Strengths Finder

Farmers don’t spent time with land that won’t yield a harvest, so why do we spend so much time tying to coax fruit from our weakness?

I was given the StrengthsFinder book recently by a friend.  StrengthsFinder is centered around this single, powerful idea: Much of our “self-improvement” efforts are focused on improving our areas of weakness, rather than building upon our strengths.  In short, we are all blessed with certain talents (which can become strengths if we develop them), and of course we all have our weaknesses.  Directing our time to suit our strengths, rather than trying to improve upon our weaknesses, is time well-spent.

You can purchase the book almost anywhere, but what you’re purchasing isn’t so much a book as access to the companion StrengthsFinder survey and materials.  After reading a few pages introducing the concept, you log into the survey with a unique access code found in your book, and 35 minutes later you are given your five strength “themes” (from among 34 different themes).

I found the results to be very on-point, and I’ve heard the same from others – if it were any different, it wouldn’t have such a huge following.  Besides learning about our individual strengths, we also can learn about the strengths of our friends, family and co-workers who also take the survey, and learn how different strengths can be complementary.