Recent Book Reading

I recently finished reading the book, Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton. The book basically helps you to discover your inner strengths or talents in order to be a more effective leader. The authors' assumption is that most people spend their time trying to improve their weaknesses instead of investing more time in building upon their strengths. Perhaps the most useful part of the book was the online assessment profile to discover your top five strengths. (Warning: In order to take the strengthfinder analysis, you must buy the book new, not used.)

My results and general description of that strength were:

Woo - love the challenge of meeting new people and winning them over. Derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection with another person.
Positivity - have enthusiasm that is contagious, up beat and can get along with others. Excited about what they are going to do.
Responsibility - take psycological ownership of what they say they will do. Committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.
Connectedness - believe there are few coincidences and that almost every event has a reason. A bridge builder for people of different cultures.
Communication - find it easy to put thoughts into words. Good conversationalists and presenters.

In the days to come, I look forward to comparing the above results with my other discoveries from Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Taylor Johnson, DISC Profile, FIRO-B Instrument, and the Gregorc Style Delineator.

God has uniquely created each one of us. We all come in different shapes and sizes. We all have strengths and weaknesses. There are things that are important to me, that others do not care about at all. Sometimes an individual’s behavior doesn't make any sense to me, but I want to understand that person, and communicate well, because we live together in the same world. I know that I cannot expect others to want the same things that I want. We are not the same person, so we will not always see things the same way. I have my own thoughts and my own ideas, that may or may not fit into someone else’s expectation of who I should be. By learning more about my self and my own personality, and about other personality types, I can better understand myself in relationship to others. I can improve my interpersonal relationships, realign my expectations towards others, and gain a better self-knowledge that will help me help others toward spiritual emotional maturity.