During family vacation this summer we visited my cousin’s house for a barbecue. As we were finishing up our ice cream (made by Vikings, it was delicious), I spotted a familiar title on her bookshelf: StrengthsFinder 2.0. We started discussing what a wonderful tool the assessment is. Before I knew it she had offered to buy me and my mom copies to help us learn a little bit more about ourselves. I finally found a spare hour to take the assessment this weekend, and it was fun to see the results.
My Top 5 Themes:
- Input
- Ideation
- Empathy
- Achiever
- Command
What does that mean?
Input: I have a constant desire to learn more, and fulfill this desire by collecting thoughts, ideas, information, everything. When there is an important discussion, report, presentation, project, etc. coming up in my life I tend to do as much research as possible and gather as many opinions as I can in order to prepare. This theme also explains why I am such an avid reader.
Ideation: I am fascinated by ideas, and finding the connections between them. I hardly accept information on its face value, but rather analyze and examine ideas from every angle. This helps me ensure the reports I put together are accurate and provide a complete picture of the topic at hand.
Empathy: One of my talents is sensing others’ thoughts, emotions, and needs. This allows me to see what is unique about each person I meet, and helps me to respond to people appropriately based on the circumstances. This means I can correctly read a crowd or a group of people in a meeting, which allows me to alter my presentation if needed.
Achiever: I have a great deal of stamina when it comes to getting work done. I don’t find the need to take breaks frequently and would rather work straight through until the project is complete. I thoroughly enjoy being busy and productive. When I finish a task or project I am happy for the rest of the day, but the next morning I need a new task to work on to feel satisfied.
Command: I am not afraid to voice my thoughts and make decisions. I am confident in my work, and am perfectly happy working on projects individually. Choosing the easy route has never been my first thought, I much prefer to take a new or different approach to see if there’s a better way to do things.
The Gist
I am inspired and energized by having goals, deadlines, and projects to work on. When working on a project I am happy to work on it individually, but will always take time to thoroughly research and gather data to ensure the accuracy and quality of the project. I am drawn to long-range planning and projects because I enjoy connecting the dots of how short-term plans will turn into long-term results. When working or consulting with teams on projects, I am able to take their feelings and thoughts into account, but do not let that keep me from making decisions or speaking my mind.
I have to say, it was really fun to see my results, and taking everything into consideration it seems pretty accurate. Have you ever taken the StrengthsFinder assessment? What did you think about it?