So before I left for U of I on Thursday, I purchased a book titled Strengths Finder 2.0 where you get the access code to take the StrengthsQuest test, and it gives you five of your 'top strengths' and ways to pursue them through your actions and relationships! Sounds pretty cool, right?
So the way the test works is there are 2 statements, 1 on the left and 1 on the right, and 5 bubbles. The middle bubble is neutral, and you can strongly agree or just agree with the statement that most closely portrays you. There are about 200 questions (178 I believe), and at first I was very confused on how it could accurately estimate my five top strengths out of its 34 identified strengths.
These are: Achiever Activator Adaptability Analytical Arranger Belief Command Communication Competition Connectedness Context Deliberative Developer
Discipline Empathy Consistency Focus Futuristic Harmony Ideation Includer
Individualization Input Intellection Learner Maximizer Positivity Relator
Responsibility Restorative Self-Assurance Significance Strategic Woo
Even while taking the test, I was mad at some of the questions. I know the two sides aren't supposed to be opposites...but at first, I definitely got the vibe that this exam thinks analytical people can't necessarily be successful...because it implies that if your 'strength' is analyzing, you can't carry things out, so you have to decide which you are MORE of to identify your strength. It also implied that enjoying present successes means you can’t or haven’t figured out why you failed, which isn't necessarily true in my opinion.
By the end, I realized the exam's goal is not necessarily which you are 'more' of, but how you see you fitting into it. The most confusing questions were "I encourage others" vs. "I strengthen others", "I am reasonable" vs. "I am responsible", and "Responsibility" vs. "Striving for promotions."
Can't responsible people strive for promotions? But what it wants to know is if you SEE yourself as responsible or if you just see yourself as striving for promotions, because your 'strengths' are different depending on how you see it. So that's why I found the Strengths Quest test interesting, besides the fact that the 2.0 version gives you an online access account and a 21-page-PDF personalized summary based on what your responses were, as well as actions you can take to utilize this strength. It was VERY accurate in my situation, and yes I know from AP Psych that psychologically, you try to find yourself when reading generalized descriptions...but a lot of these are still extremely fitting. Maybe you would share some! Enjoy!
My Top 5 Strengths
COMMUNICATION
You like to explain, to describe, to host, to speak in public, and to write. This is your Communication theme at work. Ideas are a dry beginning. Events are static. You feel a need to bring them to life, to energize them, to make them exciting and vivid. And so you turn events into stories and practice telling them. You take the dry idea and enliven it with images and examples and metaphors. You believe that most people have a very short attention span. They are bombarded by information, but very little of it survives. You want your information—whether an idea, an event, a product’s features and benefits, a discovery, or a lesson—to survive. You want to divert their attention toward you and then capture it, lock it in. This is what drives your hunt for the perfect phrase. This is what draws you toward dramatic words and powerful word combinations. This is why people like to listen to you. Your word pictures pique their interest, sharpen their world, and inspire them to act.
FOCUS
“Where am I headed?” you ask yourself. You ask this question every day. Guided by this theme of Focus, you need a clear destination. Lacking one, your life and your work can quickly become frustrating. And so each year, each month, and even each week you set goals. These goals then serve as your compass helping you determine priorities and make the necessary corrections to get back on course. Your Focus is powerful because it forces you to filter; you instinctively evaluate whether or not a particular action will help you move toward your goal. Those that don’t are ignored. In the end, then, your Focus forces you to be efficient. Naturally, the
flip side of this is that it causes you to become impatient with delays, obstacles, and even tangents, no matter how intriguing they appear to be. This makes you an extremely valuable team member. When others start to wander down other avenues, you bring them back to the main road. Your Focus reminds everyone that if something is not helping you move toward your destination, then it is not important. And if it is not important, then it is not worth your time. You keep everyone on point.
WOO
Woo stands for winning others over. You enjoy the challenge of meeting new people and getting them to like you. Strangers are rarely intimidating to you. On the contrary, strangers can be energizing. You are drawn to them. You want to learn their names, ask them questions, and find some area of common interest so that you can strike up a conversation and build rapport. Some people shy away from starting up conversations because they worry about running out of things to say. You don’t. Not only are you rarely at a loss for words; you actually enjoy initiating with strangers because you derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection. Once that connection is made, you are quite happy to wrap it up and move on. There are new people to meet, new rooms to work, new crowds to mingle in. In your world there are no strangers, only friends you haven’t met yet—lots of them.
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.
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.
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