leadership of organization

Strengths Insight and Action-Planning Guide SURVEY COMPLETION DATE: 09-29-2015

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Your Top 5 Themes

Responsibility Relator Competition Analytical Futuristic

What's in This Guide?

Section I: Awareness

A brief Shared Theme Description for each of your top five themes

Your Personalized Strengths Insights, which describe what makes you stand out from others with the same theme in their top five

Questions for you to answer to increase your awareness of your talents

Section II: Application

10 Ideas for Action for each of your top five themes Questions for you to answer to help you apply your talents

Section III: Achievement

Examples of what each of your top five themes "sounds like" -- real quotes from people who also have the theme in their top five

Steps for you to take to help you leverage your talents for achievement

Section I: Awareness

Responsibility

Shared Theme Description

People who are especially talented in the Responsibility theme take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.

Your Personalized Strengths Insights

What makes you stand out?

By nature, you prefer to work with teammates who share your concern about doing everything correctly and ethically. It’s very likely that you bring an exceptionally mature perspective to your team. Most people regard you as the dependable and reliable one. Because of your strengths, you sometimes open yourself to diverse types of people. You ordinarily welcome individuals who otherwise would feel out of place or ignored. Instinctively, you may reject the idea that telling a falsehood about something unimportant is acceptable. Perhaps you refuse to make an innocent social excuse to protect someone’s feelings. Driven by your talents, you experience pangs of remorse when you realize you failed to do something you promised to do. You feel awful when you do not do something correctly. You probably regret having compromised your basic values about right and wrong.

Questions

As you read your personalized strengths insights, what words, phrases, or lines stand out to you?

Out of all the talents in this insight, what would you like for others to see most in you?

Relator

Shared Theme Description

People who are especially talented in the Relator theme enjoy close relationships with others. They find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal.

Your Personalized Strengths Insights

What makes you stand out?

Because of your strengths, you have the ability to instruct, train, or offer suggestions to people who look to you for assistance. It’s very likely that you probably are quite willing to welcome all kinds of individuals regardless of their appearance, education, social class, native language, religious preference, or political persuasion. This explains why your circle of friends or acquaintances is so diverse and interesting. Your openness might encourage people to seek your counsel. Chances are good that you might feel happier if you are busy, even if it means performing routine or mundane tasks. When you have nothing to do, perhaps you are the type of person who looks for something to do. Instinctively, you may enjoy activities when things makes sense. Perhaps you gravitate to tasks where facts, events, processes, or ideas are methodically outlined. Driven by your talents, you are fully aware of what is said when people confide in you. They know you hear them. They know you care about them. They know you comprehend what they are thinking and feeling. Often friends turn to you to test an idea or express an opinion. Based on your comments, they can evaluate whether their ideas make sense.

Questions

As you read your personalized strengths insights, what words, phrases, or lines stand out to you?

Out of all the talents in this insight, what would you like for others to see most in you?

Competition

Shared Theme Description

People who are especially talented in the Competition theme measure their progress against the performance of others. They strive to win first place and revel in contests.

Your Personalized Strengths Insights

What makes you stand out?

By nature, you might feel more enthusiastic about your life when you can compare your results to those of others. Perhaps you are motivated by the image of yourself standing in the victory circle and being hailed as “the very best.” Because of your strengths, you occasionally convince people to participate in contests. Why? Maybe you seek to compare your performance to theirs. You might have a particular desire to be the best or finish in first place. Perhaps you are somewhat selective about the types of activities in which you participate. Chances are good that you might be enthused about being declared “number one” or the best. Perhaps the experience of winning means more to you than any monetary reward. Instinctively, you occasionally choose to work with a group rather than by yourself. You might be motivated to help your team be the very best or win the top prize. It’s very likely that you sometimes want others to follow you, and/or to regard you as the person in charge. Perhaps you hope that after your results are compared to the outcomes of others, they will understand that you are the very best and/or the most successful person. To some extent, you may feel this is reason enough for them to give you their allegiance.

Questions

As you read your personalized strengths insights, what words, phrases, or lines stand out to you?

Out of all the talents in this insight, what would you like for others to see most in you?

Analytical

Shared Theme Description

People who are especially talented in the Analytical theme search for reasons and causes. They have the ability to think about all the factors that might affect a situation.

Your Personalized Strengths Insights

What makes you stand out?

Driven by your talents, you sometimes wish you could switch off your active brain. Even so, you may enjoy your time alone as you ponder ideas. Perhaps you want to test whether they make sense. Instinctively, you may rely on reason to enlighten individuals about the intricacies of issues, processes, events, problems, or decisions. You occasionally detect nuances in data or information that certain people overlook. Perhaps you derive some degree of pleasure from bringing particular facts, points, or circumstances to the attention of others. Because of your strengths, you may approach life with enthusiasm. Perhaps your spirits are lifted even more when you can use your powers of reason to explain what is going on around you. It’s very likely that you may choose to spend time with reasonable people. Perhaps you appreciate their ability to rely on their minds rather than their emotions. If personal or professional problems, challenges, or opportunities arise, these individuals might exhibit better judgment than others you know. Chances are good that you occasionally search for pertinent facts or data to reconstruct the chain of events that produced a specific problem or opportunity. Perhaps you prefer reasonable explanations. You might reject the notion that fate, chance, or luck rule your life.

Questions

As you read your personalized strengths insights, what words, phrases, or lines stand out to you?

Out of all the talents in this insight, what would you like for others to see most in you?

Futuristic

Shared Theme Description

People who are especially talented in the Futuristic theme are inspired by the future and what could be. They inspire others with their visions of the future.

Your Personalized Strengths Insights

What makes you stand out?

Instinctively, you take advantage of every opportunity to describe to others all the amazing things you see happening in the coming months, years, or decades. Your vision opens people’s minds to new and wondrous possibilities. You challenge them to consider ideas they might not have thought of on their own. By nature, you are a visionary thinker. Your vivid mental images of the coming months, years, or decades often impel you to move into action. Chances are good that you might generate certain types of ideas quickly. Occasionally you draw links between facts, events, people, problems, or solutions. You may present numerous options for consideration. Perhaps your innovative thinking fosters ongoing dialogue between and among associates, committee members, teammates, or classmates. Because of your strengths, you sense you have an ability to create word pictures that describe the future. You can inspire people with your images of what can be. The individuals who most appreciate your forward thinking probably want and need to hear from you often. It’s very likely that you sometimes envision mental pictures of what you want your world or yourself to look like weeks, months, years, or decades from now.

Questions

As you read your personalized strengths insights, what words, phrases, or lines stand out to you?

Out of all the talents in this insight, what would you like for others to see most in you?

Questions

How does this information help you better understand your unique talents?

How can you use this understanding to add value to your role?

How can you apply this knowledge to add value to your team, workgroup, department, or

division?

How will this understanding help you add value to your organization?

What will you do differently tomorrow as a result of this report?

Section II: Application

Responsibility

Ideas for Action:

Emphasize your sense of responsibility when job hunting. During interviews, describe your desire to be held fully accountable for the success or failure of projects, your intense dislike of unfinished work, and your need to “make it right” if a commitment is not met.

Keep volunteering for more responsibility than your experience seems to warrant. You thrive on responsibility, and you can deal with it very effectively.

Align yourself with others who share your sense of responsibility. You will flourish when working with people who share your determination to get things done.

Tell your manager that you work best when given the freedom to follow through on your commitments — that you don’t need to check in during a project, just at the end. You can be trusted to get it done.

Push yourself to say no. Because you are instinctively responsible, it might sometimes be difficult to refuse opportunities. For this reason, you must be selective. Ask for more responsibility in only the areas that matter most to you.

You naturally take ownership of every project you are involved in. Make sure that your capacity to own does not keep you from sharing responsibility. Allow others the opportunity to experience the challenges of ownership. In doing so, you will contribute to their growth and development.

Learn to manage your Responsibility talents by considering whether you really are the person who should be handling a particular issue. Defer to your existing responsibilities and goals before undertaking additional burdens, as you may end up skimping on quality if you have too many tasks or competing demands.

Partner with someone especially talented in Discipline or Focus. This person can help you stay on track and prevent you from becoming overloaded.

Working with a like-minded, responsible colleague is satisfying for you. Be sure to clarify expectations and boundaries so that each person can feel ownership for his or her particular tasks — without stepping on each other’s toes.

Responsible individuals like to know they have “delivered” on their commitments, so create metrics and goals to gauge how effectively you meet your obligations. Also, make sure you have explicit and concrete expectations so that there is no question regarding quality outcomes and so that you can hit the mark as promised.

Questions

Which of these action items speak to you? Highlight the actions that you are most likely to take.

How will you commit to taking action? Write your own personalized action item that you will take in the next 30 days.

Relator

Ideas for Action:

Find a workplace in which friendships are encouraged. You will not do well in an overly formal organization. In job interviews, ask about work styles and company culture.

Deliberately learn as much as you can about the people you meet. You like knowing about people, and other people like being known. By doing this, you will act as a catalyst for trusting relationships.

Let it be known that you are more interested in the character and personality of others than in their status or job title. This is one of your greatest talents and can serve as a model for others.

Let your caring show. For example, find people in your company to mentor, help your colleagues get to know each other better, or extend your relationships beyond the office.

No matter how busy you are, stay in contact with your friends. They are your fuel.

Be honest with your friends. True caring means helping the other person be successful and fulfilled. Giving honest feedback or encouraging your friend to move out of a role in which he or she is struggling is a compassionate act.

You probably prefer to be seen as a person, an equal, or a friend, rather than as a function, a superior, or a title. Let people know that they can address you by your first name, rather than formally.

You might tend to withhold the most engaging aspects of your personality until you have sensed openness from another person. Remember, building relationships is not a one-way street. Proactively “put yourself out there.” Others will quickly see you for the genuine individual you are, and you will create many more opportunities to cultivate strong, long-lasting connections.

Make time for family and close friends. You need to spend quality moments with those you love in order to “feed” your Relator talents. Schedule activities that allow you to get even closer to the people who keep you grounded and happy.

Make an effort to socialize with your colleagues and team members outside of work. It can be as simple as lunch or coffee together. This will help you forge more connected relationships at work, which in turn can facilitate more effective teamwork and cooperation.

Questions

Which of these action items speak to you? Highlight the actions that you are most likely to take.

How will you commit to taking action? Write your own personalized action item that you will take in the next 30 days.

Competition

Ideas for Action:

Select work environments in which you can measure your achievements. You might not be able to discover how good you can be without competing.

List the performance scores that help you know where you stand every day. What scores should you pay attention to?

Identify a high-achieving person against whom you can measure your own achievement. If there is more than one, list all the people with whom you currently compete. Without measurement, how will you know if you won?

Try to turn ordinary tasks into competitive games. You will get more done this way. When you win, take the time to investigate why you won. You can learn a great deal more from a victory than from a loss.

Let people know that being competitive does not equate with putting others down. Explain that you derive satisfaction from pitting yourself against good, strong competitors and winning.

Develop a “balanced metric” — a measurement system that will monitor all aspects of your performance. Even if you are competing against your own previous numbers, this measurement will help you give proper attention to all aspects of your performance. When competing with others, create development opportunities by choosing to compare yourself to someone who is slightly above your current level of expertise. Your competition will push you to refine your skills and knowledge to exceed those of that person. Look one or two levels above you for a role model who will push you to improve.

Take the time to celebrate your wins. In your world, there is no victory without celebration.

Design some mental strategies that can help you deal with a loss. Armed with these strategies, you will be able to move on to the next challenge much more quickly.

Questions

Which of these action items speak to you? Highlight the actions that you are most likely to take.

How will you commit to taking action? Write your own personalized action item that you will take in the next 30 days.

Analytical

Ideas for Action:

Choose work in which you are paid to analyze data, find patterns, or organize ideas. For example, you might excel in marketing, financial, or medical research or in database management, editing, or risk management.

Whatever your role, identify credible sources on which you can rely. You are at your best when you have well-researched sources of information and numbers to support your logic. For example, determine the most helpful books, websites, or publications that can serve as references.

Your mind is constantly working and producing insightful analysis. Are others aware of that? Find the best way of expressing your thoughts: writing, one-on-one conversations, group discussions, perhaps lectures or presentations. Put value to your thoughts by communicating them.

Make sure that your accumulation and analysis of information always leads to its application and implementation. If you don’t do this naturally, find a partner who pushes you from theory to practice, from thinking to doing. This person will help ensure that your analysis doesn’t turn into paralysis.

Take an academic course that will expand your Analytical talents. Specifically, study people whose logic you admire.

Volunteer your Analytical talents. You can be particularly helpful to those who are struggling to organize large quantities of data or having a hard time bringing structure to their ideas.

Partner with someone with strong Activator talents. This person’s impatience will move you more quickly through the analytical phase into the action phase.

You may remain skeptical until you see solid proof. Your skepticism ensures validity, but others may take it personally. Help others realize that your skepticism is primarily about data, not people.

Look for patterns in data. See if you can discern a motif, precedent, or relationship in scores or numbers. By connecting the dots in the data and inferring a causal link, you may be able to help others see these patterns.

Help others understand that your analytical approach will often require data and other information to logically back up new ideas that they might suggest.

Questions

Which of these action items speak to you? Highlight the actions that you are most likely to take.

How will you commit to taking action? Write your own personalized action item that you will take in the next 30 days.

Futuristic

Ideas for Action:

Choose roles in which you can contribute your ideas about the future. For example, you might excel in entrepreneurial or start-up situations.

Take time to think about the future. The more time you spend considering your ideas about the future, the more vivid your ideas will become. The more vivid your ideas, the more persuasive you will be.

Seek audiences who appreciate your ideas for the future. They will expect you to make these ideas a reality, and these expectations will motivate you.

Find a friend or colleague who also has powerful Futuristic talents. Set aside an hour each month for “future” discussions. You can push each other to greater heights of creativity and vividness.

Partner with someone with strong Activator talents. This person can remind you that you do not discover the future, you create it with the actions you take today.

You inspire others with your images of the future, yet your thinking may be too expansive for them to comprehend. When you articulate your vision, be sure to describe the future in detail with vivid words and metaphors. Make your ideas and strategies more concrete via sketches, step-by-step action plans, or mock-up models so that others can readily grasp your intent.

Surround yourself with people who are eager to put your vision into motion. They will feel exhilarated by your Futuristic talents, and you can harness their energy to propel the vision toward reality.

Be prepared to provide logical support for your futuristic thinking. Your exciting visions of future success will be best received when rooted in real possibility.

Your Futuristic talents could equip you to be a guide or coach for others. Unlike you, they might not be able to easily see over the horizon. If you catch a vision of what someone could be or do, don’t assume that he or she is aware of that potential. Share what you see as vividly as you can. In doing so, you may inspire someone to move forward.

Musing about the future comes naturally to you. Read articles about technology, science, and research to gain knowledge that will fuel your imagination.

Questions

Which of these action items speak to you? Highlight the actions that you are most likely to take.

How will you commit to taking action? Write your own personalized action item that you will take in the next 30 days.

Section III: Achievement

Look for signs of achievement as you read these real quotes from people who share your top five themes.

Responsibility sounds like this:

Nigel T., sales executive: “I used to think that there was a piece of metal in my hand and a magnet on the ceiling. I would just volunteer for everything. I have had to learn how to manage that because not only would I end up with too much on my plate, but I would also wind up thinking that everything was my fault. I realize now that I can’t be responsible for everything in the world — that’s God’s job.”

Kelly G., operations manager: “The country manager in Sweden called me in November and said, ‘Kelly, could you please not ship my inventory until January 1.’ I said, ‘Sure. Sounds like a good plan.’ I told my people about the plan and thought I had all the bases covered. On December 31, however, when I was checking my messages while on a ski slope, making sure everything was hunky-dory, I saw that his order had already been shipped and invoiced. I had to call immediately and tell him what happened. He’s a nice man, so he didn’t use any four-letter words, but he was very angry and very disappointed. I felt terrible. An apology wasn’t enough. I needed to fix it. I called our controller from the chalet, and that afternoon we figured out a way to put the value of his inventory back on our books and clean it off his. It took most of the weekend, but it was the right thing to do.”

Harry B., outplacement consultant: “I was just a young bank manager in one of the branches when the president of the company decided that he wanted to foreclose on a property. I said, ‘That’s fine, but we have a responsibility to give the people full value for their property.’ He didn’t see it that way. He wanted to sell the property to a friend of his for what was owed, and he said my problem was that I couldn’t separate my business ethics from my personal ethics. I told him that was correct. I couldn’t because I didn’t believe — and still don’t believe — that you can have two standards. So I quit the firm and went back to earning five dollars an hour working for the forestry service picking up trash. Since my wife and I were trying to support our two kids and make ends meet, it was a hard decision for me to make. But looking back, on one level, it really wasn’t hard at all. I simply couldn’t function in an organization with those kinds of ethics.”

Relator sounds like this:

Gavin T., flight attendant: “I have many wonderful acquaintances, but as for true friends that I hold dear, not very many. And I’m real okay with that. My best times are spent with the people I’m tightest with, like my family. We are a very tight-knit Irish Catholic family, and we get together every chance we can. It’s a large family — I have five brothers and sisters and ten nieces and nephews — but we all get together about once a month and yuk it up. I’m the catalyst. When I’m back in Chicago, even if there is no birthday or anniversary or whatever, I become the excuse for getting together and hanging out for three or four days. We really enjoy one another’s company.”

Tony D., pilot: “I used to fly in the Marines, and, boy, you had better be comfortable with the word ‘friend’ in the Marines. You had better feel good about trusting someone else. I can’t tell you how many times I put my life in someone else’s hands. I was flying off my friend’s wing, and I’d be dead if he couldn’t get me back safely.”

Jamie T., entrepreneur: “I’m definitely selective about my relationships. When I first meet people, I don’t want to give them very much of my time. I don’t know them; they don’t know me — so let’s just be pleasant and leave it at that. But if circumstances make it so that we get to know each other better, it seems like a threshold is reached where I suddenly start wanting to invest more. I’ll share more of myself, put myself out for them, do things for them that will bring us a little closer, and show that I care. It’s funny because I am not looking for any more friends in my life. I have enough. And yet with each new person I meet, as soon as that threshold is reached, I feel compelled to go deeper and deeper. Now I have ten people working for me, and I would call each of them my very good friend.”

Competition sounds like this:

Mark L., sales executive: “I’ve played sports my entire life, and I don’t just play to have fun — let me put it that way. I like to engage in sports I am going to win and not ones I am going to lose, because if I lose, I am outwardly gracious but inwardly infuriated.”

Harry D., general manager: “I'm not a big sailor, but I love the America’s Cup. Both boats are supposed to be exactly the same, and both crews have top-notch athletes. But you always get a winner. One of them had some secret up their sleeves that tipped the balance and enabled them to win more often than lose. And that’s what I am looking for — that secret, that tiny edge.”

Sumner Redstone, chairman of Viacom (now known as CBS Corporation), on his efforts to acquire that company: “I relished every minute of it because Viacom was a company worth fighting for and I enjoyed a contest. If you get involved in a major competitive struggle, and the stress that inevitably comes with it, you’d better derive some real sense of satisfaction and enjoyment from the ultimate victory. Wrestling control of a company like Viacom was warfare. I believe the real lesson it taught me was that it is not about money, it’s about the will to win.”

Analytical sounds like this:

Jose G., school system administrator: “I have an innate ability to see structures, formats, and patterns before they exist. For instance, when people are talking about writing a grant proposal, while I’m listening to them, my brain instinctively processes the type of grants that are available and how the discussion fits into the eligibility, right down to the format of how the information can fit on the grant form in a clear and convincing way.”

Jack T., human resources executive: “If I make a claim, I need to know that I can back it up with facts and logical thinking. For example, if someone says that our company is not paying as much as other companies, I always ask, ‘Why do you say that?’ If they say, ‘Well, I saw an ad in the paper that offers graduates in mechanical engineering five grand more than we are paying,’ I'll reply by asking, ‘But where are these graduates going to work? Is their salary based on geography? What types of companies are they going for? Are they manufacturing companies like ours? And how many people are in their sample? Is it three people, and one of them got a really good deal, thus driving the overall average up?’ There are many questions I need to ask to ensure that their claim is indeed a fact and not based on one misleading data point.”

Leslie J., school principal: “Many times, there are inconsistencies in the performance of the same group of students from one year to the next. It’s the same group of kids, but their scores are different year to year. How can this be? Which building are the kids in? How many of the kids have been enrolled for a full academic year? Which teachers were they assigned to, and what teaching styles were used by those teachers? I just love asking questions like these to understand what is truly happening.”

Futuristic sounds like this:

Dan F., school administrator: “In any situation, I am the guy who says, ‘Did you ever think about . . . ? I wonder if we could . . . I don’t believe it can’t be done. It’s just that nobody has done it yet. Let’s figure out how we can.’ I am always looking for options, for ways not to be mired by the status quo. In fact, there is no such thing as the status quo. You are either moving forward, or you are moving backward. That’s the reality of life, at least from my perspective. And right now, I believe that my profession is moving backward. State schools are being out-serviced by private schools, charter schools, home schools, Internet schools. We need to free ourselves from our traditions and create a new future.”

Jan K., internist: “Here at the Mayo Clinic, we are launching a group called the Hospitalists. Rather than having patients handed off from one doctor to another during their stay in the hospital, I envision a family of providers. I envision fifteen to twenty MDs, of various genders and races, with twenty to twenty-five nurse practitioners. There will be four to five new hospital services, most of which will work with surgeons and will provide para-operative care as well as care for the hospitalized elderly. We are redefining the model of care here. We don’t just take care of the patients when they are in the hospital. If a patient comes in for a knee replacement, a member of the Hospitalist team would see him before the surgery, follow him from the day of surgery through the days of hospitalization, and then see him when he comes in six weeks later for his postoperative check. We will provide patients with a complete episode of care so that they don’t get lost in the handoffs. And to get the funding, I just saw the detailed picture in my head and kept describing this picture to the department chair. I guess I made it seem so real that they had no choice but to grant me the funds.”

Questions

Talk to friends or coworkers to hear how they have used their talents to achieve.

How will you use your talents to achieve?