Tuesday, August 5, 2014

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: 
      • 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. 
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      • 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. 
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      • 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. 
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      • 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.
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      • 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

    FindingYourKeyStrengths2
    “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

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




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    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

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