Unlocking the Power of Your Unique Strengths

Ever pondered about the unique strengths that shape your character? We certainly have! Join us as we delve into the world of strengths, kicking off with our own transformative experiences of discovering our unique strengths through the Strengths Finder results. The "first thing" activity is our secret weapon to better understand and appreciate our strengths. So, let's embark on this journey with us to unlock the immense power of your strengths and how they can be a driving force in your personal and professional life.

As we journey deeper into the realm of strengths, we also reflect on how they manifest in our everyday lives. We urge you to seek feedback from others and introspect on how your strengths are molding your communication, decision-making, time management, and interactions. It's astonishing how understanding and embracing our strengths can provide a deeper sense of self-affirmation. So, here's an invitation to decipher the language of strengths with us and experience the power it holds in shaping our lives. Whether you're a novice or a veteran in understanding your strengths, we promise a sea of fresh insights and practical guidance to harness your unique powers.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey everyone, it's Nathan and we are bringing you another episode from our archives. This episode is from season one, back in March of 2018. It's a really great episode just some good reminders about our strengths, about what to do with our strengths, simple activities that perhaps you did the first time you got your strengths results back, and something that I think you should do again as you are beginning this new year here. So what you'll hear is our old intro and outro, and you'll even hear from a couple of former team members, but it's all good stuff. If you have any questions about anything you've heard in this episode or other ways to help your team become stronger and just really develop your team culture, please reach out, nathan, at leadershipvisionconsultingcom. You can also visit us on the web at leadershipvisionconsultingcom. Okay, on to the episode. Think back to the moment when you first received your strengths find results. What was that experience like for you?

Speaker 2: 0:56

Well, I was early in my career, very early first couple of years. It was part of a professional development opportunity at my employer and my first thought was gosh, I wish I would have had this information four years ago when I was through the process of selecting my area of study for college. But gosh, I'm so grateful to be equipped with it now. So I understand, I can begin to understand how to articulate what makes me distinct as I begin my career. Being an ambitious young woman at that time, you know I had, and still do have, great aspirations. So I knew that I was onto something and being equipped with that information and really just wanted to learn more.

Speaker 1: 1:45

That was Sarah Schlippriedell, one of our consultants, recounting her first experience with strengths. See, there's this moment that all of us who have taken strengths finder have shared. It's the moment when we each received our strengths finder results. Much like Sarah, for many of us it was as if we were finally permitted to be ourselves, being equipped with the language to articulate what makes us distinct. Well, that's a gift. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Leadership Vision podcast, where we share our expertise in the discovery practice and implementation of strengths finder. For more resources about developing your strengths, the strengths of your team or the strengths of your organization, visit us on the web at leadershipvisionconsultingcom.

Speaker 1: 2:39

My name is Nathan Freeberg and today in the podcast, we're doing two things.

Speaker 1: 2:44

First, I asked some of our consultants to recount for me what it was like to get their results back for the first time, and second, we'll talk about what to do next. You know, after that emotional wow moment, how do you actually begin making sense of those five new terms? For me, I remember so vividly the moment I got my results back. I read the descriptions for the theme of ideation and felt like wow, for the first time, this, this thing, this tool, this assessment, has finally put words to what I had already known about myself for my entire life. It was extremely freeing and gave me permission to stop trying to be someone I wasn't. So today, the activity we're sharing with you is well, it's pretty simple. It's one that anybody, anywhere, anytime, with any level of strengths, experience or understanding, can use to get more out of their results. We call it the first thing activity, which can be a bit misleading, because I think it's an excellent exercise to do every so often, just to continue growing and developing your understanding and application of your strengths finder themes.

Speaker 3: 3:58

The first time I took strengths finder I was a sophomore in college and took it in a leadership development class, and so command competition ideation, strategic achiever pops up and looking around, being very comparatively minded, saw how different my command competition looked to the vast majority of my classmates. And so there really was, from the first instinct, this aha. This is why I see the world so differently and I think I was bought in right away to this concept that I can be understood so much more wholly when I actually can express who I am on the talent level. So right away I was really excited about the differences that I was able to now articulate based upon the strengths in myself and the people around me.

Speaker 1: 4:55

That was Logan, one of our consultants, recounting the first time he took strengths finder. Not everybody is that gung-ho about the results. For some, it takes time to unpack what the words mean. The simple activity I mentioned we'd be talking about today will not only help someone like Logan, who is already bought into strengths, but can also help the more skeptical ones among us, because it goes deeper than the surface level fireworks of those initial results. In fact, it is so basic and fundamental to what we do that it was one of the first things we wrote about on our blog back in 2013. It's essential to a basic understanding of strengths.

Speaker 1: 5:40

I still reshare the article whenever people email us asking for that one thing they can do with their results to get just a little bit more out of them and understand them better. So, whether you've recently taken strengths finder or are a little further along on your strengths journey, this show will be a good reminder A reminder to never stop being curious about the things that make you well you. The language of strengths is fantastic when it comes to communicating stuff about yourself that helps you stand out. With a little bit of time and energy, you can get a better perspective on your top five themes of strength and possibly see new ways in which you can approach your personal and professional life, ways that you can uniquely contribute to making society a better place.

Speaker 4: 6:30

Specifically around my strength of strategic and communication. For some reason in my mind those two really stand out as well and I think the strengths that at that time, and maybe even somewhat today, that I really remember lingering over and reading multiple times. So I don't think I necessarily highlighted anything, but I just remember going back to those words specifically, you know, and kind of the explanations, the sentences, multiple times and just I don't know I almost felt like a sponge just reading them over and over again and really trying to grasp what they were talking about.

Speaker 1: 7:14

To help you better grapple with what your themes of strength mean and to have better conversations about your strengths and integrate strengths based thinking into your daily life, you first need to analyze your results. The very first thing you should do once you have received your StrengthsFinder results is to dissect them. Doing so is the most critical step if you want to get the most out of this tool. Reading results may seem obvious, but surprisingly, many people don't do it or not do it well, they just read the brief three sentence description, thinking that, well, that's all they need to know. To get more out of this process, read the long descriptions, analyze them, sit down for a conversation with a friend, then reflect on recent behavioral examples of your Strength. It's that simple, but those who like step-by-step instructions, like I do, well, here's how to get the most out of reading those results. Okay, step one is to print the long-themed descriptions you received with your results. If you can't find them, you can go back to the website or even use our descriptions, which you can see in the show notes. Next, using your favorite color highlighter highlight yellow read each description and highlight key phrases, sentences or words. Highlight things that really jump out or resonate. Sometimes it will even have people do a stronger or lighter shading in that color to indicate the degree to which something connects with them. You can also use a pen and add pluses or minuses to get the same effect. Now, next, grab a different color highlighter or pen, whatever you want, as long as it's a different color and read through your results again. This time, indicate the words and phrases that aren't resonating or you just don't see in yourself. Perhaps you can see some truth to them, but rarely and definitely not the majority of the time. Next, grab yet another color that's number three, if you're keeping track and indicate which words or phrases that just don't make sense. Now, this is going to be important later and it's okay if you don't have anything marked in this third color.

Speaker 1: 9:30

Now repeat this process for each of your five themes. Plan to spend a good I don't know seven to ten minutes on each one, or faster if you're really good at this, or slower, it really doesn't matter. That's just kind of a rough ballpark. Now you can also do them individually if you don't have that much time to devote to all of them at once. If you happen to have all 34 of your themes, do not, I repeat, do not do this with all of them, or even with the top 10. In our experience it's just way too confusing. Stick to the top five, okay.

Speaker 1: 10:07

So after you've done this, you may notice two or three of the themes that have more marks than the others. If it's in the first color the color indicating alignment then possibly it's an indication that this is a more dominant theme for you. If the second color seems more pronounced in a particular theme, it could mean that, well, maybe this theme is one that you need to learn more about or just isn't resonating with you for some reason. Now, obviously this activity isn't scientific, but it will help you begin to visualize and break down your themes into more manageable chunks for better understanding. Each of the sentences or phrases that you read point back to the behaviors of the talents that make those themes. When working with clients, we use our theme print activity to really go deep and dig down into those individual behaviors that exist within each theme.

Speaker 5: 11:03

The second time I took Strengths Finder, I had just started working at Leadership Vision. I remember that one of my five strengths had changed Harmony had moved down to number six and in its place came individualization. The very first thing that I did was email my colleagues, some of whom I had already known for a while, and I asked them how they thought that strength showed up in me. Was it accurate? Was that really who I was? Would individualization be my top five instead of harmony? Those are some of the questions that I asked and some of my instinctual reactions upon seeing my new Strengths Finder results.

Speaker 1: 11:41

That was Steph, another consultant at Leadership Vision, and part of the reason she was able to ask us, how did this strength show up in me? Was because, well, we know her, we also know strengths. But more importantly, she asked us Last week on the podcast. Sarah talked about finding a strengths buddy to better help understand who you are and how to defend your magic. Here's one way you might be able to find a strengths buddy on this journey.

Speaker 1: 12:07

It's something we ask of all our clients, and everyone on our team has done this multiple times over the years. Okay, find someone who knows you somewhat well. This could be a friend, a colleague, a spouse, a partner or another family member. Ask them for about an hour of their time and over coffee or a meal it usually helps if you buy them something to eat and get their feedback. Ask them how they see your themes of strength showing up at work, at play, at home or in whatever setting you want. It's helpful if you ask them to read your results first. You should be able to share a copy with them via email. Then just ask them what they think.

Speaker 1: 12:49

Sometimes it's best to keep this part pretty open and just start by asking what stands out to them and if they agree or not. Most often we're too close to our own results and it's hard to see examples that others may readily be able to provide for us. So jot these things down, jot down what they say and just tuck it away to reflect on later. I should mention here that, depending on how well the person knows you, they may also see sides of your themes that aren't actually being utilized as strengths. In other words, they may point out how a strength is showing up degeneratively no, not in a good way. One of my strengths is maximizer, and when this one isn't being generative, it can come across as holding others to unrealistic expectations. That little nugget of truth was shared with me by a close friend some years ago, and it's something I'm still aware of and working hard to mitigate.

Speaker 4: 13:45

So what's really funny is the first time I experienced strength was through the encouragement of a former employer. They used strengths in their workplace. So I actually have two memories, nathan, around that specific. You know concept One I remember sitting actually taking and taking the assessment and wondering a lot about the questions that they were asking. I specifically remember sitting at the computer answering the questions and feeling like I was answering the same questions multiple times. But once I got the results, it was very much a team experience because everyone around me wanted to know my words, my strengths, and so there was kind of this rush of excitement in the sense of, you know, everyone came over and ultimately I got a plaque on the outside of my cube that represented my five words and people would come over and talk to me about it and it was exciting.

Speaker 1: 14:48

That was Carrie Jones, another one of our consultants, and it can be exciting when you get your results back, especially when you're doing the assessment as part of a group or team, like Carrie was, once you're done analyzing your results and you've had another person give you some feedback. A way to begin the process of applying this new knowledge is to look for recent examples of strength. This is something that we recommend everyone does on a regular basis, even weekly. It doesn't have to take more than a few minutes and can really help you see progress you've made to live more out of your strengths and less out of your weaknesses, or also can help you see areas where you missed an opportunity to engage your strengths in a more meaningful way. Just grab your favorite writing device and jot down 5-10 recent examples where you've seen your strengths at work. You can do this for each theme, or just take them one at a time. Maybe do one a day, one a week. Whatever you want to do, if you're new to the strengths language, it's easier to start with the theme you know best, or maybe the one that had the most things highlighted or marked up from the earlier activity and, of course, if you're on a team. You can do this with a strengths buddy and then just share your results and your brief reflections. Now, to do this, you can use any examples that have come up in your conversation with a friend, or anything from recent memory. Really, keep in mind that sometimes this can also be difficult for people. We're often our own worst critics and it can be hard to think of personal examples from our own life where we see our own brilliance, where we see the good parts of who we are. But that's okay. Do your best to find real examples of your themes at work. Over the years we've found it's easier for people to come up with examples of strengths at work if you break them down into four general areas of life. Call them topics, if you will.

Speaker 1: 16:44

The following prompts will help you think about how your strengths show up when you communicate, when you make decisions, how you relate to time and how you relate to other people Music, okay. First of all, think about how you communicate. What have recent communication exchanges told you about your strengths? Did you see your strengths come out in any meaningful ways when you tried to deliver your message? Maybe this was in an email, verbally or any other form of communication that comes to mind. Also, think about your desired outcome in how and why you share information with others. The second prompt is around your process for making decisions. Are you a fast decision maker or a little bit slower? Do you like lots of details before deciding on something or are you good with just small amounts of information? Think about what behaviors went into those decisions and try to think how those might connect with one or more of your themes of strength.

Speaker 1: 17:48

The third prompt is how you think about and relate to time. Are you long-term or short-term focused? Would you say you're inspired by today, by tomorrow or yesterday? Do you show up early to things or are you chronically late? Or maybe you're just on time? Think about reasons why and then try to think through how one or more of your themes of strength might influence that. Finally, the last one is about people. How do you relate to others? Think back to the previous couple of people that you've interacted with today, however brief. Can you see ways your themes of strength may be played out in those interactions? Skim through your theme descriptions again and see which ones may be specifically related to interacting with others. Then connect that back to your experience, finding areas where you can do. What you do best more often than not is a challenge. By looking for things in your everyday life, you may be able to see how you can play to your strengths most often.

Speaker 2: 18:49

It felt like someone opened up my brain and was able to explain components of myself that maybe I hadn't been able to do so up until that point. I felt very affirmed in my person, even right away. I grew up in an environment where I didn't translate well most of the time, and this was one component of me understanding why that was. Once you become equipped with the ability to articulate, that, it doesn't necessarily make it easier, even though you can maybe shed light or explain it to those people for whom you're not translating well. Man, you're like come into the enlightenment, friends, know thyself and we'll all be better for it.

Speaker 1: 19:52

Remember strengths development is a lifelong process. The more you look for examples, the more you will find ways to use your strengths. Share your results with others. Have your entire team or family take StrengthsFinder, buy them coffee or a meal and talk about what you see in each other. You'll be amazed how the philosophy behind StrengthsFinder positively shapes the direction of your life. Thanks for listening to the Leadership Vision Podcast, sharing our expertise in the discovery practice and implementation of StrengthsFinder. Subscribe to the Leadership Vision Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen For more resources about developing your strengths, the strengths of your team or the strengths of your organization. Visit us on the web at leadershipvisionconsultingcom. I'm Nathan Freeberg. Thanks for listening.