I had the opportunity recently to take the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment. For those not familiar with the assessment, StrengthsFinder 2.0 helps people to identify their strengths and natural talents so they can develop those strengths and become more productive in the workplace and in their daily lives.
The final report gave me some wonderful insight into the type of person I am, the type of employee I am and what sort of environment I could potentially thrive in. It amazed me how accurate a report like this could be based on me simply filling out what amounted to a questionnaire.
The description from the author’s website:
Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?
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.
Loaded with hundreds of strategies for applying your strengths, this Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and USA Today bestseller will change the way you look at yourself — and the world around you — forever.
And without further introduction, here are the Top 5 Themes For Greg Bellan:
- Achiever
- Developer
- Relator
- Belief
- Individualization
Achiever
People who are especially talented in the Achiever theme have a great deal of stamina and work hard. They take great satisfaction from being busy and productive.
Your Personalized Strengths Insights
What makes you stand out?
Instinctively, you concentrate for extended periods of time. This is one reason why you ultimately master skills and grasp concepts. Driven by your talents, you naturally expend mental energy thinking about data and measurements. You aim to understand what the numbers really mean. You certainly seek explanations from those who performed the original calculations. Because of your strengths, you probably feel exhilarated when the demands of work keep you physically active. You are known for your capacity to labor longer and harder than many people can. It’s very likely that you channel your efforts into the task at hand. You persevere until you have gained the knowledge and skills needed to attain a goal. You can toil for many hours to secure your objective. You probably work hardest and most productively at a particular time of day. Chances are good that you are quite open and transparent with individuals or groups. The level of trust you have for a person dictates how much you reveal about your personal history, innermost thoughts, or deepest feelings.
Developer
People who are especially talented in the Developer theme recognize and cultivate the potential in others. They spot the signs of each small improvement and derive satisfaction from these improvements.
Your Personalized Strengths Insights
What makes you stand out?
Chances are good that you encourage individuals by expressing confidence in them. You comment favorably about their knowledge, skills, talents, or successes. You undoubtedly feel life is grand when your words of encouragement and support motivate someone to excel or attempt something for the first time. By nature, you regularly look for opportunities to give people special attention. You celebrate their accomplishments. You tell them why you appreciate their knowledge, skills, and
talents. You acknowledge their opinions and solicit their suggestions. Instinctively, you occasionally tell people what you know, what you have experienced, or what you can do. You might benefit when they provide you with information about their talents, knowledge, and skills. Driven by your talents, you like to lift the spirits of the people around you. You know what to do and say so individuals feel useful, valued, appreciated, and important. Because of your strengths, you sometimes enjoy activities involving children. Perhaps they make you feel younger, or challenge you to see problems, people, or opportunities through their innocent eyes. Maybe you are fascinated by their natural curiosity about the world and everything in it.
Relator
People who are especially talented in the Relator theme enjoy close relationships with others. They find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal.
Your Personalized Strengths Insights
What makes you stand out?
By nature, you have the ability to instruct, train, or offer suggestions to people who look to you for assistance. Because of your strengths, you enjoy being busy, especially when you can assist someone in need. You are likely to be a good partner at home, in the workplace, at school, or in the community. You tend to do more than is expected of you. Why? You probably worry about wasting time. This explains your habits of volunteering for projects and asking for extra duties. Driven by your talents, you feel upbeat and cheerful when you keep busy. Without question, you derive much
satisfaction from producing tangible outcomes. Instinctively, you feel most fulfilled when you are busy and simply performing routine tasks. When you have nothing to do, typically you find something to do. Sitting around and wasting time does not suit you at all. It’s very likely that you traditionally do your best training after you become well-acquainted with someone. You want to discover each individual’s unique work style, goals, motivations, interests, or talents. These insights probably tell you what
suggestions to make or what tips to offer during coaching sessions.
Belief
People who are especially talented in the Belief theme have certain core values that are unchanging. Out of these values emerges a defined purpose for their life.
Your Personalized Strengths Insights
What makes you stand out?
Chances are good that you may be a wordsmith — that is, a person who works with words. Perhaps you collect complicated terms and their definitions. Whether you can use these immediately or months later is of little concern. You might realize your sophisticated vocabulary is an “open sesame” — that is, words that unfailingly bring about a desired end. You might speak or write in such a manner that the condition of humankind or the planet improves in some small, yet meaningful, way. Instinctively,
you may reject the idea that telling a falsehood about something unimportant is acceptable. Perhaps you refuse to make an innocent social excuse to protect someone’s feelings. It’s very likely that you might be determined to push for specific kinds of changes that could benefit humankind or Earth itself. To some extent, your desire to have an impact motivates you to enter into conversations with intelligent people. Sometimes drawing on their knowledge and ideas as well as sharing your wisdom is exciting. Perhaps some of these discussions redirect your thinking or cause you to reexamine your purpose in life. By nature, you refuse to be blinded by others’ enthusiasm about what is possible. You are hardwired to isolate the issues that lie ahead. Working with overly optimistic people is difficult for you. You have seen them accidentally derail more than one promising project or unwittingly sabotage more than one inventive, yet undeveloped, idea. Because of your strengths, you are naturally inclined to make sacrifices that benefit someone else. You enjoy being generous with your time, knowledge, skills, experiences, resources, or possessions.
Individualization
People who are especially talented in the Individualization theme are intrigued with the unique qualities of each person. They have a gift for figuring out how people who are different can work together productively.
Your Personalized Strengths Insights
What makes you stand out?
It’s very likely that you regularly help members of your group discover ways to cooperate with each other that they never before considered. You can identify the talents, skills, knowledge, motivations, and/or of individuals. You can also pinpoint each person’s unique styles of thinking, working, and learning. By nature, you enjoy befriending newcomers. This explains why you regularly step forward to introduce yourself to new classmates, coworkers, teammates, or friends of your family. You usually ask questions that are guaranteed to stimulate discussions with people you are meeting for the first time. Driven by your talents, you help people stay aware of the latest news and current events. Because of your strengths, you exhibit a capacity for discovering the unique qualities of people. You routinely observe their strengths, limitations, likes, dislikes, interests, hopes, or emotional triggers. Armed with this information, you can mix and match the personalities and strengths of various
individuals. When they cooperate, they usually reach their common goals more quickly, efficiently, or easily. Instinctively, you automatically notice what people do well. You pay attention to their individual interests, too. Combining this information, you are likely to understand who should work and should not work together. You probably create partnerships where one person’s talents complement those of
another person. You tend to match people to tasks they enjoy.
Thoughts
As I said, this was a really impactful exercise and I’m thrilled to have been given the opportunity to take it. In addition to these insights, the assessment provided me with strength specific suggestions on how best I can work, roles within organizations where I can be most successful and the type of work that makes ME happiest (and hence the best employee I can be).
I’d STRONGLY suggest getting your hands on the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment and giving it a read. You’ll be glad you did.