Today I participated in some professional development that centered around Strengths Quest- a type indicator that identifies behavioral strengths. This type indicator has moved past the point of supplying us with the latest business-fad to cementing itself a one of the most commonly used team builders in the country. With good reason. The test highlights major themes that serve as strengths for each of us. So naturally, being the self-concerned human beings that we have evolved in to, we respond to learning about what we do well and how we can maximize on those strengths to improve final results, enhance communication and ultimately find a lens to view one another with that accomplishes a greater and more worthwhile sense of teamwork.
I found this particular tool to be quite useful and more indicative of who I am and how I relate to people, versus say a career assessment or a personality type indicator. I think the SF hits at the root of something more practical in naming the behavioral themes that are most prevalent for you. Immediately during the session today I began to think about how I could use this particular tool with the students I advise, the advisory council I oversee and how I could adapt the lessons for college student-leaders specifically. The fact that I was trailing off ad already mentally connecting how I would apply this elsewhere is entirely rooted in my own personal top 5 themes: individualization, learner, relator, input and achiever.
Also during the session we were given four leadership competency groups that the themes fall in to. I began to draw parallels with these competences and main ideas that Malcom Gladwell writes about in his book 'The Tipping Point.' Gladwell highlights how social phenomenon takes flight through mavens, salesmen and connectors. The message getting to the right people at the time can create a type of wildfire. The message can spread rapidly. In the past year, I have tailored this idea to working with student groups. Using the law of mavens, connectors an salesmen, student-leaders can identify whom will carry the group's message of goals/intended outcomes at the on-set of the new term for those student-leaders.
In a way, this identification process is similar to the SF but instead of an introspective identification of one's strengths the process to name those strength themes has been undertaken by peers. The lens then cannot be a self-reporting one. So the question I am pondering is this.... How closely aligned do our peers' lenses exist with our own? Is it possible that what I perceive about myself is what my friends, teammates and co-workers also perceive? What instruments or literature exists to bring these two points of view to an intersection?
