Eight days of vacation allowed my typing fingers to get a little computer-shy as they were actively flipping through pages in The Poisonwood Bible or shuffling a deck of cards to prepare for another round of "Shove It". I am certain I did learn something everyday but as the sun rose and fell the thought of going on the internet continued to sound like the last thing I wanted to get sucked into while I was at my family's cottage in Grand Haven. I apologize. Instead of backtracking a week I will let you know what I learned today. I have been going through the interview process for a Marketing job with the Center for Community Leadership and after a phone interview and a face-to-face they have asked me to complete three different 'assessments'. The first one was The Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI) which examined my working, learning and thinking style and its relationship to the people I interact with on a daily basis...according to the description. The second one was the Koble Index A which aims to measure my approach or work style--how I do things. It is an indicator of I you will solve problems, make decisions, use my time and use my energy. Both of these assessments I thought were fine but I didn't really get the results from them so I have no idea how similar their results are to my own personal interpretation of myself.
The final assessment that I took was a little different. I had to pick up a book called StrengthFinders 2.0 from the Chamber, read the first few chapters and then take the assessment online with a unique password that came with the book. The assessment took me around 35 minutes and then immediately gave me my individual results. The focus of this assesment was to (in case you couldn't assume based on the title) help you find your strengths. Tom Rath (the author) in collaboration with Gallup research argue that each person has greater potential for success in specific areas and the key to human development is building on who you already are. I am intrigued with this concept of honing in on your innate strengths and I have to say that I think their results nailed my strengths to a tee, even though I had never noticed certain things they pointed out about me were actually strengths. I would definitely encourage others to check it out.
Long story long, today I learned a little bit about my personal strengths and how important it is to embrace what your good at and work with that.
My Top 5 Themes:
- Maximizer (People who are especially talented in the Maximizer theme focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. They seek to transform something strong into something superb.)
- Input (People who are especially talented in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.) Sound familar? Haha
- Woo (People who are especially talented in the Woo theme love the challenge of meeting new people and winning them over. They derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection with another person.)
- Includer (People who are especially talented in the Includer theme are accepting of others. They show awareness of those who feel left out, and make an effort to include them.)
- Communication (People who are especially talented in the Communication theme generally find it easy to put their thoughts into words. They are good conversationalists and presenters.)
What do you think your greatest strengths are? Have you ever had to take any assessments for jobs? (No, a drug test doesn't count!)
- Lizzie