chrisbrogan.com - Latest Comments in Find Your Strengths

Re: Find Your Strengths

Sesli Sohbet — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 08:14:29 -0000

Turns out what I need to find in my life are more people into execution and follow through. It's great to be a guy with vision and eyes on the future, but without a team of people willing to do all the i-dotting and t-crossing, nothing happens. Unexecuted dreams are just as useless as no dreams.

Re: Find Your Strengths

Shanna Beaman — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:57:22 -0000

Knowing your strengths and using them to your advantage will get you farther in a shorter period of time. Write your goals around the strengths you already possess.

The key is to continually grow and work on your weaknesses but do not focus on them. Don’t ever stop improving and making yourself better.

I am a relator,arranger, responsibility, context, and activator.

Re: Find Your Strengths

Curt — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:27:07 -0000

Finding your strengths is one of the most highly leveraged things you can do in your life for your business or career. Other popular self assessment tests that help you find your strengths are the Kolbe A Index and the Wealth Dynamics profile test.

Once you figure out your strengths you can 80/20 your life if your not already doing it.

Also, I'm not sure why some people have a problem with paying $12 bucks to buy the book and get the code to find their strengths. Surely Strengths Finder should make extra codes available to purchase on their website for each person that signs up with their unique code, but then it would hurt book sales.

So something needs to be done for extra codes. Maybe, just maybe they should make it so that you can buy a code online through Strenghs Finder instead of having to buy the book. And after taking the assessment, everyone will want more info anyway so then refer them to buy Now Discover Your Strengths instead of Strengths Finder 2.0.

Re: Find Your Strengths

Name — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:34:24 -0000

As good as this StrengthsFinder thing might be, its a rip-off and a way to make some PhD dude a little richer. My wife bought the book hoping it would be a way for us to improve upon the strenghts of our entire family. Well, she took the test all right, but what they don't tell you is that the little code on the book can only be used once. Apparently, someone already used the code from our book, and even if they hadn't only one person could take the test, unless you want to buy more books. Ha! Again, what a rip-off!

Re: Find Your Strengths

bobjones1 — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:33:35 -0000

Re: Find Your Strengths

Name — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:33:34 -0000

Re: Find Your Strengths

chrisbrogan — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 20:18:44 -0000

Great to hear from you, Lynn. Thanks for your thoughts on this. It certainly makes sense what you're describing, including the part of explaining how the traditionalists see the approach.

Let us know what you come up with on the test.

--Chris...

Re: Find Your Strengths

Lynn O'Connor — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:07:12 -0000

I haven't taken the test yet, but I'm going to, it seems interesting. As a psychologist/researcher and clinician, I've been using a strength-based approach with clients for years now, in contrast to the often-used "focus on weaknesses" product of clinical training. Focusing on strengths leads to rapid progress in psychotherapy. People come to therapy often expecting to be criticized, to have the therapist tell them what is "wrong" with them and their psychology. Going for weaknesses, for negative emotions, sadness, experiences of misery, tends to go nowhere and not infrequently leads to clients getting worse instead of getting better. Some traditional therapists --upon seeing rapid client progress-- denigrate this movement, calling it a "flight to health" as if it represents running away from the dark "truth" that "must be faced." A strength-based approach to self-improvement is as effective (or more so) as is a strength-based approach to psychotherapy. If a therapist tells anyone (in one way or another) "you need to focus on your problems" the client should run as fast as possible, right out the door. Now I'm going to follow the lead and find out what my own strengths are. Thanks for the support of the strength-based approach to improvement and to life.

Re: Find Your Strengths

Liz Strauss — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 13:58:07 -0000

I'm with you, Whitney!
Having used this with a sizable group, the benefits of having a common vocabulary are the same as with any project -- we don't confuse each other further.

Even moreso, the inventory brings up ideas/strengths that aren't those we might readily differentiate, such as the fine line between WOO and Relator. Most folks I know would have considered them to be the same thing. Yet when we worked together as a group and discussed who had one, the other, or both, we could see the differences in behavior -- in ourselves and others.

To toss it aside and consider one's subjective self-evalutation as the only important information, to me, is the same as using any single data source blindly.

Re: Find Your Strengths

Whitney — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 13:38:30 -0000

The point of doing this data based assessment rather than just self-examination is the fact that it IS data driven, and describes strengths with 34 particular words, forming a common language about strengths we can all share. When Chris says his strength is Woo, I don't need a decoder ring to know what means, and it helps me to understand him better.

Hopefully, the reverse works as well. When Chris sees my list, he'll understand the reason why I tick. That taking all the shiny new ideas out and playing with them is what I like, along with then taking them and forming strategies to bring them into fruition. Knowing how to connect to individuals and deepen relationships is also a strength, meaning that on any hypothetical team, Chris might be better at making initial connections, but I might be better at using the connected and individualization talents to make sure those same people feel special and important, and not just one of the crowd. You need all these things is a larger organization, and you do best when you can maximize the talents of everyone on your team.

So from my POV, this is not some silly exercise or a waste of money on some other management book that will rot on your shelf. It's about getting to know how you and your brain are wired, and how to maximize your native potential.
Or not.
But this is the stuff that gets me really excited, because it is the key to SO much more.

Re: Find Your Strengths

Alex Turner — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 13:27:18 -0000

Chris,

Just keep churning out the dreams. One day one or two will take root and then you can run with them and a team. It is not possible to directly predict which ideas will be successful and which will die on their feet.

The snag with dream chasing like that (I should know - I have chased a few) is that it does not put food on the table!

Re: Find Your Strengths

chrisbrogan — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 12:54:02 -0000

Re: Find Your Strengths

Terry — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 12:28:31 -0000

People are scared of the truth.

I read the best parts of the book standing up at the bookstore. I already own too many.

I did a professional evaluation of myself not long ago...
My top six were
Creative production – brainstorming new ideas...
Altruism - regularly helping others with their individual or business concerns....
Autonomy – independence..
Intellectual Challenge – self explanatory
Lifestyle - ample time to pursue other important aspects of my lifestyle...
Strategic Thinking - grasp the big picture; work with a vision of the whole project and the long term...
Best
Terry

Re: Find Your Strengths

Dale Cruse — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:40:06 -0000

Sounds interesting, Chris. You said, "So, if you want a copy, here’s a link:" but then I didn't see any link.

Re: Find Your Strengths

Alex Turner — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:23:26 -0000

I guess one of my strengths is not giving money away to other people for them to tell me about something I said - which is what this test proposes to do.

This is far to commercial for my taste. How about making the test free and then selling consulting off the back of it? That way everyone benefits.

Anyhow - thanks for the daily does of enthusiasm! I'd watch that ideation - is that anything like infarction? Is it treatable?

From your writing - here is what I think you are.

1) Idealistic
2) Creative
3) Motivational
4) Optimistic
5) Future looking
6) Caring
7) Naive - in a charming kind of way

And you did not have to pay a penny ;)

Re: Find Your Strengths

Liz Strauss — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:04:07 -0000

I'll have to check it out again. Thanks, Chris!

Re: Find Your Strengths

chrisbrogan — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:41:17 -0000

They took what they learned from the 1.0 experience and they tuned it up even more. They found thousands of interesting new data points and mapped them back into the system, making it even tighter and more likely to mirror one's strengths.

Re: Find Your Strengths

Liz Strauss — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:38:05 -0000

Whitney,
How is the 2.0 version different from the original?

Re: Find Your Strengths

Whitney — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:33:37 -0000

I am a HUGE believer in this. The Gallup people even have a version geared towards kids ages 10 to 14, -www.Strengthsexplorer.com and then www.strengthsquest.com for teens and college age people.

I have done both the Marcus Buckingham Version and the Strengths 2.0 version. My latest top 5 are Ideation, Connectedness, Input, Individualization, and Strategic. My "original" top 5 with the test I took about two years ago were Input, Learner, Empathy, Ideation and Relator. Clearly, there is consistency here, and I think anyone who has met me and knows me will think "well, that's not a surprise" but it was tremendously useful for me to hear this news.
Why?
Sometimes we have very little insight into what make us tick. This is why therapists make so much money. We see ourselves in an interactive sense with the world, but we rarely get an outside objective view on what makes us special, or annoying, for that matter. Even your best friends avoid taking an inventory of your faults and letting you know about it, in part for fear they'll get the same objective view back, and it can hurt.
Yet finding out what makes you special and valuable not only lets you concentrate on the good stuff, but it helps convince you that the good stuff, in that combination, is what makes you You. And it is "good enough". And you can then cop to outsourcing the stuff you're not especially good at with a reasonable excuse- This is hard for me, but easy for you- can you help me with this, and I can help you with that? That is the key to building an effective team.

And if no one knows their own strengths and failings, how do you capitalize on the talent you already have, as well as searching for the pieces you might be missing? How can you do what you do best if you have no idea what that means?

So clearly, I have a passion for this topic (and I'll stop now) but I believe to my bones that the cornerstone to success is knowing your own strengths and then capitalizing on them. And this is one of the 101 courses in the fantasy curriculum I keep playing with for a real new media school. But this is a subject for another day.

Perhaps the time for the New Media Book Club is now?

Re: Find Your Strengths

Liz Strauss — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:18:34 -0000

I've seen this used across an entire company of over 100 people and with over 25 who reported directly to me. It was helpful in knowing how folks managed information and each other.

We had meetings to discuss the traits and what we saw in each one -- both the up and down sides. It helped most folks understand where they get stuck.

Yeah I think that the words you wrote describe the guy I met darn well. :)

Re: Find Your Strengths

Christian Burns — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:10:08 -0000

I looks fascinating. It sounds like when I took the Kiersey temperament test http://keirsey.com/matrix.html from the book Please Understand Me and it pegged me as 1 of 16 temperaments. Then went on to talk about my strengths and weaknesses. I would like to see how an online test like FYS2.0 could connect people so that we can move forward.