Self Reflection

Over the course of the past few weeks I have been delving into the science of positive psychology, which is "a framework, or a paradigm, than encompasses an approach to psychology from the perspective of healthy, successful life functioning". The topics include optimism, positive emotions, spirituality, happiness, satisfaction, personal development and well being. Have taken the "StrengthsFinder" assessment, I have identified my five most dominant themes of talent and having read several books on the strengths movement I was ready to sit down and examine the results. Surprisingly (or not), I found that my five dominant themes (there are thirty-four in all) of talent actually resonate with my thinking about who I am and what I do well. Talent, by the way, is defined as those recurring patterns of thought, feeling or behavior that you can productively apply. Strength is defined as "consistent near perfect performance of an activity". The idea is that once you identify your talents you apply knowledge and skills to build strength and by focusing on building strength you become a more successful person. You are strongly encouraged to avoid focusing on your weaknesses as excellence is only achieved by developing strengths.

Okay, so I have my five dominant themes (Adaptability, Empathy, Communication, Learner and Intellection........the rank order is relative, but only slightly and certainly not enough to matter according to The Gallup Organization, the firm that stands behind much of the work done in this area) and my challenge now is to determine how I can build on this knowledge and leverage it to ensure that I seek roles that allow me to maximize my strengths. Actually, this is good stuff and it makes sense. Why should we spend all those hours focused on improving our weaknesses when in reality they are often not weaknesses at all, but rather just areas in which we don't have any talent? Take Empathy for example: according to my assessment, I have a talent for sensing the emotions of those around me. I have always described it as being sensitive to the feelings of others, but let's not split hairs. On the other hand, I have worked with numerous colleagues over the years that had absolutely zero time for emotions or the feelings of others. In fact, they often criticized me for me too sensitive, for caring too much, or not being more aloof. On the other hand, I have also worked with folks who sensed that I possessed this talent and would use me to gauge the temperature when we were about to launch a major project that had organizational implications. I have also on occasion acted as a buffer between a boss who did not have a talent for empathy and others in the organization who had to interact with him or her. I don't think I have ever thought about it as a talent per se, but now that I understand that it is indeed a talent I can nurture it and use it in combination with my other talents to become a better person.

I know that this is rather deep for a Monday afternoon, but the whole approach is consistent with one of my other talents, namely that of being a "Learner", which means that I love to learn and that for me the process is more exciting than achieving any specific outcome. Reading about this particular theme of talent really helped me understand why I have always been so comfortable with having never completed any of the degree programs I engaged; i.e.: it has never been about the degree. It has always (for me) been about the process of learning. I always feel the best about myself when I'm striving to learn.......when I reading a history book or studying the science of search engine optimization or learning about film editing......it often doesn't matter what it is that I've decided to learn about as long as it interests me on some level. The fact that this talent can also be strength doesn't surprise me, but confirming it through learning absolutely delights me.

Okay, so the message for today is that perhaps you too should learn about your talents and think about your real strengths before you allow some well meaning HR department to send you off to work on your weaknesses. Remember, excellence is achieved by maximizing our strengths and that a strength is "consistent near perfect performance in an activity"!