My Signature Themes - Strengths & Behaviours
Many years of research conducted by The Gallup Organisation suggest that the most effective people are those who understand their strengths and behaviours. These people are best able to develop strategies to meet and exceed the demands of their daily lives, their careers, and their families.
A review of the knowledge and skills you have acquired can provide a basic sense of your abilities, but an awareness and understanding of your natural talents will provide true insight into the core reasons behind your consistent success.
The Signature Themes report below presents my five most dominant themes of talent, in the rank order revealed by my responses to the StrengthsFinder* test. Of the 34 themes measured, these are my "top five.
My Signature Themes are very important in maximising the talents that lead to my successes. By focusing on my Signature Themes, separately and in combination, I can identify my talents, build them into strengths, and enjoy personal and career success through consistent, near-perfect performance.
Maximizer
Excellence, not average, is my measure. Taking something from below average to slightly above average takes a great deal of effort and in my opinion is not very rewarding. Transforming something strong into something superb takes just as much effort but is much more thrilling. Strengths, whether mine or someone else’s, fascinate me. Like a diver after pearls, I search them out, watching for the telltale signs of a strength.
A glimpse of untutored excellence, rapid learning, a skill mastered without recourse to steps — all these are clues that a strength may be in play. And having found a strength, I feel compelled to nurture it, refine it, and stretch it toward excellence. I polish the pearl until it shines. This natural sorting of strengths means that others see me as discriminating. I choose to spend time with people who appreciate my particular strengths. Likewise, I am attracted to others who seem to have found and cultivated their own strengths.
I tend to avoid those who want to fix me and make me well rounded. I don’t want to spend my life bemoaning what I lack. Rather, I want to capitalize on the gifts with which I am blessed. It’s more fun. It’s more productive. And, counterintuitively, it is more demanding.
Connectedness
Things happen for a reason. I am sure of it. I am sure of it because in my soul I know that we are all connected. Yes, we are individuals, responsible for our own judgements and in possession of our own free will, but nonetheless we are part of something larger. Some may call it the collective unconscious. Others may label it spirit or life force.
But whatever your word of choice, I gain confidence from knowing that we are not isolated from one another or from the earth and the life on it. This feeling of Connectedness implies certain responsibilities. If we are all part of a larger picture, then we must not harm others because we will be harming ourselves. We must not exploit because we will be exploiting ourselves. My awareness of these responsibilities creates my value system.
I am considerate, caring, and accepting. Certain of the unity of humankind, I am a bridge builder for people of different cultures. Sensitive to the invisible hand, I can give others comfort that there is a purpose beyond our humdrum lives. The exact articles of my faith will depend on my upbringing and my culture, but my faith is strong. It sustains me and my close friends in the face of life’s mysteries.
Ideation
I am fascinated by ideas. What is an idea? An idea is a concept, the best explanation of the most events. I am delighted when I discover beneath the complex surface an elegantly simple concept to explain why things are the way they are. An idea is a connection.
Mine is the kind of mind that is always looking for connections, and so I am intrigued when seemingly disparate phenomena can be linked by an obscure connection. An idea is a new perspective on familiar challenges. I revel in taking the world we all know and turning it around so we can view it from a strange but strangely enlightening angle. I 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 I derive a jolt of energy whenever a new idea occurs to me. Others may label me creative or original or conceptual or even smart. Perhaps I am all of these. Who can be sure? What I am sure of is that ideas are thrilling. And on most days this is enough.
Strategic
The Strategic theme enables me to sort through the clutter and find the best route. It is not a skill that can be taught. It is a distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on the world at large. This perspective allows me to see patterns where others simply see complexity. Mindful of these patterns, I play out alternative scenarios, always asking, “What if this happened? Okay, well what if this happened?” This recurring question helps me see around the next corner.
There I can evaluate accurately the potential obstacles. Guided by where I see each path leading, I start to make selections.
I discard the paths that lead nowhere.
I discard the paths that lead straight into resistance.
I discard the paths that lead into a fog of confusion.
I cull and make selections until I arrive at the chosen path — my strategy.
Armed with my strategy, I strike forward. This is my Strategic theme at work: “What if?” Select. Strike
Adaptability
I live in the moment. I don’t see the future as a fixed destination. Instead, I see it as a place that I create out of the choices that I make right now. And so I discover my future one choice at a time. This doesn’t mean that I don’t have plans. I probably do. But this theme of Adaptability does enable me to respond willingly to the demands of the moment even if they pull me away from my plans.
Unlike some, I don’t resent sudden requests or unforeseen detours. I expect them. They are inevitable. Indeed, on some level I actually look forward to them. I am, at heart, a very flexible person who can stay productive when the demands of work are pulling me in many different directions at once.
Note
This is not the first time I have done this test. I first did it many years ago and when I repeated it recently I retained two of the original strengths and the other three changed. This apparently reflects how we change our view on life as time goes by!
*To find out more about the Strengthfinder test and the background to the huge amount of research carried out across over 2 million people see the book ‘Now Discover Your Strengths’ by Marcus Buckingham.
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