. This need for mental activity may be
focused; for example, you may be trying to solve a problem or develop an idea or
understand another person's feelings. The exact focus will depend on your other
strengths. On the other hand, this mental activity may very well lack focus. The
theme of Intellection does not dictate what you are thinking about; it simply
describes that you like to think. You are the kind of person who enjoys your
time alone because it is your time for musing and reflection. You are
introspective. In a sense you are your own best companion, as you pose yourself
questions and try out answers on yourself to see how they sound. This
introspection may lead you to a slight sense of discontent as you compare what
you are actually doing with all the thoughts and ideas that your mind conceives.
Or this introspection may tend toward more pragmatic matters such as the events
of the day or a conversation that you plan to have later. Wherever it leads you,
this mental hum is one of the constants of your life.
Wondering what my weakest strength was? Discipline. I can see my mom nodding her head right now and saying "uh huh, told you". You were right mom...
Has anyone else gone through the program? What's your top 5 strengths?