Strengths Finder--Me Vs. My Twin

On a recent trip with my twin brother, we talked about our difference and similarities and I urged him to take the Clifton Strengthsfinder test from Gallup.  I had taken this test some 6 years ago and have lived by its results ever since.  My results are:

Strategic
Achiever
Positivity
Woo
Learner
(Ideation was a close one too--and it showed up on my original test)


Here are my twin's results
Context
Responsibility
Consistency
Relator
Analytical

As Buckingham says in the video above " I know that I'm different than my brother, sister" and it's amazing to me that two people nurtured and raised in the same environment have such distince differences in strengths.  Guess it just goes to prove the scriptural basis "that I'm an fearfully and wonderfully made" and that my creator knows my individuality.

What are your strengths?

Where to take the Strengthsfinder test

Strengths-Learner

The final strength I'll highlight here is LEARNER.  It's the strength that popped up in the last test of Strengths Finder.

I'm not surprised since I love to read and learn.  It's been the way that I've kept up with technology and trends.   I read these periodicals:

Wired

Fast Company

 Dynamic Graphics/Create Magazine

I'm most happy when I have a couple of books working in my head and I try to sythesize the material into my life. 

Learner

• You love to learn. The subject matter that interests you most will be determined by your other themes and experiences, but whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning. 
• The process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you. 
• You are energized by the steady and deliberate journey from ignorance to competence.
• The thrill of the first few facts, the early efforts to recite or practice 
• What you have learned, the growing confidence of a skill mastered — this is the process that entices you. 
• Your excitement leads you to engage in adult learning experiences — yoga or piano lessons or graduate classes. It enables you to thrive in dynamic work environments where you are asked to take on short project assignments and are expected to learn a lot about the new subject matter in a short period of time and then move on to the next one. 
• This Learner theme does not necessarily mean that you seek to become the subject matter expert, or that you are striving for the respect that accompanies a professional or academic credential. 
• The outcome of the learning is less significant than the “getting there.” 

So, are you a learner?

Strengths-Woo

This strength has to have the most peculiar names--WOO.  When it first came up on my results, I thought "What is that?" WOO stands for Winning Others Over--and I discovered that most extroverted people have this gift.  It means that you meet people well--be it first impressions and such--and make people feel at ease.   Yeah, I think I do that.  Here's what else is included in WOO.
Woo

• Woo stands for winning others over. 
• You enjoy the challenge of meeting new people and getting them to like you. 
• Strangers are rarely intimidating to you. On the contrary, strangers can be energizing. You are drawn to them. 
• You want to learn their names, ask them questions, and find some area of common interest so that you can strike up a conversation and build rapport. 
• Some people shy away from starting up conversations because they worry about running out of things to say. You don’t. 
• Not only are you rarely at a loss for words; you actually enjoy initiating with strangers because you derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a con- nection. 
• Once that connection is made, you are quite happy to wrap it up and move on. 
• There are new people to meet, new rooms to work, new crowds to mingle in. In your world there are no strangers, only friends you haven’t met yet — lots of them.

Yep--that's me!

What are your strengths?

Strengths-Ideation

When I first took Strengths Finder Ideation was my number two strength.  When I took it again 4 years later--it was number 6 and as I read it is not uncommon for secondary strengths to move up and down in your scores.  Still, I beleiver that IDEATION is one of my key gifts.  I do identify with the description below as I love to think conceptually and mull over small ideas and see where they lead.
Ideation

• You are fascinated by ideas. What is an idea? An idea is a concept, the best explanation of the most events. 
  
• You are delighted when you discover beneath the complex surface an elegantly simple concept to explain why things are the way they are. 
• An idea is a connection. Yours is the kind of mind that is always looking for con- nections, and so you are intrigued when seemingly disparate phenomena can be linked by an obscure con- nection. 
• An idea is a new perspective on familiar challenges. 
• You revel in taking the world we all know and turning it around so we can view it from a strange but strangely enlightening angle. 
• You love all these ideas because they are profound, because they are novel, because they are clarifying, because they are contrary, because they are bizarre. For all these reasons you derive a jolt of energy whenever a new idea occurs to you. 
• Others may label you creative or original or conceptual or even smart. Perhaps you are all of these. Who can be sure? What you are sure of is that ideas are thrilling. And on most days this is enough.

What are your strengths?

Strengths-Positivity

This is one of the strengths that I have little problem embracing.  I think it is essentially me ( spiritually me as I believe my spiritual gift is exhortation).  I find that when I used my gift of encouragement that I feel the most alive and the most joyful.  It's just who I am. 

Positivity

• You are generous with praise, quick to smile, and always on the lookout for the positive in the situation. 
  
• Some call you lighthearted. Others just wish that their glass were as full as yours seems to be. But either way, people want to be around you. Their world looks better around you because your enthusiasm is contagious. 
• Lacking your energy and optimism, some find their world drab with repetition or, worse, heavy with pressure. 
• You seem to find a way to lighten their spirit. 
• You inject drama into every project. 
• You celebrate every achievement. 
• You find ways to make everything more exciting and more vital. 
• Some cynics may reject your energy, but you are rarely dragged down. Your Positivity won’t allow it. 
• Somehow you can’t quite escape your conviction that it is good to be alive, that work can be fun, and that no matter what the setbacks, one must never lose one’s sense of humor. 

I can't always say that I operate 100% in this strength, but I do find great meaning in exercising this gift.

What are your strengths?

Strengths- Achiever

Continuing with my posts on Strengths......

Today's strength is Achiever.  This is a characteristic that I've struggled with for some time as it can be a negative--but for me it seems to be the driving force for each project and each goal that I've set.

Achiever

• Instinctively, you might devote some of your attention to immediate tasks or challenges. This partially explains why you give yourself time to comprehend what you read on the printed page or the computer screen.
• Diligence, persistence, and concentration might be three of your distinguishing traits. It’s very likely that you feel greatly rewarded when your hours of hard work are acknowledged.
• You truly treasure compliments from people who share your strong work ethic. By nature, you traditionally determine for yourself and others what should be done. After you have made up your mind, you typically waste little time moving forward with projects or assignments.
• Driven by your talents, you are eager to get started on a project once you realize what you can accomplish in the coming weeks, months, or years.
• You work very hard to breathe life into your big dreams. These often push and pull you into the future.
• Chances are good that you are determined to talk about the talents, skills, and knowledge you possess. You realize you receive much in return when you risk sharing your thoughts and expertise.
• You improve personally or professionally each time you participate in the give- and-take process.

All of these characteristics are so action oriented.   The struggle comes for me in making sure that my motives are always in check, that I'm not trying to accomplish things in the flesh and in my own human talent, but trying to operate in the spiritual realm.    The life that is breathed into my dreams comes only from Him.

So what are your strengths?

Strengths--Strategic

If you've hung around the Drakemeister any length of time, you'll have heard me talk about STRENGTHS FINDER (from Gallup).  These 34 different areas of strength have been a defining understanding of my inner gifts and skills.  The more I read about it the more I believe in it.

In this series of posts, I'm going to discuss these strengths (5 in all) and how they relate to my understanding.  It may sound a little self-serving, but I hope it will give you insight to how I'm wired.

Today, it's my top strength, STRATEGIC.  (from my Strengths Based Leadership Test)

Because of your strengths, 

• You invent original ideas of your own.
• Your imagination is typically stimulated when you collaborate -- that is, team up -- with future-oriented thinkers. 
• Instinctively, you are known for your ease with language. This ability serves you well when you need to talk with newcomers or outsiders. 
• Your vocabulary probably allows you to tell stories or express your ideas with great clarity. 
• Driven by your talents, you may see solutions before other people know there is a problem. 
• You might start formulating answers before your teammates, coworkers, or classmates understand the question. 
• Sometimes you generate numerous ideas before sorting to the one that makes the most sense in a particular situation. 
• By nature, you may be inclined to examine the basic elements of certain types of problems. 
• You might attempt to understand how and why things work or fail to work.
• These insights might stimulate your thinking. Then you try to generate a few alternative plans. 
• Considering prevailing circumstances, available resources, and time constraints, you might narrow down your options. Perhaps the plan that offers the best chance of solving the problem naturally reveals itself. 
• Chances are good that you select the right combination of words to convey your ideas or feelings. In the middle of discussions, your vocabulary provides you with precise phrases and terminology. 
• You probably express yourself with ease and grace. 

Now I know that makes me sound like a military genius (which I'm not) or some skilled psychopath who is OC (which I might be)

The definition for STRATEGIC---

People strong in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

Yep--that's me...looking for alternative ways and relevant patterns.   Not bragging--just saying that my mind is always looking for answers and patterns and then trying to communicate that to the world.

So what is your number one Strength?

Other Posts: And My Strengths Are