One of the things that I obviously needed reminding of doing is going back over my Clifton Strength Assessment scores. Last fall (after basically being laid off due to budget cuts) I was in a personal/professional development/assessment kick and took the Clifton Strength Assessment quiz to try to figure out what some of my strengths and weaknesses were. After taking the quiz and looking at the results—I basically filed it all under “okay, done, check, and move on”. I’d basically forgotten about these results until I started to read the book “YouMap: Find Yourself, Blaze Your Path, Show the World!” by Kristin Sherry.
One of the things that she suggested in the book was either taking the Clifton Strength Assessment quiz, or reading through the thirty-four different strengths and trying to see which ones would be in our top five. I’d thought that I’d taken the quiz, searched my laptop and wouldn’t you know it—I saved the results. I had both the top five strengths, and the full assessment as well.
This quiz/assessment ranks you on thirty-four different traits—and as the author states even if something isn’t in your top area, doesn’t mean you incapable of that over-arching theme. This assessment is just one of the many windows we can look through in trying to determine what our strengths and weaknesses are—it will also can give us a clue on things we might want to try to improve on; though moving one strength up means that another has to move down.
I’ve always realized that I’m a unique individual and that one of my weaknesses is always trying to get along with other people and not make waves. Taking the strength assessment has allowed for me to see exactly how unique I am—as very few people have the same assessment profile.
My Clifton Strength Assessment Profile is as follows:
- Learner
- Intellection
- Input
- Achiever
- Deliberative
- Strategic
- Arranger
- Restorative
- Empathy
- Consistency
- Connectedness
- Positivity
- Analytical
- Context
- Futuristic
- Adaptability
- Self-Assurance
- Responsibility
- Ideation
- Focus
- Developer
- Relator
- Includer
- Belief
- Communication
- Discipline
- Harmony
- Significance
- Individualization
- Competition
- Activator
- Maximizer
- Command
- Woo
These traits are divided into four different categories: Relating and Influencing (People-facing traits), and then Thinking and Executing (Inward facing traits). My top five strengths are within the inward facing traits (3 are within the thinking category and the other two are within the executing category). Even if I look at just the top half (so the first seventeen), majority are still within the inward facing traits (there would only be four traits from the relating category, and one trait from the influencing category).
Basically this is telling me that I’m happier (or maybe more at ease) when I’m in a position to do more investigate work (or as I see it—being at the bench). While harmony was low on the list—I still feel like this is a higher trait at times, because I do try to get along with everyone and not really rock the boat (I don’t like confrontations) when at work. This also has me realizing that I really don’t like (or put much effort) into trying to sway people’s opinions (which could also explain why I haven’t really built up my Beachbody business), as the bottom five traits are all within the influencer category.
Basically I’m someone who is more than willing to think on a problem and come up with possible ideas/solutions for said problem. Seven of the eight “thinking” traits are in the top half of my list (ideation is towards the top of the bottom half at number 19). Five out of nine executing traits are also in my top half. I’m better at relating to people than I am at trying to influence them.
This also means that as I’m moving forward in job search/transition this coming year I need to make sure that I’m going with jobs that reflect my strengths (and still try to strengthen some of my “weaknesses”). This means that I also need to start pushing myself again in terms of becoming a lifelong learner again (something I’ve been slightly slacking on the past couple of years).
So what are my goals (based on this assessment)?
Become a lifelong learner again.
Job search strategically
Network strategically
Find unique ways of accountability
Basically the main goals for 2019—transition into an industry position, and find the joy in learning again. Also as I start looking at other personal and professional development assessment tools, I will find a way to blend them all together—this will allow for me to develop a transition plan that uniquely me and hopefully help me start my reinvention of myself.
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