My Strength Finder Experience: Skeptic Turns Believer
By: Ashlee Lawson
My mother will be the first to tell you that her middle-born daughter (me), is a full blown skeptic. I question EVERYTHING. I’m talking-believe none of what you hear, half of what you see-levels of skepticism, and I have been this way for as long as I can remember.
As you may (or may not) know, this year I am a ProInspire Fellow. As a Fellow, we attend monthly training sessions to reconnect with one another and push toward finding our ‘true-north” in the social sector. This month, we had the opportunity to read Tom Rath’s StrengthsFInder 2.0, and participate in the StrengthFinder 2.0 assessment by Clifton.
Insert skeptical Ashlee.”What in the world could this assessment REALLY tell me about myself?”
Now, because I’m a team player and the curious type, I went ahead and took the assessment. 20 minutes or so of rating myself based on personality characteristics, behaviors and personality traits. Upon completion, an email pops up in my inbox with, you guessed it, my Top 5 Strengths out of 34 possible:
1. Restorative | Adept at problem solving, good at figuring out what’s wrong, and resolving it.
2.Connectedness | Faith in the links between all things. Every event has a reason.
3.Strategic | Create alternative ways to proceed. Spot relevant patterns and issues.
4.Adaptability | Go with the flow. Live in the now. Take things as they come.
5.Relator | Enjoy close relationships. Find satisfaction in working with friends to achieve goals.
All of this is well and good, but how will this information help ME be a better me. What does it even mean? At this point, I’ve got a few new words to describe myself in interviews when asked the ill-fated “how would you describe your strengths?” question pops up. Nothing more, nothing less.
Enter Ann Schultz: StrengthsFinder guru, and one of the few people to ever make me eat my skeptical words.
Ann took our group through a series of activities that really brought our individual strengths to life, focusing on the following: have you ever thought to yourself about a talent you have developed and then used as a strength? What about thinking WAY back to when you were a youngin’ and the first clues you may have noticed about a particular talent?
In thinking about questions like these, and talking with fellow Fellows (I’ve been waiting to say that) about their strengths and talents- it became clear that this StrengthsFinder is really on to something. This assessment gives you tangible results based on fixed traits that can be sorted into 4 different categories. Executing, Relationship Building, Influencing, Strategic Thinking. Telling right?
Based on these categories, I am able to see clearly that my strengths fall heavily in the relationship building domain. Now that I can describe my strengths succinctly, I can use them to not only help frame my circumstances moving forward, but also think about things in new ways- and with credibility (because StrengthsFinder said so!).
As a final takeaway, Ann discussed Strengths finder as it relates to leadership. It has been found that leaders do not display certain strength traits across the board, but that they are well aware of what their strengths are and build their executive teams with people that have complementary strengths. Knowing this will be particularly helpful as I navigate teams I work with currently, and will work with in the future.
I can say, with full certainty, that my skepticism is a clear reflection of a combination of my top 5 strengths. A great display of how they are all interconnected and work in concert to frame the decisions I make, the way I work, and how I experience the world. Now, only time will tell if they’re in fact, right…