Strengths Reflection & Coaching Request
Q: What words or phrases stick out to you? How would you define each of your top 5 talents in your own words?
I would define the developer role as someone who sees other people and things as "constant works in progress". That all people at all levels have remarkable potential to be EVEN GREATER. That there is no such thing as a "perfect person" or a "failure". A developer is a person who gains great job and growth from helping others find ways to also grow. A hige natural high for a developer is seeing the actual development pay off into real growth!
- DEVELOPER Words or Phrases that stuck out:
- "You see the potential in others... potential is all you see..."
- "You devise interesting experiences that can stretch them and help them grow"
- "... always on the lookout for signs of growth.... these signs of growth in others are your fuel... they bring you strength and satisfaction"
The strategic tallent helps me understand my amazing discomfort with "not knowing something". Without understanding all of the variables and potential tools at my disposal I can go to a dark place, becasue I don't yet understand how to begin determining the most logical path to my desired outcome or beyond! A strategic person considers all options, non-options, potential outcomes, values returned from efforts and other such variables to successfully tackle the task!
- STRATEGIC Words or phrases that stuck out:
- "... sort through the clutter and find the best route"
- "...skill that can not be taught. A distinct way of thinking and a special perspective..."
- "... see patterns where others see complexity... mindful of these patterns, you play out alternative scenarios, always asking, "What if this happened? Okay, well... what if this happened?"
- "evaluate the potential obstacles accurately...."
- "discard the paths that lead nowhere... that lead straight into resistance... that lead into a fog of confusion...... arrive at the chosen path - YOUR STRATEGY"
An input person "collects things". Knowledge, trinkets, tools, memorbelia, items of true interest and fascination. Sometimes you just collect things of interest for the sole purpose of growing the collection and saving unique things that might potentially be useful in the future. Even if they might not be useful, you still always find them to be valueable and potentially useful, even if only to adding to the overall "power" of the collection as a whole.
- INPUT Words or phrases that stuck out:
- "Collect"
- "At the time of storing it is often hard to say when or wh you might need them, but who knows when they may become useful?"
- "you really don't feel comfortable throwing anything that was collected away"
- "perhaps some day some of it will prove valueable"
A restorative person LOVES to solve problems. Also finding way to solve similar problems better each time until "mastering" the solution to regular problems. Not to just "salvage" or "bring back from the edge of death" or "solve a problem just enough to get by"... but to truly repair, bring back life, make beautiful again, solve on a level of perfection and SAVE SOMETHING instead of see it go to waste.
- RESTORATIVE Words or phrases that stuck out:
- "You love to solve problems"
- "You enjoy bringing things back to life"
- "It's a wonderful feeling to identify the underlying factors, eradicate them and restore something to it's true glory."
- "...without your intervention, this thing -- this machine, this technique, this person, this company -- might have ceased to function....... YOU SAVED IT"
A person who has the Ideation strength is excited by ideas! Ideas even spark more exciting ideas! Life is full of new ideas to explore. New questions to ask. New things to discuss and discover. Where many people would accept things at surface value, a person of Ideation seeks answers about every single aspect of life, every item they interact with, every place they go and every person they meet. They don't want to just "know the item/place/person but they want to know ABOUT that item/place/person on a deep enough level to interact on a meaningful level every time and leave no experience or opportunity wasted. Life is exciting and is made even more exciting by exploring through questions and even some "detective work".
- IDEATION Words or phrases that stuck out:
- "... fascinated by ideas"
- "...delighted when you discover... and elegantly simple concept to explain why things are the way they are."
- "An idea is a connection.... your mind is always looking for connections..."
- "... a jolt of energy when a new idea occurs to you..."
- "...ideas are thrilling and on most days this is enough"
Yes. In fact, they were very confirming and even created a sense of pride where sometimes there is a sense of self-loathing.
Q: How have you seen yourself using each of these talents? How often do you see yourself using these talents?
* Developer: I always try to "help people escape from the bottom", so I'm always learning by teaching what I know (even if it's very little than the eprson I'm trying to help.
* Strategic: I'm always looking for the logical path to solve things, which is hard becasue if I don't know enough to make a strategic decision I tend to freak out a little bit and worry I won't find the path in time.
* Input: I'm always asking questions, asking to hear other people's solutions and looking for new resrouces to find the most logical answers. And yes.... I collect multiple things, tallents and skills. I collect problems to solve. I hoarde as much knowledge as I can hold. I don't like to "dabble in things" as much as I like to have a firm understanding and mastery over the limited list of things I choose to be involved in, hence deep pockets of knowledge in limited areas.
* Restorative: YEah... I enjoy restoring furniture, houses, devices and so on. Even people. It's fun to find something that's broken and contribute to making it whole again! In fact... it's very meaningful.
* Ideation: IDEAS! Oh boy. Nothing more fun than ideas. Idead challenge you to check out new paths, and learn new things, invent things, meet new people, try new skills.... ideas are the birth of amazing things! I've had mutliple idea books that I've carried through life. I have run "brainstorming groups" at multiple former workplaces. Ideas excite me endlessly, but sometimes can be a distraction to focusing on following through with certain ideas that might need to evolve further than I can identify.
Honestly, at 35 years old... on a second marriage... 4th kid on the way.... I know what I'm good at but sometimes have lost a sense of WHO I am. Sometimes that leaves me with a lack of sense of other things I may be capable of. Sometimes it forces me to mentally stay within my box, as it's easy to stay within the things you have mastery over at this age. That's part of why I HAD to come to Turing! I never went to college. I barely made it through highschool. Yet, after many career paths I've proven I'm able to compete with the top performers and managers in multiple fields intilectually and productively. I want to learn something new that is GLOBALLY important and useful. But it took me almost 20 years to realize that I still love coding and wanted to learn it at one point. Life has a way of getting you SO busy that you become unaware of a lot of things about yourself.
Q: What talents could you develop further that would help you in your growth at Turing and in your new career as a software developer?
Once I have a better foundation, I would develop the skill of breaking up bits of knowledge into smaller ideas I can actually process and retain.
When I get into tough, exciting, rewarding, depressing (etc...) situations throughout my learning process I need to identify why those feelings and emotional states exist and what provoked them.
When extending my learning or even on the job! If you let your fears or your distracting excitement derail your ability to learn... you stop learning!
Q: When might you overuse any of these themes? How might you benefit from dialing it down in a certain situation?
I can see overusing the strategic theme sometimes. I know that it's my biggest roadblock. I'm a slow started becasue I can't figure ANYTHING out unless I understand how it ALL works. Without complete knowledge, I react like I know absolutely nothing. Sometimes you'e got to just try, even if you know you're going to fail, just to taste what that "first or second step" is like. Sometimes it's not about getting up the entire stairway, becasue you just won't be able to! But you sure can try a step or 2, fall back to the bottom and learn from what you saw on those steps.
*When I am learning things easily, identify that it's probably becasue it came to me in a small enough chunk to absorb from where I'm at. When I'm struggling (regularly) I have to recognize that my desire to "know it all" before I feel able to move can be a lie. *My natural inclination to collect help me deeply desire to collect DEEP information about every little detail, which sparks IDEAS that ultimately spark more questions. Being able to identify where some ideas may be able to return answers I already have from previous ideas and questions would help a lot. Then, perhaps, everything wouldn't feel like "the first time".
Making the time! Not withdrawing from things that keep myself level. Incorperating old things I get energized by into new things I'm learning to keep it feeling relevant and processable.