Taking Advantage of your Strengths
“Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?”
— Benjamin Franklin
If someone asked you ‘What are your top strengths are how do you take advantage of them regularly?’ would you be able to give them a confident answer? For many of us, it can be difficult to identify our areas of talent and even more difficult to make the most of them on a daily basis. The MTCCA team uses a tool called StrengthsFinder 2.0 to categorize different strengths and better understand how to interact with others and become our best selves.
StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath is a small but mighty book!
After purchasing, you’ll receive an access code in order to complete an online assessment and discover your top 5 strength themes. The book includes 34 strength themes such as Empathy, Achiever, Communication and Maximizer. A list of the themes along with a short description can be found here. StrengthsFinder 2.0 gives full descriptions of each strength theme, personal accounts from others who posses that strength, as well as some tips for communicating with others who may or may not have that same strength. This aspect is especially helpful when working with a team of individuals.
During symposium, each of our staff members shared their top 5 strengths and how they play out most into our lives. Seeing someone else’s talents categorized can you help you understand so much more about a person! What I found to be most helpful about seeing everyone’s strengths was learning about what that person needs and how to best communicate with them. I often find myself communicating with others in the way I would like or need for them to communicate with me, but many times this is not the most effective way for their learning style or personality. For example, I have Input as a strength and enjoy knowing many details and lots of information about the task or situation at hand. Being educated on the topic helps me feel like I am completing my job to the best of my ability. However, someone who has Achiever as a strength would much rather get it done quickly and efficiently instead of spending time mulling over the details. Understanding these differences in others can drastically improve communication, relationships, and outcomes in the workplace. StrengthsFinder 2.0 is unique because it encourages individuals to take advantage of their strengths consistently instead of spending time trying to improve their weaknesses. By focusing on our natural gifts and inclinations, we maximize our potential.
I encourage you to evaluate your own top strengths and determine at least one thing you do every day that takes advantage of your unique capabilities and qualities! Find out the strengths of the people with which you spend time and talk about how you can improve your communication based on each other’s needs. I hope that what you discover will increase your self-awareness and improve the quality of your communication and relationships. Here’s to becoming our best selves!
-Marissa
