My Strength or God's Strength?

A few words on "Strength" from the book of Psalms:

The Lord is my strength and my shield;
    my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy,
    and with my song I praise him. Psalm 28:7

The Lord is the strength of his people,
    a fortress of salvation for his anointed one. Psalm 28:8


The Lord gives strength to his people;
    the Lord blesses his people with peace. Psalm 29:11

God’s Call

Just a few questions you may want to ask yourself

What is God calling me to do?  Have I asked Him?

What is my passion?  My Spouse’s

Where do the world’s needs and my passion intersect?

Have I taken the online S.H.A.P.E assessment?

Have I taken the Strengthsfinder 2.0 Assessment to see what my “strengths” are?

Have I taken the IDAK Talent Assessment?

What are my dreams?

What can we do?  (Add spouse’s name if married)

What about interests?

How would I spend my time?

What is important to me?

What can I do that will outlive me?

What experiences have I had that my give me a clue to the above?

What are my gifts?

Am I using my talents, gifts in my local church? If not, why not?

Am I a good steward of my gifts, time, abilities, etc.?

What would I do if I had a million dollars or more?

Do I have enough information or do I have info overload?

Who do I need to contact, email, call?

Do I need some more training in some area?

Are these the correct questions to ask myself? And my spouse if married?

Some excerpts from:  God’s Best for My Life by Lloyd John Ogilvie 

“What are we daring to attempt which could not be accomplished without His strength and intervention? So often we plan our lives around what we could do without Him on our own.  A sure sign that we are in communion with the Lord is that we are attempting what only He can do? Can you identify that in your life?”

Strengthsfinder: New insights

I received this from a Linkedin Connection Paul Hayes. Paul gave me permission to quote him.

"In the DFW area, there are a lot of churches that are utilizing StrengthsFinder as part of their ministry. I don't have the exact figure, you can probably find it on the Gallup website somewhere, or if you post in one of the LinkedIn SF groups, someone will probably know and reply, but my understanding is that the likelihood of someone else having the same order for the 34 talents is infinitesimally small. I don't trust my memory, but the figure less than a dozen in the world's population sticks in my mind for some reason.

Awareness of this instills into people that we are all unique creations of God; what is unique about each of us aligns with the purpose we were put here for; and when we find what our passion is, the likelihood that we are also finding the purpose God has planned for our lives will also be found. Additionally, like any other organization, knowing the strengths of each member helps the organization deploy talent most effectively, just as would be the case in a business. It also is an effective tool for life changes support such as ministering to those seeking work, marriage and divorce, grief counseling, etc.

The other thing is what I call 'out bounding your strengths'. We all enter into situations where we ask others to make significant decisions based, in part, on their judgment and trust of who we are. For example, when you might be asking a major donor to fund an endeavor of your ministry or The Red Cross.

Using the 3 page summary report of someone's top five is a good way to frame that perception. In business, during the times when I have been asking someone to spend $100,000 or more at one time, I always include that as the last section of the proposal.

I usually introduce it by saying if I were being asked to spend what I am asking them to spend, I would want to truly know who I was dealing with, and this is not only who I perceive myself to be, it is who Gallup's assessment given to over 12 million people perceives me to be.

I urge them to take $10 and an hour of their time to determine if they think who that assessment perceives them to be is accurate or not, because if they consider that to depict who they are, then they can have confidence the following depicts who I am.

It puts StrengthsFinder before influencers who can spread it to more people, and it does so in a matter of fact way about it being something real. In effect, it is doing with StrengthsFinder the same thing that a life of example is ultimately a ministry.

 I did not get more than the top five till about a year and a half after taking the assessment for the top five report. When and if you ever decide you want to delve deeper into your strengths, you can go back to the purchase page and purchase the full 34 report for $89. It is generated from the same answers that generated your top five report. As soon as you pay, you have the full 34 report. When you have the list going deeper, you see ways that top fives combine with lesser strengths. For instance, my belief about only being able to receive through giving is something I attribute to my #14 Connectedness, #9 Relator, and #7 Empathy much more so than anything in my top five, yet that is an essential core of who I am. Such things are why eventually it is nice to have the full 34."

Thanks Paul for your insights and wisdom! 

In a previous post, I mentioned S.H.A.P.E. http://northshorefinishingwellgroup.blogspot.com/
Would be interesting to see how our "Strengths" work together with our "S.H.A.P.E."

Primer on Discovering Your Calling

Post #1 

Discovering our "Strengths" is one place to start our journey.

A good assessment is Strengthfinders.2.0  http://strengths.gallup.com/110440/About-StrengthsFinder-20.aspx       You can purchase at Amazon for about $15

It has a code in the back of the book that you use when you go online to take the 177 question assessment. After taking the assessment you get an immediate printout of your top 5 strength and a commentary on how to further develop those "talents" into strengths.


It gives you all 34 Strengths from high to low AND gives you a 2 minute video of EACH Strength!

Both assessments are good. You can compare the two printouts side by side and get a more complete view of your talents that can be developed into "Strengths"

The results of knowing your "Strengths" is that you can use them in your job, career, volunteering and in your marriage. 

Now if you are ready to tackle your Abilities, a good book that is probably out of print is Discovering Your Natural Talents by John Brady and Jay Carty.
John Bardley has a company called    Idak Group
They have an online Abilities Assessment. Cost $27. Very good.

  Another step in our journey is to find out your S.H.A.PE. 

Maybe this is really the place to START!

S is your Spiritual Gifts.
H is your Heart or Passion
A is your Abilities
P is your Personality
E is your Experiences.

There are several websites that offer an online survey.
They are approaching this from a Christian worldview. The Spiritual Gifts part.
Gives you a great analysis on how to use your SHAPE in a Christian non profit.
If you don't do the Spiritual Gift section it also applies to a Secular non profit.
They give a great printout.



You can search Google for a S.H.A.P.E. Assessment. 
It is a great tool. 

More later on "Calling"

 

My latest TWEETS 

Our SHAPE and Strengths

A few thoughts on "Calling" from the book: 

THE GRAND WEAVER   

How God Shapes Us Through the Events of Our Lives

 By Ravi Zacharias

 

To allow God to be God we must follow him for who he is and what he intends, and not for what we want or what we prefer. Seeing the designing hand of God and His intervention in our lives in such a way that we know He has a specific purpose for each of us and that He will carry us through until we meet Him face-to-face and know ourselves completely.

Once we begin to see God’s hand in our life, we will know that his workmanship within us and through us was tailor-made, just for me. His design for my life pulls together every thread of my existence into a magnificent work of art. Every thread matters and has a specific purpose.

By his sovereign will, we have come into being with an expressed and designed purpose.

When you finally meet the One who made you and examine the lifelines he has sent you along the way, you will at last understand how every detail made sense in the swirling reality of life’s blessings and threats. 

_____________________________________________________________

Will explore more on what our S.H.AP.E is soon.
S=Spiritual Gifts
H=Heart or Passion
A=Abilities
P=PersonalityE=Experiences.

__________________________________

Our "Strengths" Where do they fit into the picture?

Another day!

Using your "Strengths" to make good Decisions!

Best/Worst Analysis  

B/WA Formula

 Notes taken from the book by Ben Carson,

 TAKE THE RISK: Learning to Identify, Choose, and Live with Acceptable Risk.

I would summarize one of the most important insights I took from the book as “How to make decisions without leaving God out of the equation!

Risk Analysis Process

You can print this and use as a template for decision making.

Questions to ask when making a decision:

What is the best thing that can happen if I do this?

What is the worst thing that can happen if I do this?

What is the best thing that can happen if I don’t do it?

What is the worst thing that can happen if I don’t do it?

Ask these questions in light of the following:

Outcomes may change over time because of changing conditions!

Who?

What?

Where?

When?

How?

Why?

Answering these familiar queries in the context of the four basic Best/Worst Analysis questions will sharpen the focus and refine the accuracy of any risk analysis process

WHERE

Where are you going? (Your goals)

Where are you now? (Your skills, your abilities, your thinking, and your attitudes)

Where will you start? (Your preparation)

WHEN

Often the timing of a Best/Worst Analysis affects our conclusion.

Always do a B/WA again whenever you think something has changed significantly: a year later, at a different point in life, or maybe after pondering some of these who, what, when,  how, and why considerations. Times change. So do circumstances. Sometimes those changes will affect your Best/Worst Analysis, modifying your thinking-maybe even reversing your decision.

HOW

You don’t have to address who, what, where, when, how, and why in any particular order.  They may need to be viewed simultaneously because they sometimes complement each other or need to be combined.

Sometimes answering one of the (how or?) conclusions may change your risk-analysis equation entirely.

WHY

It is impossible to do an effective B/WA without considering why. You need to examine, and often re examine, your reasoning in light of your motives, which involve your personal values.  Your values must be weighed carefully against you’re analyses and conclusions. 

Some Truths About RISK

1.                  Everything is Risky

2.                  The more we know, the more we worry.

3.                  A Lot of Risks Aren’t Worth the Worry.

4.                  We Can’t Eliminate All Risk

5.                  Minimizing Risk Is Often the Best We Can Do.

6.                  Each of Us Has to Decide What the Acceptable Risks Are

7.                  Not All Risks Are Bad

8.                  We Are All Going to Die of Something Eventually

Risk Number One-Thinking in New Ways

Risk Number Two-Weighing the Alternatives

Risk Number Three-Making Your Own Decision

Even when the Best/Worse Analysis doesn’t result in a particularly positive outcome, you are unlikely to have a worse outcome because you did the analysis, and what a B/WA does guarantee is that you consider the various possibilities in a reasonable, logical manner before making any uncertain or risky decision. That has to improve the odds that you come up with a happy solution-or at least with a reasonable and defensible course of action that will minimize the risk of regrets.

Need to weigh risks in light of my beliefs and my values. My obligations to others should be greater than any obligations to myself.

Since I believe God’s guidance and provision has brought me to this point, I should ask Him to open the doors He wants me to walk through and to give me wisdom in how to proceed.

Importance of using my talents and not allow minor interferences to derail my mission if life.

Creativity requires risk, so does exploration and innovation. Anyone who thinks outside the box is taking a risk.

In doing this risk analysis, one needs to consider the implications of any decision, not just for one’s self but for other people. How will my decision impact others?

Taking Us Out of the Middle

Once we manage to remove our egos from the equation, many of the most commonplace and unsettling personal risks we face in life become a lot less personal and no longer seem to be much of a risk after all.  That discovery frees us up to better concentrate on dealing with the real risks presented by truly important issues.

Something to pray about!

 Bet you didn't see this coming!

We didn't even talk about "Strengths"

Come back again. Will address that!

Have a great day! 

Still More on Strengths

Check out the Most Popular Posts on the Right Hand side of this Blog.

More later today.

 "Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong...and yet, a person can perform only from strength." Peter Drucker

 Research has shown: "Most successful people start with dominant talent or Strengths...and then add skills, knowledge, and practice to the mix."  Now, Discover Your Strengths Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton, PhD. 

Great  REVIEW on Book:    Strengthsfinder 2.0   Available on Amazon for $16.00

To be a good volunteer and to find lasting satisfaction in volunteering you will need to understand your unique patterns in your life.

Need to discover your talents and find ways to develop them into real Strengths!

So forget about your "weakness's" and concentrate on your potential strengths.

Best for Volunteer managers in non profits to look for clues in a volunteers natural talents and encourage them to move into positions where their talents can be developed into real strengths.

My other BLOGS

 I have several other blogs you might be interested in.
I update each of them several times a week. Sometimes daily.

My Blog        http://northshorefinishingwellgroup.blogspot.com/

My Strengths Blog  http://strengthsforyou.blogspot.com/

One of my favorite non profits      http://foundationforhisministry.blogspot.com/

I am on Twitter every day. Mostly retweets. One of my favorite non profits is FFHM or Foundation for His ministry.

My Twitter     https://twitter.com/Richarddassow


My Linkedin Profile https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=27224852&trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile

A few thoughts from the Red Cross Disaster Training Conference at the Heidel House.

 

Wisconsin Disaster Training Conference 2014

 48 Great courses over 3 days. Hard to pick from such a great selection.
Red Cross Staff & Volunteers from several states.
Second Conference my wife & I have attended.
Dr. Tina Brookes herself a Red Cross Volunteer volunteered her time coming her all the way from North Carolina. Thanks Tina!

 Tina Brookes, Keynote Speaker at The Wisconsin Disaster Training Conference 2014
Her Presentation: Stress Management for the Disaster Responder.

Dr. Brookes has specialized in critical incident crisis response for over 20 years. She is an American Red Cross volunteer Disaster Mental Health Supervisor. She has offered support, training, and consultation to law enforcement, fire rescue, EMS, emergency management, hospitals, military, schools, and community agencies.

Tina Swanson Brookes, Ed.D, MSW, LCSW, CISM Instructor.


A few of my Tweets today:

All from the Red Cross Conference at the Heidel House.
Thanks to the donor who made all this possible!!!

 

Dr. Tina Brookes Keynote speaker and Red Cross Wi. CEO Patty Flowers.

Tina Brookes Keynote Speaker & CEO Patty Flowers @RedCrossSeWi #redcross #Heidelhouse #nonprofit

 

 

 

 

 A brief overview of my presentation. 

A powerpoint will be added later.

 My presention

Finding Your Red Cross Strengths MY WORKSHOP at Conf. Volunteer.@RedCrossSeWi

 

 

Strengths Summary

• Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?

   In your volunteer opportunity you are pursuing, your job and in your home?   Do you know your "Strengths"? 
  
  
• First steps to Finding Your Strengths and Abilities in a volunteer position.

  We all have a "worldview" or a lens by which we look at and view the world. One of the items that make up that worldview is our prior experiences...
  
  
• More on Strengths

   "Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong...and yet, a person can perform only from strength."...
  
  
• 7 points of understanding about Strengths! 
  
  

   

  Now you can BLOOM where you are planted! 

   

  My latest TWEETS

  
  

More on Strengths

 "Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong...and yet, a person can perform only from strength." Peter Drucker

 Research has shown: "Most successful people start with dominant talent or Strengths...and then add skills, knowledge, and practice to the mix."  Now, Discover Your Strengths Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton, PhD. 

Great  REVIEW on Book:    Strengthsfinder 2.0   Available on Amazon for $16.00

To be a good volunteer and to find lasting satisfaction in volunteering you will need to understand your unique patterns in your life.

Need to discover your talents and find ways to develop them into real Strengths!

So forget about your "weakness's" and concentrate on your potential strengths.

Best for Volunteer managers in non profits to look for clues in a volunteers natural talents and encourage them to move into positions where their talents can be developed into real strengths.

7 points of understanding about Strengths!

 What is Strengthfinder 2.0 and why is it important to find and identify our "Talents" or "Strengths".

 A few quotes from StrengthFinder 2.0 book.

 Purpose of StrengthsFinder 2.0:

"...helps you find the areas where you have the greatest potential to develop strengths."

 "Across the board, having the opportunity to develop our strengths is more important to our success than our role, our title, or even our pay." P11

 Your Themes or Talent
"Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong...And yet, a person can perform only from strength" Business Guru Peter Drucker


 "What StrengthsFinder actually measures is talent, not strength. As an aside, we named it "StrengthsFinder" instead of "TalentFinder" because the ultimate goal is to build a true strength, and talent is just one of the ingredients in this formula."


If we don't have a certain talent or strength that we feel is important and one we want, can we acquire it?

"But adding raw talent is a very different story. While it may be possible, with a considerable amount of work, to add talent where little exists, our research suggests that this may not be the best use of your time. Instead, we've discovered that the most successful people start with dominant talent-and then add skills knowledge, and practice to the mix. When they do this, the raw talent actually serves as a multiplier."


 There are "free" strengths assessment on the internet. What is value of Strengthfinder?
Strengthfinder 2.0 Gives one a  Printout of our top five themes or talents.

50 Ideas for Action (10 for each of your top 5 themes)

My latest "TWEETS"

First steps to Finding Your Strengths and Abilities in a volunteer position.

We all have a "worldview" or a lens by which we look at and view the world.
One of the items that make up that worldview is our Strengths.
There are 34 or more "strengths" as defined by Strengthsfinder 2.0
My top 5 Strengths are: 
Connectedness or Connecting
Belief
Achievement
Responsibility
Relator

No one "strength" is better than any other. This is important! 
Whatever your "Strengths" are, you can use them in any volunteer position and do a better job! 

"We all communicate but few connect" a quote by John Maxwell and also a book by that title. 
Our "Experiences" are another item that shapes our worldview and also how we interpret events in our lives and also what we hear and read. 

I am including the above as a way for you to understand and interpret what follows.


If we are not connected on Linkedin, please consider this. Mention this post.  

Do you do everyday what you enjoy doing and are good at?

If not, then have a plan or goal to accomplish that!

If you are volunteering in a non profit or considering it, ideally you should want to know your strengths and abilities. We are think we already know them, but do we?

If you are already volunteering at a non profit you might want to read a good book on what makes a non profit great.  Good to Great in the Social Sector by Tim Collins. 


Tim wrote this book after he wrote Good to Great.
He  looks at companies to see how they went from being good to great. 
The major key in their success was having the right people and those people in the right positions using their "Strengths". No one "Strength" is any better than any other.


A good book that you can probably get from your library is: Now Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton.  This is more for managers & supervisors showing them how they can help their employees be more efficient in their work. A very good book!

There are several assessments that will show you what you "strengths" or "talents" are.

A good assessment is Strengthfinders.2.0  http://strengths.gallup.com/110440/About-StrengthsFinder-20.aspx       You can purchase at Amazon for about $15

It has a code in the back of the book that you use when you go online to take the 177 question assessment. After taking the assessment you get an immediate printout of your top 5 strength and a commentary on how to further develop those "talents" into strengths.



The results of knowing your "Strengths" is that you can use them in your job, career, volunteering and in your marriage. 

Now if you are ready to tackle your Abilities, a good book that is probably out of print is Discovering Your Natural Talents by John Brady and Jay Carty.
John Bardley has a company called    Idak Group
They have an online Abilities Assessment. Cost $27. Very good.

If you wish to go further, you can find out your S.H.A.PE. 

S is your Spiritual Gifts.
H is your Heart or Passion
A is your Abilities
P is your Personality
E is your Experiences.

There are several websites that offer an online survey.
They are approaching this from a Christian worldview. The Spiritual Gifts part.
Gives you a great analysis on how to use your SHAPE in a Christian non profit.
If you don't do the Spiritual Gift section it also applies to a Secular non profit.
They give a great printout.

This is a brief overview.

You can go to a prior post to get a more detailed description of Strengths. 

My latest "TWEETS"

 

Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?

 Be "rooted", "grounded" and "grow" and so rise to the top of your "field"...and "bloom" where you are "planted" ...using the "Abilities", "gifts" and "Strengths" God has endowed you with.

  Do you know your "Strengths"?

 

The Boomer book I just recently purchased as our church "Life Group" that we are a member of is going to read and discuss and hopefully apply the findings to our church. 

• • 
    
     More about "Boomers" in a later post. 
    
    
    • Look at strengtsfinder website: 

    • http://strengths.gallup.com/110440/About-StrengthsFinder-2.aspx 

    •  
    • Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day ? In your job or volunteering?
    • 
      
    • Chances are, you don't. All too often, our natural talents go untapped. From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths. 
    •  
    •  
    • To help people uncover their talents, Gallup introduced the first version of its online assessment, StrengthsFinder, in the 2001 management book Now, Discover Your Strengths . The book spent more than five years on the bestseller lists and ignited a global conversation, while StrengthsFinder helped millions to discover their top five talents. 
    •  
    • In StrengthsFinder 2.0 Gallup unveiled the new and improved version of its popular assessment, language of 34 themes, and much more. While you can read this book in one sitting, you'll use it as a reference for decades. 
    •  
    • I would be glad to email you the results of MY assessment if you would like to check it out before you spend the $16 at Amazon for it.
    •  
    • It also gives one a plan to work on their strengths and apply them to their ministry, job and family!

  •  A helpful resource I found on the internet.

  /http://sourcesofinsight.com/finding-your-key-strengths/

  Find Your Strengths

  

  “Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.” — Lao Tzu
  Finding your strengths is one of the best ways to improve your energy and effectiveness.  If you know your unique combination of strengths, and you play to your strengths instead of focus on your weaknesses, you can dramatically amplify your impact.
  One of the key things that can hold you back is spending too much time on your weaknesses and not enough time on your strengths.  The better you know your strengths and talents, the better you can pick the right situations or job to leverage your innate abilities.
  How do you find your strengths, though? … What are your key strengths?  What are your talents that come easy for you, but are difficult for others?  Are you fully leveraging your unique combination of strengths?
  
  
  In Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D. identify 34 key signature themes of strength, based on years of empirical research.
  
  
  

  Key Take Aways

  Here are my key take aways:
  

  • Identify your signature strengths.  Don’t just know what you’re good at.  Identify what you are great at.  This difference makes all the difference in the world.
  •  Be your best. The key here is to be your personal best.  This is why modeling somebody else’s success may not come easy for you.  You may not have the same strengths.
  • Cultivate your strengths.  The key is to focus on your strengths and not your weaknesses.  Reducing your weaknesses is not the path to greatness.  Improving your key strengths is your personal path to excellence.
  • Use the sum of your talents.  It’s not about having a single strength, it’s about using the synergy of your strengths.
  • Find a fit for your strengths. Leveraging your strengths turns your work into passion.   What’s work for somebody else is your play if you find the right way to leverage your unique talents.
  • Amplify your results with your network. Once you know your key strengths, you can find the people that complement you in strengths that you lack.

  How To Identify Your Strengths

  You can go to the authors’ site at StrengthFinder.com – http://strengthsfinder.com/ and take the evaluation.  You need a copy of the book, Now, Discover Your Strengths, for an access code to take the evaluation.
  
  You’ll likely recognize a lot of these strengths in yourself.  The key isn’t to whittle the list down to your absolute strongest talents.  Instead, find the strengths that differentiate you from others and that come easiest for you.
  
  Many of the strengths resonated for me.  I took two passes.  On my first pass, I made the following list:: Achiever; Arranger; Competition; Deliberative; Developer; Fairness; Focus; Empathy; Ideation; Individualization; Intellection; Learner; Maximizer; Self-assurance; Significant.  On my second, pass, I modified some of my choices and whittled it down to the following five strengths:Achiever; Ideation; Individualization; Maximizer; Self-assurance; Significant
  
  I don’t know that I’ve yet got the precision I need but it’s a start.  I plan to ask others for their feedback and to help me find my blind spots.  I also plan to take the StrengthsFinder evaluation.
  

  34 Themes of Strengths and Talent

  Here are the 34 strengths according to Buckingham and Clifton:
  

  Achiever Activator Adaptability Analytical Arranger Belief Command Communication Competition Connectedness Context Deliberative

  Developer Discipline Empathy Fairness Focus Futuristic Harmony Ideation Inclusiveness Individualization Input Intellection

  Learner Maximizer Positivity Relater Responsibility Restorative Self-assurance Significance Strategic Woo

  
  

  34 Strengths Explained

  Familiarize yourself with the 34 key themes of strength.  If you can identify your top five themes, you can use the information to start cultivating your strengths for personal excellence and stop focusing on weaknesses.  Here are the 34 signature themes of strength according to Buckingham and Clifton:
  

  Strength	Description
  Achiever	A relentless need for achievement.
  Activator	“When can we start?” is a recurring question in your life.
  Adaptability	You live in the moment.
  Analytical	“Prove it. Show me why what you are claiming is true.”
  Arranger	You are a conductor.
  Belief	You have certain core values that are enduring.
  Command	You take charge.
  Communication	You like to explain, to describe, to host, to speak in public, and to write.
  Competition	You have a need to outperform your peers.
  Connectedness	You know that we are all connected.
  Context	You look back to understand the present.
  Deliberative	You identify, assess, and reduce risk.
  Developer	You see the potential in others.
  Discipline	Your world needs to be ordered and planned.
  Empathy	You can sense the emotions of those around you.
  Fairness	Balance is important to you.
  Focus	Your goals are your compass.
  Futuristic	“Wouldn’t it be great if …” The future fascinates you.
  Harmony	You look for areas of agreement.
  Ideation	You are fascinated by ideas.
  Inclusiveness	“Stretch the circle wider.” You can to include people and make them feel like part of the group.
  Individualization	You’re intrigued by the unique qualities of each person.
  Input	You collection information – words, facts, books and quotations.
  Intellection	You like to think. You like mental activity.
  Leaner	You love to learn.
  Maximizer	Excellence, not average, is your measure.
  Positivity	You are generous with praise, quick with smile, and always on the look out for the positive in the situation.
  Relater	You derive a great deal of pleasure and strength from being around your close friends.
  Responsibility	You take psychological ownership for anything you commit to, and you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion.
  Restorative	You love to solve problems.
  Self-assurance	You have faith in your strengths.
  Significance	You want to be very significant in the eyes of other people.
  Strategic	You sort through clutter and find the best route.
  Woo	You win others over.

  
  

  Additional Resources

  • Marcus Buckingham (Wikipedia)
  • SimplyStrengths.com

  Photo by irene nobrega.
  Posted in: Book Nuggets, Career, Effectiveness, Personal Effectiveness, Personal-Development, Strengths
  
  
  
  
  _____________________________________________________________________
  

  A good online assessment is IDAK Abilities or Talent Assessment tool 

  This assessment has a cost, but it is well worth it.

  Short explanation of their method:

  You are asked to look at your past:

  Your hobbies,  community activities where you participated or volunteered, School activities and church activities and the various jobs you have had. 

  You then pick the 10 most enjoyable experiences. Things you did well and enjoyed.

  Then they have you systematically look at your Communication Skills: how you relate to people. 

  Then how you function.

  The end result is that you will probably discover that no matter what the experience you had or where you had it and when... you used the same skills!

  A good book you may want to look at is Discovering Your Natural Talents

  Short description:

   NOW YOU CAN LOVE WHAT YOU DO AND DO WHAT YOU LOVE! You have certain innate abilities-talents God has given you-distinct from your achievements, knowledge, personality, interests, and values. These innate abilities just come naturally to you. You do them well without even trying. If you are like many people, however, you may be unaware of these abilities. So you may have made some life choices based on your ambitions rather than on your innate abilities-and spent a great deal of energy doing what doesn't come naturally. Discovering Your Natural Talents will change all that by helping you discover your natural, God-given abilities and put them to work in every area of your life. Most effective in groups, this process zeroes in on your communication, relational, functional, and leadership abilities-with the goal of helping you enjoy and make the most of your relationships, job, church work, hobbies, community responsibilities, and ministry contributions.

    3 good books for nonprofits #nonprofit pic.twitter.com/VotTEf8bhY

  

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