The first time I took the StrengthsFinder instrument was my first year in graduate school, in the Fall of 2000.  It was part of a battery of assessments we were going through to help all of us understand more how we were wired, and how we might put our graduate degrees to work at some point during or after school.  I never had much experience at all with personality tests, temperament indexes, emotional measures, etc.  So, the whole process felt a bit like being a lab rat with scientists poking me and watching my every move.  We took this test, and that test, and tests that asked you if you heard voices.  It was quite the process.

After each test we would have a group interpretation of our results, or a one on one session with a licensed counselor who would walk us through how we tested.  As I started the process of self-discovery and increased self-awareness the immediate question asked was: “Ok, how does all this information translate into helping me answer the question, “What should I do with my life?”  Really specifically, “What job would best fit my personality traits?”

Fast forward 12 years later:  After having worked with dozens of organizations and thousands of individuals around their strengths and personality results, there is something I have realized:  Everyone is asking the same question!

Everywhere I go people inevitably ask me, “So, you have seen my strengthsfinder results, so, what job should I do so I can apply my strengths to the larger part of my day?  This usually indicates to me that these people may not be completely engaged in their current role, and a lot of their day is spent doing tasks that are not in their exact sweet spot and they are trying to improve this situation.

I am generalizing a bit, but this happens often.  Why?  Because many people would not say a majority of their day they get to do what they do best.  What does this mean?  This means that we have a lot of people in the workforce who are not highly engaged.

Back to the beginning

When I first started taking people through their strengthsfinder results, the temptation for me was to try and make the results into a formula and say A + B strengths = C job, or life change.  That was easy, and wrong.  Oh, so and so had Developer and Empathy?  They have a to be a counselor.  No!  It is not that easy and that can be really unhelpful.  We are so complex as people that we cannot be broken down in a formulaic way based on our strengthsfinder results.  It is simply not that easy.

Why?  We are all very unique.  Just based on our strengthsfinder results we are as unique as 1 in 33 million based on the test.  So, trying to make things into a simple formula is just missing the mark on how the test can best be used to help guide people on their life journey towards maximum engagement.

So What Do We Do Then?  

If strengthsfinder is not a formula, how can the results be interpreted in a way that can help people gain more self-awareness around their natural gifts and talents and help point them in the right direction?  This requires conversation, discovery and time.

In the last few years I have worked with a client who is the head coach of a division I women’s volleyball team.  I have been able to work with their team a few times over a longer period of time.  I was able to take the team through their strengthsfinder results and do one on one interviews around their strengths.  But you know what was even better?  I was able to come back six months later and go through a lot of review and check in with that group of talented ladies.  What happened?  They were at a whole new level of awareness and engagement around their strengths.  The conversations I had with them the second time were much more rich, and their interactions as a group were fantastic.  As a side note, their winning percentage as a team went up as well.  This group was more engaged than when I first had the opportunity to work with them.

There is no magic formula with strengthsfinder.  I don’t use it to put people in a box based on a few theme definitions.  I use it as a fantastic tool to help people unlock their full potential and start a lifelong discovery process around where they can apply their gifts and talents into their daily lives.

Are there certain strengths that point people in a direction?  Sure.  Are their specific combinations that equal career paths?  Not necessarily.  Should people take strengthsfinder to help understand what they are strong at?  Absolutely.

All of us are unique.  There is no magic forumla or shortcut to success based on leveraging talents.  But, you can start the process, and move along that path.  Much like the picture at the beginning of this post, strengthsfinder can point you in a direction, but you will need to journey down the path.

This picture brings back such great memories for me.  I was an assistant coach at Saint Catherine University and this was some of our team from 2007 or so.  What a fun bunch of ladies to coach and steer towards improvement as a team.  Our head coach, Nicole, was a big factor in turning around a program that was going nowhere, and it was fun to be a part of that building process.

Along the way we took our team through the StrengthsFinder personality tool as a way to help players understand more of who they were and how they were wired.  We also learned how to better motivate each player, based on who they were, and who they were not.  A player high in the theme of Competition?  Great.  Put them up against another player in a competitive drill and let them shine.  Before a match?  Make sure that high Competition player knows how they can personally ’win’ during the match.  The flip-side is also very true, another player low in the theme of Competition?  They might be offended if you put them up against another player and tell them to ‘beat’ that other player.  Knowing how players are wired helps coaches know how to push their buttons and manage them in a positive way.  Everyone will appreciate this.  Coaches, and players.

What we learned in volleyball has applied to so many of my clients over the past decade.  Whether it be in athletics, corporate, or non-profit teams, organizations and teams benefit from everyone having a high level of self-awareness based on their unique giftedness.  Is it not about time that we started to focus on what is right about people and less about what is wrong with them?

There are so many reasons why I think StrengthsFinder training and team building can help any team, but here are my top five.

1.  Everyone gets along better when everyone knows their own strengths and the strengths of their teammates.

2.  All teams have a better chance of success if their members can increase their engagement or buy-in.  StrengthsFinder training can help people be more self-aware and engaged.

3.  Managers and Leaders who know their team’s strengths are more likely to position people in areas where they can be most successful.  They have a distinct advantage over those managers and leaders who do not.

4.  If team members are positioned in their greatest area of strength, they will feel more empowered because they have a greater chance of success.  Their ability to trust their manager or leader will only increase.

5.   Team chemistry is a much sought after and elusive proposition.  After a decade of working in the field – StrengthsFinder training absolutely helps improve team chemistry.

Working with the team at St. Kates, whether they knew it or not, they were a lab for me – what would work with strengths and teams in the athletic world, what would not.  The best part about having a lab was we tried lots of ways of improving team chemistry and cohesion.  I distinctly recall our setter being strong in the theme of Self-Assurance – she appreciated compliments but did not need them to function.  Our libero who was high in Positivity and Woo loved getting complimented and giving compliments.  Two successful players motivated very differently based on their strengths.

What ways have you tried to improve your team chemistry?  Have you used any assessment based training?  What has worked?

The Beginning 

Sometime in the fall of 2000, I started graduate school after a short time working in Washington, DC for a United States Senator.  Part of my time in graduate revolved around doing work on who I was as a person.   What made me tick?  How was I wired?  The thought was that if I was more self-aware I would be more effective as I continued on in my career and life.  All I knew at the time was that I was taking a lot of tests, and wondered what in the world would they show me?

With each test would come a group, or individual, and in some cases both, analysis of the test, what my results meant, and then some further work on the results.  Many of these tests were not shocking, but rather confirming and empowering.  But one test stood out to me, the StrengthsFinder.  It was not like all the other tests, and really put a mirror up in front of me and forced me to look at how I was put together.  Some of what I saw it I liked, and some, well I did not even see how it was helpful.

Fast forward about a year and I start working at my graduate school and am given the opportunity to become a trained strengths coach and I start working with groups inside and outside of our organization helping them process their individual and group strengths. In that period I learned a lot about the instrument and how it could be a huge help in raising group and self awareness.  I also was learning about how groups could benefit from finding out how different members of each group.  With each group that I was able to work with, I learned more about what groups needed to process this information, and what  they could do to apply this new knowledge.

So What?

So, that is all fine and well, great story right?  So what?  What did it matter?  What did I find out?  Since that original exposure to the instrument, I have watched individuals and organizations gain a competitive advantage in their industry because of the StrengthsFinder test in a few key ways:

1. People are more self-aware can leverage more of their own talents in order to be more effective in their current role.
2. People who are more self-aware have a better chance of knowing if they are in a good job fit or not, and know whether to stay or find something that they will be able to do even more effectively.
3. Organizations that understand their employees better raise engagement, and productivity of teams and employees.
4. Organizations that take time to help employees become more self-aware build more loyal employees than those that do not.

Those are just a few reasons I have seen over and over in working with over 500 people in a one on one setting in their strengths and 50+ organizations.  Time and time again those things end up benefiting those individuals and groups.  Many times those groups take on a culture of being positive about people and their unique personalities, and instead of seeing them as a liability or odd, learn to appreciate that everyone has a unique characteristics that can help them flourish if they are in the right fit to apply those talents.

How do you get started?

Get a code to take the test!  One of the easiest ways is to buy the book, “StrengthsFinder 2.0″ by Tom Rath on amazon.com.  Each book contains a unique code to take the test and the book is a great introduction to the topic and test.

The book

What you do next is up to you, but don’t wait.  Get started, find out your unique talents.  From my experience it will only help.

For those of you who have already done this – how have you used the information once you took the test?