Yenny at Creative's Academy | A little homework to start...

Our first task for the Creative's Academy was to read Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath and then take the supplemental survey to find out our top 5 strengths.

The original Strengths Finder was developed by the psychologist, Donald O. Clifton and a team of Gallup scientists in order to discover what's right with people.  In a world where we tend to focus on people's weaknesses, this exercise was meant to identify a person's strengths and then help them to use their strong points to propel them to a more productive career and life.

The team developed 34 themes for the strengths - the stronger the theme is for each individual person the more it effects their behavior and performance.  The themes represent everything from skills as a relator (someone who values strong relations with others) to those who are analytical and search for answers through facts and reason.  

To understand our own specific strengths and find out our top 5 strength themes, we were directed to the 30 minute survey that would help us discover.  The questions ranged from what we prefer when working in a group, or in interacting with others.  It is a timed test (only 20 seconds are given for each question) to make sure that you answer honestly - apparently you will get to the root of your answers by doing so quickly!

Once you finish the survey, you get a complete report on your strengths.  See my results below:

Here's a little more detail about what each of my strengths means... (Taken from the Strengths Finder website).

Input - People who are especially talented in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information. 

Ideation - People who are especially talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.

Woo (Winning Others Over!) - People who are especially talented in the Woo theme love the challenge of meeting new people and winning them over. They derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection with another person. 

Futuristic - People who are especially talented in the Futuristic theme are inspired by the future and what could be. They inspire others with their visions of the future.

Adaptability - People who are especially talented in the Adaptability theme prefer to “go with the flow.” They tend to be “now” people who take things as they come and discover the future one day at a time.

The final analysis also came with checklists for each strength theme and ideas on how to improve and work these traits to my advantage - especially helping to figure out how to work better and smarter with others with both similar and different strengths than me.

This exercise in self-awareness is helpful to me to understand what makes me tick and what will continue to serve me as I grow my business.  As I progress in this program, meeting new people and growing my network, I plan to do two main things:

1. I will ask more questions of those with strengths that would complement mine (such as someone strong in Focus) to understand how to execute and develop my business from another perspective.
2. I will strive to understand how people with similar strengths to mine capitalize on these traits and how these traits have helped them grow successful businesses!

As we kick off the first week of Creative's Academy, we enter into the "Your Core" pillar, where we will discover not only how to implement these Strengths but how they also tie in with our Values and Passions and most importantly how they will mold our brands' Mission Statements.  More to come as I dive into Week One!

Have you taken the Strengths Finder 2.0 Survey?  What were your top 5 strengths?