I mentioned in my first post that I was recommended the book Strengths Finder, by Tom Rath, which includes an online self assessment. When you buy the book, you get an online code to take the official test. The downside to the official test is that it only provides you with your top five (out of 36) results. Luckily, I mentioned this test to another family member, and they found a bootleg copy of the test you can take for free, and will also give the full results. While I still plan on taking the official test (maybe a few days later to verify these results), the unofficial test seems pretty accurate. My wife also took it and felt it was accurate for her too.
Feel free to take the unofficial test yourself here:
http://richardstep.com/richardstep-strengths-finder-rssf/
Here’s a quick recap of my results:
Your Top 5 Strengths Are:
1. Belief (95%):
People strong in the Belief theme have certain core values that are unchanging. Out of these values emerges a defined purpose for their life.
Tips to Improve this Strength:
o Make efforts to discover your true passion and tie it to your work, no matter what you do.
o Align, but don't compromise, your values to that of your organization.
o You respect others for learning about your family and community - give them the opportunity.
o You give more value to greater levels of service than more money - let others know this.
o People may not share your beliefs, but you feel they need to understand & respect - let them.
2. Inclusiveness (90%):
People strong in the Inclusiveness theme are accepting of others. They show awareness of those who feel left out, and make an effort to include them.
Tips to Improve this Strength:
o Actively seek to work on orientation programs for new employees.
o Volunteer to lead a task force to recruit minority persons for your company or cause.
o Be in a position to handle organizing group functions - you are good at including everyone.
o You can break the barriers between customer and company - participate in relevant events.
o Seek to work on things aimed at the common man; things for society's elite upsets you.
o Actively try to be the link to community social agencies and causes.
3. Focus (85%):
People strong in the Focus theme can take a direction, follow through, and make the corrections necessary to stay on track. They prioritize, then act.
Tips to Improve this Strength:
o Actively set goals with specific timelines and figure out concrete ways to achieve them.
o You work best when you can control your work events - be aware and keep others informed.
o You thrive on regular check-ins and discussing goals progress - help others to understand this.
o Make efforts to avoid trampling on others' feelings as goals often take priority for you.
o Change is tough for you - ensure you talk and plan for change in terms of 'new goals to champion'.
o Schedule to attend a time management seminar and to incorporate the learnings in your daily routines.
o Stay away from unstructured meetings - they will be painful wastes of your time.
4. Input (80%):
People strong in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.
Tips to Improve this Strength:
o Actively choose to research topics associated with your goals and company.
o You enjoy and should sign up for roles with a heavy research component.
o You are intrigued by facts and stories and would be a good mentor, teacher, or trainer.
o Keep up on the news and info on your areas of interest - constantly be in the know in your niche.
o Develop a robust system for digesting and storing the information you collect.
o Seek opportunities to share your findings with others - speaking, blogging, videos, and articles.
5. Learner (80%):
People strong in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.
Tips to Improve this Strength:
o Actively take on roles that require you to stay current in a fast moving field.
o Always stay hunting for a richer learning environment - the process keeps you energized.
o Track your learning progress and celebrate milestones along the way.
o Challenge yourself to be a resident expert or master of trade on a subject.
o Request to work beside someone who will continuously push you to learn more.
o Learn by teaching others - do discussion groups and presentations at work and in your community.
o Set aside money to support continued education, training, seminars, and e-learning.
Without going through all of my scores, I’ll just highlight that my bottom five “strengths” were (and I thought it made sense that these were my weakest scores. Caveat: If I score so low on competition, it probably means I shouldn't have been a banker.):
Achiever (50%): People strong in the Achiever theme have a great deal of stamina and work hard. They take great satisfaction from being busy and productive.
Positivity (45%): People strong in the Positivity theme have an enthusiasm that is contagious. They are upbeat and can get others excited about what they are going to do.
Maximizer (45%): People strong in the Maximizer theme focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. They seek to transform something strong into something superb.
Competition (30%): People strong in the Competition theme measure their progress against the performance of others. They strive to win first place and revel in contests.
Woo (25%): (WOO = Winning Others Over) People strong in the Woo theme love the challenge of meeting new people and winning them over. They derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection with another person.
I still need time to think through the meaning of these results, but I just wanted to highlight 1-2 descriptions in each strength section that particularly resonated with me.
Belief: Align, but don't compromise, your values to that of your organization.
Inclusiveness: Seek to work on things aimed at the common man; things for society's elite upsets you.
Focus: Stay away from unstructured meetings - they will be painful wastes of your time.
Input: Keep up on the news and info on your areas of interest - constantly be in the know in your niche. Seek opportunities to share your findings with others - speaking, blogging, videos, and articles.
Learner: Challenge yourself to be a resident expert or master of trade on a subject.
[I’m going to think through these results and also start reading the Strength Finders Book to help me determine how to understand the results and will post some of my reflections on another post.]
Of course, I think, with any of these types of tests, there’s reason to be a little skeptical. Yes, it’s probably dependent on mood and my current state of being. Yes, it’s probably a bit general enough that I’d still feel like it worked if it gave me other results. But even with these caveats, I still think there’s value to these tests - particularly if you take several over a period of time to control for external factors, and you still get some consistent level of results.
For example, I’ve taken the Myers-Briggs test at least twice, and probably 4-5 times, and I’ve always come out as either INFJ or ISFJ. I quickly googled and found that some possible career paths for my personality type are:
http://www.personalitypage.com/html/ISFJ_car.html
http://www.personalitypage.com/html/INFJ_car.html
While very few of the Myers-Briggs career options sound particularly appealing, some of them make sense. I enjoy teaching. (Maybe professor? Maybe continuing education within a firm.) When I was a consultant, I had to train about 250 employees about a new program we were launching. I had to give an overview of the program, and then walk step-by-step through the new procedures we were implementing. I had a really good time doing this and felt very much in my element.
If I couple “administrators” with “clergy”, I’ve always thought that one of my dream jobs would be a church administrator. High level of meaning and fits with my strengths. I think to justify the role, it’d have to be at a semi-big church that could pay a full-time salary. I’m guessing most small and medium-sized churches could probably get by with a part-time administrator and it’d be the best use of church money.
Anyway, I think the Strengths Finder results were pretty interesting and maybe a bit more helpful than the typical Myers-Briggs analysis, so will post more on this next time.
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