I mentioned the StrengthsFinder in a previous post, and several people have asked me about it, so I will write a little more about it today.
The StrengthsFinder profile is the result of a 30-year research project conducted by Gallup (although they are known for their polling, most of their operations in fact deal with management consulting). It is a tool to assess one’s inherent attributes, similar to the famous Myers Briggs Type Indicator. During the orientation for the MBA program at Chapman, we each took the test and received our results so that we could discuss them in the context of team-building and management, essential to the degree we were pursuing, but also very useful to understanding oneself in a variety of situations in life.
The premise behind the StrengthsFinder profile is the idea that people can achieve more by focusing their energies on improving in areas where they are already strong, or have more of a potential to be strong. The book Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, which originally presented the idea, points out that “StrengthsFinder’s purpose is not to anoint you with strengths but to find where you have the greatest potential for a strength.” Thus, the results that one gets from taking the test may not necessarily line up with things that the person has focused on already or even known they had the potential to develop.
That said, when I took the StrengthsFinder test, my top five results were Intellection, Empathy, Adaptability, Connectedness, and Ideation. As described in the book, people who have Intellection are those who spend a lot of time thinking, questioning, and processing ideas. They are the kind who you never want to ask what is on their mind unless you want to hear the whole train of thought that led there. Those with Empathy are those who are able to “sense” and relate to the emotions of those around them, and can understand things from the point of view of others. Adaptability is the uncanny ability to “go with the flow,” and not be adversely affected by sudden change. Connectedness is the ability to see abstract connections between seemingly unrelated concepts, things, or ideas. Finally, those with Ideation are those who seem to always be coming up with new ideas. (I mentioned Activator in an earlier post. Those with Activator are those who seem to take every idea and turn it into action. I definitely don’t have Activator, and as a consequence I seem to take action on only a small percentage of the ideas that I have!)
It is noteworthy that although a strength may not be listed among my top five that I received when I took the test, I may still have it as a strength. Furthermore, it might even appear in my top five if I were to take the test again, as the results depends on the way I answer the questions. This simply means that I have more than five strengths, and some manifest themselves more than others in different situations or at different times.
A useful and interesting application of these results is team-building. A good two-person team might consist of someone with Ideation to come up with creative new ideas and someone with Activator to implement the idea. Other combinations of people can be made based on the desired result.
For more information, see the StrengthsFinder website or read the book Now, Discover Your Strengths.
