Strengthsquest Strengths

Strengths Finder 2.0, an online test that proposes to find your talents best suited for development. Another personality test in a sea of others, Strengths Finder does little to distinguish itself. Through poor wording, ambiguity, and no fact checks available, Strengths

After completing the strength finder 2.0 assessment, the five strengths that were identified were Focus, Achiever, Learner, Intellection and Discipline.

In addition to assessing my current state through skills assessments, such as ALIS, strength based assessments have been shown to be more useful for career development. One example is StrengthsQuest (Gallup, 2016) which is a program that aims to help students to discover and take advantage of their personal strengths. StrengthsQuest is being used across campuses and organizations to develop strength maps for project teams and working groups. Strength maps help to identify strengths and weaknesses within a group plan and accordingly, plan for success.

The purpose of the Clifton Strength Finder is identification of the unique and natural abilities you possess. The Clifton Strength Finder reveals my innate aptitude falls into the themes of connectedness, empathy, belief, relator, and developer. These themes have implications for the way my inherent strengths can best be utilized within my personal and professional life. The theme of developer highlights my natural inclination for seeing the potential within others rather than limitations, moreover the gift of creating experiences

In Learning and Motivation class we discovered what our natural strengths are and how we can use them to help us succeed in

Based on the Clifton Strengths Assessment my top five strengths are strategic, deliberative, learner, maximize and individualization. As an individual, I rarely look into my weakness. I believe that when your too focused on your weakness, you forget about your strengths. Everything the book said is true, and we need to take the time to look at our strengths and make it perfect. It is true that in this world or the school system, we are taught to look at our weakness and correct it so that we can become stronger in our life. This book brings out the truth that I longed to hear for a long time. Invariably, I hear my professor tell their students that for them success in life, they must practice and look at our weakness. This book proves it wrong because for us to become successful, we must stay to our strengths’ path.

My top strength identified was the Achiever theme. Achiever describes the need for constant achievement. Achievers have the capacity and the drive to keep taking on new challenges and strive toward new goals (Rath, 2007). This description is accurate in that I enjoy a new challenge and like to keep busy working towards anything with some sort of successful outcome. I welcome the opportunity to do something better, more perfectly, or more complete which motivates me to a higher level (Rath, 2007).

Tom Rath began working with a group of scientists in 1998 to start a conversation about our strengths (Rath, 2007). A 40-year study, led by Donald O. Clifton, helped to create a language of common talents, and in 2001, included this assessment into their bestselling management book Now, Discover Your Strengths (Rath, 2007). During their study, they found out that “people who do have the opportunity to focus on their strengths every day are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life in general” (Rath, 2007, pg. iii). A major problem with this was a majority of people were either unsure of or unable to explain their strengths (Rath, 2007). When developing StrengthFinder 2.0, the ultimate goal was to build upon your true strengths which take practice and hard work (Rath, 2007).

Discovering ones strengths is an important process that every young adult should strive to achieve, that is why I was excited to take the Gallup Strengthfinder Assessment. This test aims to highlight each individual’s unique assets, which is possible by completing a short evaluation. Then the poll produces the top five signature themes out of thirty-four possible options. Like many, I was very eager to learn something new about myself. This came as no surprise once I received my test results which are closely related to knowledge.

Bethel University provides students with a self-assessment survey. (Bethel University, 2014). The comprehensive manner in which the survey is designed provides students the opportunity to explore their strong and weak skills. This survey is advantageous for students who desire to improve on their weaknesses as well as their strengths. Honesty and integrity are required when responding to the survey, otherwise, self-improvement diminishes. Completing the survey enabled me to discover my weaknesses and strengths. Observing my results caused feelings of competency to inadequacy. However, these feelings soon subsided, and I began to realize the potential for self-improvement. Clearly now I see my strong skills and the dearth of skills in my

Strength-based advising is an approach used to identify strengths that students have, and apply those strength to formulate short and long-term college and career goals. Strength-based advising allows the student to focus more on their skills and abilities that can help them progress, rather than dwell on past weaknesses that they may have encountered. This advising approach is a new adaptation to higher education advising and is similar to strength-based approaches used in social work, business, and psychology. (Schreiner & Anderson, 2005)

Knowing my own strengths will help me be successful in a learning community. I have noticed that I have good strengths and others I can work on. I noticed these strengths and weaknesses throughout my lifetime by working with others in group activities.

According to the Strengths Quest survey, my five individual strength areas fell within the larger areas of external, motivation, internal and interaction which involve connecting, mobilizing, energizing, and reflecting. My five strengths found were strategic, activator, communication, analytical, and competition (Clifton, Anderson, & Schreiner, 2006). Each of my five strengths really paint a true picture of who I am as an individual and as an educator. Being aware of my strengths has allowed me the opportunity to choose the right career path and opened the door for many opportunities to do something great with the students I work with. Having my students succeed in life is my goal as an educator and human being regardless of their upbringings,

Another strength that I have is helping students set individual learning goals. I recently helped a student who usually has a hard time concentrating and staying on task create a GPAR (Goal-Plan, Action and Result), to help him get through his classes more focused. It worked very well and the student got a great result and therefore I know I will be doing this more next year to help a lot more students become successful.

Student’s Strengths (include a description of the student’s behavioral strengths, such as positive interactions with staff, ignoring the inappropriate behavior of peers, accepts responsibility, etc.):