What are Your Strengths?

I just took an interesting workshop at work related to determining what my strengths are. As you all know, I’m always up for a personality assessment. I take them all with a grain of salt, but I always learn something from them. This workshop was based upon this book (which you can buy on Amazon)

The online assessment comes included as part of the cost of the book. Yes, that means if you buy the book, you can receive the personal assessment without taking the course. The assessment really is personalized – I compared mine to a couple of coworkers with the same strengths and we received significantly different data.

After some reflection, my strengths were pretty much on target.

• Relator – I develop close relationship with people and my friends trust my judgment when they need advice.
• Learner – I am curious and dig deeply into topics that attract my interest.
• Command – I push people to excel.
• Significance – I need to be be independent and for people to take me seriously.
• Input – I collect information like some people collect shoes.

The one that really resonated with me is the last one – Input. I am currently reading 3 books at once. I have a stack of 4 more on my “to read” list right now and my library due date is looming large. I have more interests than I can count. I’ve always been frustrated when I hear “just take your favorite hobby and turn it into a business and you can be successful.” I think that’s because I don’t know where to start. My short list for favorite hobbies is a crazy laundry list. Weight training and nutrition. Sports cars. Volleyball. Investing. Cooking and using local produce. Business strategy. Leadership and management. Social media. Chronic disease management. Photography. Gardening and landscaping. Birdwatching. Kayaking. Eldercare. Wine. Construction. Green technologies.

This opened my eyes. My favorite hobby is processing information. Weird way of looking at it, but that’s exactly what it is.

The book is small and a quick read and I’d recommend it.