Aug
30
Finding out more about my strengths
Filed Under Personal development, Coaching, Career development, Personal awareness
A while back I wrote about the book Now Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham. My top 5 are Ideation, Empathy, Developer, Maximiser and Learner.
The definitions of each of these in the Strengthsfinder context is a bit deeper than the dictionary definition.
My coach took me through the SF definitions and we worked through how they might interact with each other - to make up who I am.
He pointed out though that my top 5 are “being” strengths - indicating how I am. There is not an obvious “doing” strength though he is sure that there will be one in my top 10 and we will explore that further.
There were 2 parts to the process that I really enjoyed.
Firstly, I have to say that I am often disappointed to hear people citing results of “psychometric” type tests as reasons for what they do and when I ask them to explain further they are stuck. I can’t really see the value in using tests if the owner of the results does not know how to use that learning usefully and beneficially. So now I am clearer about what I have learned and how it might apply to me. It is of course still open to discussion and challenge and my coach has suggested I now go through the details and mark what I agree with - what has made me think - and what I think is actually wrong.
And that’s another thing. I have often had conversations - usually with others in the personal development arena - where the other person has explained to me why something I have said is wrong. But that is of course from their perspective - there are 2 sides to every story. Ahh there’s the empathy coming out. I can’t help it. It’s me..and its not a bad thing either.
The other part of the experience was being coached. Coaches need coaches too. I love being listened to. The process of the coach listening and asking questions is such a powerful thing.It allows me to explore things and pull stuff together from my thoughts. I think thats the learner in me - with a bit of the ideation thrown in. If you don’t know Strengthsfinder this will not be making much sense. Next time you are in a book store take a few minutes to browse through the book. You might just see what I mean.
Hi Jackie, just to say that recent research in neuroscience shows that our brains have amazing plasticity. For instance, I was not strong in bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.
Our brains have the capacity to grow in any area and the more we practice a skill the more dendrite brain cells we grow for that skill. I am now an above average golfer and this year my shots go further than ever. No matter how you want to grow, the more you learn about how to perform and keep learning in that area the more you will be able to do it. Best news is that our marvelous brains are dynamic and not static as the old IQ testers thought!
[…] Along with turning 50 I also found out about my strengths in August. You are never too old to learn something new about yourself. […]