I'm ready for more input now

My manager had our team read "StrengthsFinder 2.0" (best-selling management/self-improvement book) this week and take its associated online assessment test. Apparently, one of the higher-ups at the company has bought into the general philosophy of the book, which is to focus on developing your strengths instead of fighting the uphill battle of improving your weaknesses (this has the implicit maxim that you will end up working with others with strengths that complement your own). And, so, our group is the first of many that will go through the process..

I made some time today, did the required deed(s), and received a report proclaiming "my top 5 strengths/talents", in order:

1. Input - craving to know, collect, and archive information
2. Relator - enjoy close/deep relationships with others
3. Individualization - intrigued with unique qualities of others
4. Learner - great desire to learn and continuously improve
5. Analytical - searches for reasons/causes and identify patterns

The full report is about 10 pages of content that expounds on each talent with a set of "Personalized Strength Insights", which basically means that it takes into account all your other quiz-determined talents when it frames and provides commentary on the current one. Plus, it provides some short real-life anecdotes from other folks who fall into the same categories as you, which brings some "life" into the report (i.e. making it easier to relate to this personality assessment business). Finally - and this is where this book/system *might* have some value - it provides quite a few action items to reinforce your best qualities.

Yes, self-reflection is generally good.. but only if it leads to action for improvement!

Of course, you could get this information from other books, personality tests, and other self-assessment systems (and so I'm not going to be evangelicalizing this one in particular), but I can at least say that this method is relatively painless in that you only have to give it about an hour or two of investment up front (not counting your follow-up action items). And, for the most part, it seems to be pretty spot-on.. inasmuch as these general personality tests can be.

This coming week, my coworkers and I are getting together to discuss our individual results and see if we can use the information improve our execution environment (i.e. who does what, and how) and general team dynamics. Again, it's this type of *action* that - who knows - might make this diversion all worthwhile.

If the session with my work teammates, um, blows my mind, I'll probably write a follow-up; probably. haha. In the meantime, if you'd like to see my full report (pdf, natch), let me know; we'll learn a thing or two together.