My Strengths Finder, Strength # 5
Today is the last in the series of sharing my five strengths as indicated through the StrengthsFinder indicator. Of the 34 themes, these are my “top five”. Hopefully this will give insight into who I am, how I am wired, and why I lead and blog the way I do. I am simply sharing the feedback results the indicator gave to me after I took the assessment, but after that paragraph I will share some additional thoughts on the negative aspect of this strength.
Analytical
Your Analytical theme challenges other people: “Prove it. Show me why what you are claiming is true.” In the face of this kind of questioning some will find that their brilliant theories wither and die. For you, this is precisely the point. You do not necessarily want to destroy other people’s ideas, but you do insist that their theories be sound. You see yourself as objective and dispassionate. You like data because they are value free. They have no agenda. Armed with these data, you search for patterns and connections. You want to understand how certain patterns affect one another. How do they combine? What is their outcome? Does this outcome fit with the theory being offered or the situation being confronted? These are your questions. You peel the layers back until, gradually, the root cause or causes are revealed. Others see you as logical and rigorous. Over time they will come to you in order to expose someone’s “wishful thinking” or “clumsy thinking” to your refining mind. It is hoped that your analysis is never delivered too harshly. Otherwise, others may avoid you when that “wishful thinking” is their own.
I should say that I took the StrengthsFinder assessment again and four of the five remained, but the strength of Maximizer replaced the Analyzer strength. With most personality-type assessments the first one is more accurate, so I will stick with this one.
The negative aspect of this strength is that I have a hard time accepting things at face value. I have to “investigate”. I need to find a bottom line. This, especially combined with my other strengths, can limit the people on my team from creative thinking if they become fearful that I will destroy any weakness of their ideas. This is never my intent, because I love to explore new ideas, but perception is many times stronger than reality.
Have you taken this assessment? What are your strengths? Have you thought about the negative aspect of those strengths?
