Last week we looked at some ideas about how to dial in on what you are naturally good at. Today you’ll get to know me a little better and see how I used this process. We’ll be talking alot about me, but as we do, please consider how this process could be helpful to you achieving your goals.
The 3 steps to understanding your strengths were:
- Examine what you enjoy doing
- Ask those closest to you for insights
- Take personality and aptitude tests to get some further insights.
First, I made a list of what I enjoy doing. Here it is.
- I really enjoy talking with people and getting to know them, particularly one-on-one or in small groups.
- Being outside (hiking, camping, biking, etc rejuvenates me)
- Building stuff
- Coordinating & planning projects. I don’t like the stress sometimes associated with it, but I like watching the final result come together
- Teaching. I like watching others grow and improve themselves. We all have so much potential, and being a small part of helping someone else’s growth invigorates me.
- Cooking. Especially a challenging recipe I’ve never made before. I think this is closely related to building stuff. It’s another way to work with my hands and create something.
Second, I suggested getting the opinions of those closest to you. I sent out a little survey to some of the people that know me best: my wife, siblings, parents, and a few close friends that have known me for a while. This is what they had to say about me:
- Caring, Driven Personality, Financial Knowledge
- Kindness, friendliness, hard worker, good planner, handyman stuff
- Building stuff, managing stuff
- Spanish. Brain injuries. Driving in LA (this REALLY made me laugh)
- Planning, organizing, setting a goal and completing it
- Outdoors stuff, building things, friendship
- Teaching…
- Ideal profession would be something in guiding others who have need of help in visualizing and completing goals
The insights were not earth shattering; however it reinforced what I already thought. If I take advantage of these strengths, I’m fairly confident people will perceive me as an expert in them.
Finally third, take personality or aptitude tests to gain further insights. I have taken 3 tests: Disc Assessment, Strength Finder, and Entrepreneurial Profile. Each test further reinforced what I had learned in the previous steps. Here are the results:
DISC (Sample Report) – This test ranks you in 4 different personality qualities:
- Stabilizing (my highest)
- Interactive (tied for 2nd place)
- Cautious (tied for 2nd place)
- Decisive (very, very distant 3rd place)
Strength Finder (Sample Report) – This test ranks you in regards to 34 different themes. I only paid for the cheapest one, so it gave me 5 strengths. Here they are in order from strongest to weakest.
- Restorative
- Empathy
- Achiever
- Learner
- Developer
Entrepreneurial Profile (explanation of the test) – we’ll call this EP10 for the rest of the post. This test ranks you according to 10 entrepreneurial talents and encourages you to focus on the first 4. Here are mine in order:
- Relationship
- Delegator
- Profitability
- Independence
There is a lot of overlap between the test results, my list of strengths, and what my friends thought of me:
- Talking with people corresponds with: Interactive [DISC], empathy [Strength Finder], Relationship [EP10]
- Encouraging others goes along with: Interactive [DISC], Empathy, Developer [Strength Finder], Relationship, Delegator [EP10]
- Making others laugh matches up to: Interactive [DISC], Relationship [EP10]
- Checking stuff off my todo list pairs with: Achiever [Strength Finder]
- Fixing stuff, working with my hands goes to: Restorative, Achiever, Developer [Strength Finder]
- Contrary to what I thought in school, I love to learn. This goes with Learner [Strength Finder]
Some of my strengths from the DISC test did not show up on my list or the list from the people that know me. That does not mean those strengths (stabilizing & cautious) do not exist. In fact, they do exist, and sometimes they are so strong that they can overwhelm every other strength I have. Here are some descriptions of people with high Stabilizing and high Cautious traits:
Stabilizing:
- Patient
- Predictable
- Passive
- Complacent
Cautious:
- Cautious
- Perfectionist
- Systematic
Because these strengths are so strong, I sometimes find myself stuck in life. I’m so patient & passive waiting for something to happen (that sometimes never does) that I never make anything happen. I’m also so cautious and perfectionist about making life changes that I end up never doing anything (paralysis of analysis). I used to think of these strengths as weaknesses and would get very frustrated by them. Fortunately the DISC test gives you some tips for using your weaknesses to your benefit. I’m using some of these tips to try and modify how I think about these two qualities.
Now after all that, what does this mean for you? Maybe you have some ideas about what you’re good at. But maybe you don’t. Maybe you’re not sure how to use your strengths to your benefit. Going through this exercise was very powerful for me. It forced me to write down my strengths. This exercise confirmed that others perceive the same strengths in me that I see in myself. And the tests helped me gain a more detailed understanding of my strengths and how use them.
Even if you have a good grasp on your strengths, I’d suggest taking one of the personality or aptitude tests to get more concrete suggestions about how to use them to your benefit.
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