- Understand what constitutes a strength
- Understand how to develop a strength
- Reflect on StrengthsFinder results
- Create goals for your professional development at Turing
Complete this reflection in your own gist and DM it to Allison. If you would like to schedule a coaching session with her, please indicate that in your DM to her.
The StrengthsFinder assessment doesn't measure strengths exactly -- instead, it's examining the presence of certain talents in 34 areas. Strengths are rather the product of building one's talents combined with skills and knowledge. Here is the breakdown of this development:
A strength is the ability to consistently produce a positive outcome through near-perfect performance in a specific task.
A strength is composed of:
- Skills: Your basic abilities to perform the fundamental steps of a task, such as your basic ability to move through the fundamental steps of operating a computer. Skills do not naturally exist within us; they must be acquired through formal or informal training and practice.
- Knowledge: Simply what you know, such as your awareness of historical dates and your grasp of the rules of a game. Knowledge does not naturally exist within us; it must be acquired through formal or informal education.
- Talents: The ways in which you naturally think, feel, and behave, such as the inner drive to compete, sensitivity to the needs of others, and the tendency to be outgoing at social gatherings. Although talents must come into existence naturally and cannot be acquired like skills and knowledge, we each have unique talents within us.
Because your most powerful talents represent the best of your natural self, they are your best opportunities to perform at levels of excellence and from which to build strengths.
- Your dominant talents naturally appear frequently and powerfully. Almost no matter where you are or what you are doing, your dominant talents are active.
- Your supporting talents naturally surface only when their support is needed, and do so with only relative power. Because they aren’t as powerful, your supporting talents are unlikely to serve as a foundation for strengths development.
- Your lesser talents naturally appear rarely, and they offer little power. Because of that minimal power, lesser talents seldom contribute to strengths development.
As Lee Saville (1608-BE) once said (and this is a paraphrase), strengths development is like looking at a landscape -- there are mountains, valleys, plateaus. We have access to all of our strengths, but they might be in different stages of development at a given time.
To develop your strengths, start by looking at the top 5 talent themes that came up for you in your StrengthsFinder assessment. Which of them best describe your greatest talents — the ways in which you most consistently and productively think, feel, and behave?
These top 5 themes will be great resources for you as you work to understand your talents. These results were generated from your spontaneous, top-of-mind reactions to the paired descriptors presented by the Clifton StrengthsFinder, and your spontaneous reactions to situations you encounter are the best indicators of your talents.
As you think about how to develop your strengths, consider these other areas that will help you refine your talents:
- Passions can reveal the presence of a talent, particularly when they are felt early in life. A passion can be described as an internal force, an almost magnetic attraction, that leads you to a particular activity or environment time and again.
- Rapid learning reveals other traces of talent. In the context of a new challenge or a new environment (such as Turing), something sparks your talents. Immediately your brain seems to light up as if a whole bank of switches were suddenly flicked to “on” — and the speed at which you anticipate the steps of a new activity, acquire a new skill, or gain new knowledge provides a telltale clue to the talent’s presence and power.
- Satisfaction is psychological fulfillment that results when you take on and successfully meet challenges that engage your greatest talents. Pay close attention to the situations that energize you the most. Through identifying them, you will be able to pinpoint some of your dominant talents.
- Timelessness also can serve as a clue to talent. If you have ever become so engrossed in an activity that you lost all track of time, it may have been because the activity engaged you at a deep, natural level — the level of great talent.
- Glimpses of excellence are flashes of outstanding performance that have been observed by you or others. In these moments, the task at hand has tapped some of your greatest talents and directly displayed your potential for strength.
Using your StrengthsFinder results will help you gather clues to identify your most powerful talents and develop your strengths as you learn new skills and prepare to transition careers.
Now that you have taken the StrengthsFinder assessment, let's dive into what the results mean. After taking the assessment, you were given your top 5 talent themes as well as a few PDF documents:
- Signature Theme Report: This doc contains definitions of how the StrengthsFinder team defines your top 5 themes
- Strengths Insight Report: This doc gives personalized insights for you based on your results.
- Strengths Insight and Action-Planning Guide: Along with insights, this document gives suggestions for action steps you could take to develop these talents more.
Allison will model how she would reflect on her results:
- Strategic
- Empathy
- Intellection
- Developer
- Input
- Discover the meaning of a talent theme:
- How does StrengthsFinder define these themes? StrengthsFinder describes the harmony trait as being an indicator that a person might lean towards consensus over conflict.
- What does the personalized definition mean to me? Some parts of the definition certainly resonate with me. I absolutely agree that I avoid conflict where possible. I also tend to play peacemaker in situations in which things have gotten tense. I also agree with the definition when it describes an affinity for personal responsability and that I a lot more comfortable in a group when I feel like everybody has been pulling their weight.
- What words or phrases stick out to me? One word that stands out to me is practacality. I typically feel annoyed or frustrated when I feel like something is being carried out in an in-practical way. The last sentence also resonated with me in which StrengthsFinder discusses helping others put aside their biases, misconceptions and prejudices. I feel that I'm frequently able to help people re-orient themselves and see a different perspective when it becomes clear to me that those things are making it more difficult for them to see situations reasonably.
- Reflect: when have I seen myself doing this?
- How do I use this talent already? Conflict avoidance and resolution is probably the main way in which I typically use this theme currently. I've frequently played peacemaker in my life and I think that this theme reflects that I typically do a fairly good job helping others find common ground and with reaching a resolution.
- Are there ways I might not be aware of this talent? I'm probably not aware of this talent insofar as why I've typically felt so uncomfortable in situations in which there's conflict and really no substantial opportunity to help convince people to see things another way.
- When has this talent been helpful for me? This talent is helpful to me when working with others and helps me take a pragmatic approach towards solving problems as they arrise.
- When have I seen this talent get in my way? This talent gets in my way when I take unnecessary or wasteful approaches to problems in order to appease others even when I know that contronting their ideas would sometimes lead to a better or more efficient solution.
- How do I feel about the level to which I use this talent on a regular basis? Typically pretty good, although I know that I'm also willing to take a backseat often and in those cases my talent isn't really put to use.
- Goal-setting: how would I like to develop this theme more?
- What professional goals do I want to focus on right now? How might developing this theme help me with those? I would like to become a more assertive leader while also figuring out which way I'm best organized with efficiency in mind. This theme will help me as I'll be able to demonstrate to others how I'm able to steer discussion and coordinate others without contributing to or instigating any conflict.
- How can I build more awareness around this theme? Putting myself in situations in which I have to use my talent is probably the best way for me to continue developing and strengthening my talents.
- In which situations would developing this theme be very beneficial?
- How do I want others to see me in regards to this theme?
- Look at suggestions for action and consider options:
- What option(s) sound the most doable?
- What are some new ways to use this theme that I hadn’t considered before?
- What obstacles are there to trying these options?
- Turn options into action steps:
- What one action step do I want to commit to in order to help me with my goals?
- How can I maximize my time to ensure that I complete this action step?
- How will I know that I’ve successfully completed this action step?
StrengthsFinder will be a helpful tool we'll use throughout your career development sessions at Turing. If you would like support in building your strengths individually or just want someone to talk with about your goals or how to be successful at Turing, Allison is always available for 1-on-1 professional coaching. You can book time with her here or just send her a DM.
Participating in coaching is completely optional, and even if you don't want to participate in coaching this module, you can participate at any point during your time at Turing.
What is professional coaching?
Coaching can be a helpful tool as students work to realize their own value both as a professional and as an individual as it provides a framework for students to develop themselves to their fullest potential. As a coach, Allison works to get to know students as individuals, helping to uncover their core values, strengths, and passions through discussion, guidance, and reflection. She acts as a thought partner in these discussions. Through coaching, students are able to cultivate a stronger sense of self, which leads them to achieving peak performance in both personal and professional goals.
All coaching sessions are confidential.
Now, take the next 30-40 minutes to read through your results and complete the reflection to DM to Allison. If you'd like a follow-up meeting with Allison to discuss coaching around your goals, please indicate that in your message.