1. StrengthsQuest Heidi Lender, Assistant Director Strommen Career and Internship Center
Copyright © 2004 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ. All rights reserved.

2. Leadership Begins with Self-Understanding
Effective leaders are self-aware
We all can say what we are good at, but taking the StrengthsQuest assessment will help you to understand it at a different level and give you language to articulate it better
We have all been given gifts or “talents”
Identifies your greatest talents, which are your sources of potential strengths
All strengths are created equal

3. Understanding Strengths...
This instrument originated out of positive psychology
Developed by Gallup over 30 years ago for businesses who wanted to get the most out of their employees
Gallup conducted millions of psychological interviews and identified 34 themes of talent
One of the businesses that uses Strengths and actually has a department devoted to Strengths is Best Buy. Best Buy Corporate has every employee take Strengths. The information is given to managers, so that they can have everyone on the team working from their Strengths, as much as they possibly can.
Throughout their research Gallop conducted lots of interviews and identified 34 themes of talent, or Strengths. You will have seen in your reports that you have been given your top 5 Strengths, out of 34.

4. Understanding Strengths...
What’s the Opposite of a Strength?

5. Weakness Fixing: The Wrong Assumptions
If you try hard enough, you can do it.
If you want it badly enough, you can do it.
If you dream it, you can achieve it.
Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
All behaviors can be learned.
Weakness fixing leads to success.
How may positive affirmations do you need to off-set one negative one?
Copyright © 2004 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ. All rights reserved.

6. FACTS….
Gallup has studied Strengths and Weaknesses for over 30 years….
Their Findings:
You can’t really turn a weakness into a “TRUE” Strength
You can spend A LOT of time trying to fix a weakness, but you will only bring that D up to a C!
Trying to “Fix” your weaknesses drains you of all of your energy
People who concentrate on using their Strengths are more successful and more energized

7. “Despite the American myth, I cannot be or do whatever I desire – a truism, to be sure, but a truism we often defy. Our created natures make us like organisms in an ecosystem: There are some roles and relationships in which we thrive and others in which we wither and die.”
Parker Palmer
“You can’t be anything you want to be, but you can be a whole lot more of who you are”
Curt Liesveld

8. Taking the Strengths Assessment
The website and the code are in your book
You will be given 20 seconds for each question
Print off your results
your Strengths results to a few people who know you well

9. Talents and Strengths
There is a difference between Talents and Strengths…
Talent: A naturally recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied.
Talents are inborn and can turn into a potential Strength

10. Talents, Knowledge, Skills, and Strengths
Strength: The ability to provide consistent, near-perfect performance in a given activity. To build your strengths, identify your talents, and add knowledge and skills.
Strength = Talent + Knowledge + Skills
“Talent without technique is merely a bad habit.”
Pablo Picasso

11. Signature Themes and How You Use Them
Strengths
Description/
Definition of the Strength
Why it’s a strength
(What does it enable/empower
me to do)
When/where I recently used this Strength
Copyright © 2004 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ. All rights reserved.