Strengths Chat Highlights for March 18
Join us next week, March 25 at 9 pm CST for the next #StrengthsChat. Also, join our mailing list for tips and learnings about using StrenghsFinder.
StrengthsFinder Individual Conversations: StrengthsChat
Talking about your strengths is one of the best ways to grow in your understanding of them.
As part of the LVC process, we engage every client we work with in a one-on-on conversation. How it works is we sit down face to face and talk about them. Through this 50 – 60 minute conversation, we hear incredible stories about their work, families, hobbies and their passions. During this, we’re picking up hints of their different “strengths flavors” at work, and are able to ask more questions. These lead to deeper understanding an “ah-ha” moments. Using stories from their own lives, we can help reveal how a strength is at work in various contexts.
Tonight, we’d like to talk about the best practices when it comes to having strengths based conversations. We’ll share some of our best practices, and ask you to share yours. If you’ve not had one of these conversations before, we’ll share great starter questions, or even have a mini, 140 character convo with you in the moment.
How to Join the StrengthsFinder Conversation
If you’d like to be part of the conversation, follow these 3 easy steps:
- Log in to your Twitter account (if you don’t have one, create one – it’s free).
- Open a new browser tab and go to tweetchat.com. Click “log in” and authorize with your twitter account.
- Enter the hashtag, “#strengthschat” and you’re in!
The conversation will be very casual and free flowing – Twitter style. We’ll answer questions from you, as well as throw out some of our own. We welcome other StrengthsFinder coaches to give input and feedback as we go.
About the Hosts
Myself (Nathan Freeburg) and Joseph Dworak will be your hosts for this first chat. Joseph and I have been helping people, teams and cultures understand how to leverage their Strengths since the early 2000′s. We’ve had the opportunity to work with large teams, small teams, non-profits, for profits and everything in between.
We hope to see you tonight,March 18 at 9 pm CST.
How I use my StrengthsFinder Strengths of Focus and Achiever to Get Stuff Done
How do you get stuff done?
Two strengths that have always been there for me, and continue to drive my day to day life are Focus and Achiever. The combination of these two strengths working in concert for me never stop helping me.
Focus
People strong in the Focus Theme can take a direction, follow through, and make the corrections necessary to stay on track. They prioritize, then act.
Achiever
People strong in the Achiever Theme have a great deal of stamina and work hard. They take great satisfaction from being busy and productive.
How Focus and Achiever Pair
Almost every day I get out of bed and think, “What do I want to get done today, and what should I start with?” Achiever is my engine. I must get things done each and every day or I will go to bed feeling as if something is amiss. Focus is my guide. Focus takes the 100’s of things I want to do each and every day and puts them into a prioritized order.
Focus is my Get out of Jail Free Card
Focus works even better under deadlines. When you give me a certain deadline, I will do whatever it takes to get things done before that deadline. It allows me to block out everything else in order to get things done.
I had a short career as a high school volleyball player, and now I understand how I played because of Focus. When I was in the back row ready to receive the ball from the opposing team, I focused so much on the ball coming to me, I could see the rotation, (or lack) and anticipate which way it was moving. I would execute the pass to the setter and focus on what was happening next.
The strength of Focus was so strong that I could almost never hear what my coach was telling me to do until the play was over. Later when I started coaching I realized I was constantly telling my players to focus! Little did I know this was how I was wired. Not all players are wired to focus. Now I am a bit more aware of my use of that phrase with my players.
Achiever Drives me Constantly
When I am able to check something off a to do list, it feels fantastic – for a minute. Then, a rumble starts in my brain that leads me to ask, what’s next? This strength is something I try to leverage for whatever organization I am working for or client we are with. If someone lets me know what needs to get done, I help them figure out how we can get it done and with who.
Every strength has a balcony and a basement. This is something I learned from one of my best trainers during my time studying at Gallup at their corporate headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. Stosh Walsh pushed us to think about what our strengths look like when they were at their best and when they were at their worst. I had been through a number of Gallup trainings around strengths and this was the first time someone had pushed us in this direction.
My Strengths Basement
I love my strengths of Focus and Achiever but they can also drive me to never stop, never break, and towards burnout. That is the basement of those strengths. I try and stay away from it as much as possible.
How? I funnel my achievement into health and exercise not just work. I make sure achievement and focus turns at my marriage, my son and my friends. Those things are more important than anything I do in my career.
I mostly stay out of the basement of my strengths and love the fact that I have Focus and Achiever.
Your Strengths Basement and Balcony
What combinations of strengths do you see working in your own life? How do you keep your strengths in the balcony and stay out of the basement? Share in the comments below.
Exploring the StrengthsFinder Theme of Competition®
Which is better… this one or that one? Which man is the fastest? Who is the smartest? Who is the best in her field? These questions can spin in the mind of someone with the Strength of Competition® whose main objective is to make comparisons.
Defining the StrengthsFinder Theme of Competition®
The person with the StrengthsFinder Theme of Competition® wants to know how they are doing. These people actually enjoy having their performance measured; they want to know their grades or where they place among others.
In fact, many people with the StrengthsFinder Theme of Competition® have said that they need to know how they are doing. This type of measurement is how they gain meaning from what they are doing and even proves to be a determining factor in whether or not they will do something at all.
People with the Strength of Competition® see the world around them in comparison. They often compare one thing to another, compare people with other people, or compare their thoughts and ideas. They have an amazing energy and drive to be engaged and to succeed. This need to succeed, and the ability to predetermine success, is what usually energizes this person.
People with the Strength of Competition® feel they can succeed at something, because they have the ability to assess a given situation, compare the elements at hand, and know with some certainty that they can win.
It is key to know that the Strength of Competition® motivates people to be involved and to invite others to give them meaningful feedback. Feedback is a form of measurement. They want to know, “How am I doing?” or, “Can I do better?” They often ask these questions in the midst of doing something. This is the way the Strength of Competition® can facilitate useful comparison and measurement.
Competition® is primarily a way of thinking long before it ever becomes a way of doing. Most often, the Strength of Competition® is seen when someone is actually competing to win. Yet, with the Strength of Competition®, there is typically a long process of thought, experience, and preparation that occurs before the actual “competing” takes place.
How Competition® can be Generative
Competition® is generative when it inspires oneself to do their best with a positive impact on others. Competition® is also generative when it inspires others to do their best, through motivation or offering constructive forms of measurement. People with the Strength of Competition® capture others’ attention because of their drive to succeed and their achievements. This raises the level of other’s engagement, then everyone benefits.
People with Competition® respond to;
- High performance
- High productivity
- High inspiration
Behavioral Examples of Competition®
Here is an example of Competition® “in parallel”:
Think of a running race on an 8 lane track or a swimming event in an 8 lane pool. In these races, the competitors are able to immediately measure and calculate their performance in parallel with the competitors right next to them. With the person with the Strength of Competition®, this action of “in parallel” can happen physically, intellectually or practically.
One woman with Competition® remarked that for her, it wasn’t necessarily a drive to win, but the act of comparison that helps her gain her bearings. Then she knew where she stood, and then came the drive to excel beyond those standings.
Your Competition®
If you have the StrengthsFinder Theme of Competition®, what are ways you use measurement to motivate?
