I recently finished the book Now Discover Your Strengths by Buckingham and Clifton. It’s a pretty interesting read, and describes how we spend far too much time trying to fix our weaknesses instead of capitalizing on our strengths. The book has two primary points: 1) each person’s talents are enduring and unique, and 2) each person’s greatest room for growth is in the areas of his or her greatest strength.
When you focus on your weaknesses, the book argues, you are striving to improve yourself in areas that you simply aren't good at. Doing this cannot result in excellence, and should only be attempted as “damage control” to ensure that your weaknesses preclude you from total failure. Rather, honing your strengths will provide the greatest return on investment, as you are then striving to improve the very characteristics that you are best at, that make you who you are, and that you naturally enjoy.
Now Discover Your Strengths describes thirty-four strength themes, and the book includes a digital code which allows the reader to take an online assessment. The assessment then provides a list of the reader’s top five strength themes. I took this assessment myself, and found the results to be uncanny in their accuracy. And so, over the next couple of weeks, I would like to make myself a little vulnerable and share my strengths with you, dear reader. I think they will help give you a better understanding of who I am, how I view the world, and how I interact with those around me. Stay tuned!
When you focus on your weaknesses, the book argues, you are striving to improve yourself in areas that you simply aren't good at. Doing this cannot result in excellence, and should only be attempted as “damage control” to ensure that your weaknesses preclude you from total failure. Rather, honing your strengths will provide the greatest return on investment, as you are then striving to improve the very characteristics that you are best at, that make you who you are, and that you naturally enjoy.
Now Discover Your Strengths describes thirty-four strength themes, and the book includes a digital code which allows the reader to take an online assessment. The assessment then provides a list of the reader’s top five strength themes. I took this assessment myself, and found the results to be uncanny in their accuracy. And so, over the next couple of weeks, I would like to make myself a little vulnerable and share my strengths with you, dear reader. I think they will help give you a better understanding of who I am, how I view the world, and how I interact with those around me. Stay tuned!