StrengthsFinder

The past few weeks I've been a madman trying to get some things done that will get us ready for the fall.  One of the things I'm committed to doing is giving away as much as I can... empowering people to use their gifts and strengths to help take Journey to the next level.  A while back I was turned on to Marcus Buckingham and his books on leadership.  In them he has a resource called "StrengthsFinder".  As I've read a couple of his books, (Now, discover your strengths and Go, put your strengths to work)  Each has a code for the StrengthsFinder test.  I took the test and it gave me my top 5 out of 34 strengths.  My strengths are:  1)Futuristic; 2)Strategic; 3)Maximizer; 4)Belief and 5) Communication.  I thought it was pretty cool because those are the areas where I have the most passion... I made Sonja take it and her Top 5 were Harmony; Belief; Arranger; Responsibility; and Developer.   It's cool because she said... "that's exactly who I am."  We gave the test to Abby and Seth (they have a kid version called StrengthsExplorer) and they discovered their strengths as well (Abby's was Relating (strength with people), Presence (up front telling stories, taking the lead) and Acheiving (strive for sense of accomplishment);  Seth's were Competing (no mystery there!); Presence and Relating. 

If you're a parent, I'd highly recommend doing this with your kids... It's fun and they even throw in some activities to build on their strengths.  I'm going to make all of our ministry team take the test so that we can know each other's strengths and that will help as we empower people to act.

Like I said, I'm giving away a bunch of stuff... because I want to focus on my areas of greatest strengths... that will help us do what Jim Collins said in "Good to Great" :  "...put the right people on the right seats on the right bus." 

Don't be surprised, Journey folks, when I ask you to take this StrengthsFinder test... We simply want to help you get plugged in to the ministry where you can operate at full capacity.

Comments

[Kemp Howland]

I would LOVE to know my strengths based on the Clifton StrengthFinder assessment. However, the assessment website has so many problems (lost results, no results, no technical support and no customer service) I am wondering if the whole thing is just a scam. Read the forum on the website. Most of the people taking the assessment are not getting any results, and no help whatsoever from Gallup. What a shame.

[Chris]

I ended up doing the same thing. I had the book and was intrigued enough to get it for a few other people to see if their profiles seemed to fit them as well as mine seemed to capture me (that's my skeptical side). It's a pretty neat book - actually I've enjoyed most of the books put out by Gallup and Buckingham.

I've been searching for other people who have had a similar experience with the book - which is how I stumbled on your blog. It's neat to see the different reactions!

I'd be curious to know more details about what you found in the StrengthExplorer since I haven't looked at that one yet. How do you see yourself using that with the children in your life (yours as well as others)? Is this a tool that can help the parenting and direction in a consistent manner? Or is it something that needs to evolve more?