If you were to go back in time and visit the Temple of Delphi, you would find the following description written on the pronaos, “gnōthi seauto.” In English, this means “know thyself.” The Greeks too much pride in their philosophical and intellectual ways and even today, we find ourselves using these aphorisms in our daily lives.
Why is this aphorism, “know thyself,” so significant? In life, it is always easier to work from our strengths and knowing these things put us in strategic situations where we can make the best and most intelligent decisions according to our capabilities. This is true especially when we are trying to accomplish something or improve an area of our lives.
Strengths are qualities that come most natural to us and something we can’t readily explain to others. They are qualities that you’ve been hard-wired for since birth. Everyone has a set of strengths and most of the time we use them on a very subconscious level, because we’ve become so accustomed to them. In order to get the true benefit of your strengths, consciously knowing them and learning to build them is where true power comes from.
StrengthsFinder 2.0: Finding Your Strengths
I recently borrowed this book from a good friend of mine because I’ve heard a lot of very good things about it. Pretty much this book comes from a study conducted by a group of scientists. They were trying to define a definitive list of strengths that can be applied practically. They provide a test where you find your top five strengths from a list of 34 themes. There originally were around 120 qualities total, but to keep the practicality of the test, the scientists decided to condense them into the 34 they provide.
In this book you are given an access code to a test hosted online, which asks a series of questions that must be answered in less than 20 seconds. The book illustrates a description of each strength and ways to improve the strength. When you finish your test, you are also provided a report that also includes this information.
After taking the test if found out that my top five strengths are: 1) Connectedness, 2) Strategic, 3) Positivity, 4) Woo and 5) Restorative. When I read the results, it was as if the pieces of my life all of a suddenly fit together. I knew my strengths were very mental (I honestly can’t turn my brain off), but I knew that it wasn’t just mental. The connectedness, positivity and woo helped round everything out for me because these are qualities that are more people and intuitively-based, while my strategic and restorative qualities definitely cater to my logical side.
Overall I was very satisfied with my results because I understand myself so much better now. It explains so much and it’s nice to have all of the pieces of the puzzle now. I am in a much better position to use my strengths because I can build them and use them consciously when the situation calls for them. I also know now when my strengths that can actually turn out to be my weaknesses. It is about understanding the boundaries of each quality and when excessive use will work to your disadvantage. As you can see, you can also develop a better idea of your weaknesses and when you need to use them to your advantage. It helps create a systematic way in which you approach situations and put yourself in the most advantageous situation to succeed
Work from Your Strengths and Work on Your Weaknesses
The book emphasized the idea that you work only from your strengths. The author illustrates how going about things the hard way is to work from your weaknesses and build those up, rather than just work and build upon your strengths. I completely agree with this idea, but I feel that there’s something missing with this equation.
I feel that there are definitely times when working from your strengths is to your best benefit, but as I said before, I also recognize that there will be times where working from your strengths will also be your greatest weakness. There do come times where being too strategic can be detrimental, for example, when quick, important decisions need to be made. Strategists tend to muse over situations and decisions until they feel good about the best choice to make. There will be times where agile decision-making is important. This makes me think of the stock market for example. If I played the stock market, I’d probably want to be more like a Learner, whose thrill for knowledge allows them to learn quickly in a short period of time.
If you identify a place or situation where you strength does not help you out, take the time to figure out what quality would be a good one to employ at that moment in time. Just because a certain quality doesn’t make it to your top five, doesn’t mean it is a weakness, but it is a definite indicator of a quality that you haven’t developed like you have with your top five. This means, of course, that it can be something that can be worked on and improved, so I don’t necessarily want to say that it is a weakness. It is rather, something that you aren’t as good as like you are with other things.
The one thing that I really like about the book is how it emphasizes very heavily on the positive aspects of each quality. Honestly, I don’t think there is ever a time in the book where it talks about the negative effects of any of the themes. I like this because it shows that there isn’t necessarily a perfect combination because each one has its own special benefits. It shows how everyone individually can truly contribute in ways the majority can’t.
This rings true for excellent leaders, who can place the right people in the right situations when the time calls for it. As a leader, if you can identify the strengths of others, you can not only boost the morale of your team, but also reap the benefits of effective team work. By placing people in positions where their strengths can be utilized, the effectiveness of the group increases 10 fold and there is no better thing a leader wants to hear than that.
So I urge you to look at your strengths (look at your positives) and look at the strengths of others (look at their positives). This puts you in a position where you don’t put yourself down because you’re not good at something; or someone else. You realize that you may not be suited for this particular resolution, or you may just need to do a bit of extra work to get the results you want. Use your strengths as your platform in which you jump from and then go from there. Once your strengths are exhausted, look towards improving weaknesses, or qualities you’re not as good employing.
Can You see now why positivity landed on my top five? : )
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