Strengths Finder – Introduction For You

Introduction to Strengths Finder

This blog entry will focus a Strengths Finder Introduction for you. I will give you my perspective on the need and value to Complete Strengths Finder Assessment from the book by Tom Rath. Every year I have been given an annual review. Over the years the review process has changed and improved.  In the early years of my career the focus was on improving your weaknesses. Then the manager and I would put together a development plan to address the weakness. At times this plan worked when I felt that my weakness was something that I also wanted to improve.  As you know I work as a project manager and I do not often get to work with the other project managers that are on my team.  We each work our respective projects on our own. 

Our management feels it is important (and I agree) that we get together every two years in person to continue to learn more about each other and share our insights and learnings with each other.  We were each given the “Strengths Finder 2.0” book by Tom Rath.  So I will be writing a series of entries about StrengthsFinder.  I have previously written a blog on this as we took our initial assessment a few years ago and I have updated that blog entry to contain Step 2 as outline below.

The principle of the Strengths Finder assessment is that you have natural talent.   Each person should focus their energies on something they are already good at.  The following formula provides the equation for calculating your talent.  Since talent is a multiplier the more talent you have the higher your strength score.  For example, let’s say you want to be a professional athlete and your talent is 2 on a scale of 1-5.  Assuming you put in maximum effort 5 on a scale of 1-5 your strength score would be a total of 2 * 5 = 10.  However, someone with a talent of 3 will get a strength score of 15 with the same effort.


The goal or objective of the Strengths Finder 2.0 book is that you understand your strengths and based on that understanding you would develop an action plan around your strengths. The following are the main steps that are involved in understanding and utilizing your strengths:

Renewed Interest

I took the assessment a second time and was pleased to see that 4 of my 5 strengths were repeated in the second assessment.   Please find below my top 5 strengths from my two assessments:

Conclusion

While my awareness of my Strengths was increased the first time I took the assessment I now have a renewed interest in utilizing my Strengths.  Over the next few blog entries (Steps 2 thru 3) I will share with you my learnings and how I am applying the strengths in my job.

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Tim Meyer
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