I think it is safe to say that we have all been aware of some of our strengths as we grow up. Not only do others point out our strengths and weaknesses, but we recognize them in ourselves as well. After completing the StrengthQuest they were able to narrow down each of our strengths to point out the top 5 of 34 themes. How do you feel they did on analyzing your strengths? Do you agree or disagree with how they described you? I found it to be pretty accurate as far as my themes go. However, after taking their evaluation I would have thought some of their other themes described me better than the top five they narrowed it down to.
Furthermore, I wish there would have been a way to show us our lowest scoring strengths based off this evaluation. Not only is it important to know our well developed strengths but also our lower strengths that need to be improved upon. By being a good leader I think it would be important to know your weaknesses so that when working with others we are able to find people that fill in the areas we lack. Do you think that focusing on the strengths is better than spending time to work on our weaknesses?
After spending time in class reflecting in class on our signature themes and how we use the talents in them, did you talk to anyone who shared the same themes as you but viewed them differently? Or similarly? Also, when it comes to picking our groups, how important is it to you to work with others that share your strengths? Or would you rather work with those who have different strengths than you?
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After finishing my Strength Quest survey and being able to learn and understand more about my personal strengths I felt that the categories that I was placed under were pretty accurate, although some were a tiny bit foggy. However, taking more time to fully understand each of my strength and learn more about where these 5 categories come from would clear up any questions or anything that is unclear.
ReplyDeleteI think that taking the time to learn about our strengths was an important activity for us to do as leaders but I do agree that knowing and understanding our weaknesses would give us the resources to grow and improve more as leaders. Being able to understand and know our strengths is important but having our own weaknesses highlighted is also an effective strategy to gain other leadership skills.
Spending the time to learn about our strengths was very interesting not only because I learned more about myself but also because it was interesting to see how other individuals were similar and different to ourselves. I don't think that there is a right or wrong answer as to whether it would be better or worse to work with other individuals on a group project solely based on these results.
I felt that Strength Quest did an excellent job at analyzing my strengths; woo, communication, positivity, includer, and adaptability. I believe these five are my strongest themes but would be curious to know where I stand with the other themes, which is why I completely agree with Nikki that Strength Quest should have also focused on our weaknesses. I would be very curious as to what categories I am lacking the most in and would like to learn how I could improve them. I think it is very important for a leader to be aware of their weaknesses so that they can improve them and be able to be a leader for a wider range of people who desire other themes than the top five in which we ranked the highest.
ReplyDeleteI learned that most people in the class shared the same views as I did on the different themes. Although, some people's views were much more expanded than my own which I found very interesting. I do not believe it is very important to pick groups of people who have the same themes as myself. I actually think it would be better to pair with people who have different strengths because then there are more strengths in the group. There were a few strengths that would work better with other strengths, such as adaptability. People with this strength are willing to try new things. I believe there is always room for improvement and that we should continue new and improved theories rather than sticking with the old. For this reason I would rather work with people who have different strengths with the hope of improving my weaknesses, which are their strengths.
After completing Strength Quest I thought that it was a very accurate representation of my strengths. I was only questioning one of the 5 themes that came out of it. After taking time to learn about the other themes that other classmates had, I realized that a couple other themes actually might fit better in my top 5. I think this is what is great about this survey because it makes you take a look at yourself and compare your strengths to others.
ReplyDeleteI feel that it is essential to look at both your strengths and weaknesses as a leader. In today's world I think there is too much pressure on improving on your weaknesses. I believe more of this time should be spent on using your strengths to do great things as a leader. I am not saying ignore your weaknesses, because it is important to know what they are. But, Strengths Quest was refreshing because it allowed us to analyze our top 5 themes as what they are...strengths. As leaders we are really good at these things and should use them in the leadership opportunities in our lives.
I also agree that the Strengths Quiz gave me accurate information about myself. Most of my strengths were developed around how I interact with people. My strenghts were Communication, WOO, Developer, Includer, and Harmony. Looking at myself I cannot help but think about the friendships and relationships around me and how all of these could be used to strengthen them.
ReplyDeleteI can also say that i would have to like to have seen what my weaknesses were. Although I cannot agree that they should include them within the Strengths Quest (as i feel that it would deplete not only the name but the purpose). As a society
we look towards the bad or what we can do better, as leaders we need to focus on the good, or at least attempt. It was not only nice to see only positves about myself but hear about the positves of others and how as a group we can use eachothers strengths.
I also believe that going around and seeing what other people's strengths can help us learn about one another and will be useful when working with my classmates in the near future :)
I believe the Strength Quest exercise did a good job at describing my strengths. One of the key components to being a leader is to understand what motivates you as a person. Knowing our strengths, as shown in the Strength Quest exercise, will allow each of us to better understand ourselves and in return be better leaders.
ReplyDeleteAs Nikki stated above, I believe a key component that this exercise left out was determining our lowest scoring traits (weaknesses). To be a well-rounded leader, one must understand both their positive and negative traits. Nobody likes to focus on their weaknesses, but the reality of life is that everybody has weak traits. The people who ignore their weaknesses will not be as successful as those who strive to improve their weaknesses.
I believe this exercise will better allow me to understand my own strengths in the real world. Does anyone else believe this activity will be able to be directly transferable to real world situations? If so, how?
I think that the StrengthQuest was a great way to start the semester, especially in a class where we will be working with others. When we are doing our group projects we will be utilizing each others strengths. It was very interesting to learn about all of the different strengths that are present throughout the class.
DeleteI also agree that it would have been nice to know what our weaknesses are in order to work on them. At the same time would it really be possible to "improve" our weaknesses since these traits seem to be traits that we are born with...
Either way it is important to know what we are good at for future jobs and life in general. I agree with Clay that this will be very beneficial for the future. For me personally all of my strengths made sense to me, I got 'communication' and I love to talk ;) While some of the strengths I had never heard of (woo) after reading about them they make sense. The activity about understanding and respecting talent differences was very interesting because I have never thought about how the strengths can be a challenge, so i think that it was good to view them in that way.
When looking at my 5 Strengths Quest themes I believe they did a good job picking the ones that fit best for me. I’d like to think there are some more themes that I am like but I do agree that the 5 themes that were chosen were chosen because they best described me.
ReplyDeleteI believe knowing both our strengths and weaknesses can help you as a leader. Strengths help leaders know how to best utilize their style in different situations. I believe one should know their weaknesses, some you may already know but there are others that may not be noticeable to you, but others may notice them. It would be helpful if Strengths Quest gave you the information about your weaknesses to help you grow and become a better leader.
With the themes that were chosen for me I was able to find a few classmates with the same themes and some did view them slightly different but not that far out of reach from my own thoughts. We both view them similarly because the themes that we shared together were fairly straightforward themes. I would rather work with someone who has different strengths. Working with someone with different strengths can better help your group utilize all their strengths. However working with group members that have the same strengths can help your group specialize.
I believe the Strengths Quest quiz was a good way to look at our individual strengths and learn more about others. There were a few themes such as "positivity" I wish I had. It was also a good "ice breaker" to start off the semester. While all of my themes describe me in some way, I think that one or two of them do not belong in my Top 5.
ReplyDeleteKnowing both your individual strengths and weaknesses are important in any leadership role. I am one of those people who focus on my weaknesses rather than my strengths. It's usually better to work with people with different strengths and weaknesses so that everyone can contribute to the group. You may also learn how to improve your weakness by discussing it with someone who has it as a strength. Just as others suggested, I wish the Strength Quest exercise gave information on our weaknesses. With that information, we can learn more about our leadership styles and hopefully improve and become better leaders.
While discussing our 5 themes with others in the class, some people made me think of strengths in different ways. It also gave me insight to the different types of leaders, and the different types of people in our class.
I think the exercise picked out my top themes correctly. I found that people who had the simliar themes were very simliar to me, as far as I know. I wish they would have tested us for our weakness as well because I believe any good leader is honest with themselves. This includes knowing what they may not be the best at. A good leader takes advantage of their best qualities and works on their weak ones.
ReplyDeleteI would have to say I would rather work with people who have different strengths rather than ones with simliar strengths. I think this helps a group bring more ideas into solving a problem. If everyone has the same strenghts and ideas then the group will lack different view points to solve problems. This can lead to serious issues and may even lead to groupthink.
I also thought that the Strengths Quest was very accurate. I tried to answer as honest as I could and it seemed to reflect my personality well. I agree with the qualities and strengths chosen for me which were: futuristic, activator, communication, relator, and responsibility. I even noticed while taking the test I tended to lean towards choosing the future end of the spectrum, so I wasn't surprised when I saw this characteristic. The other four characteristics I feel I am very strong in as well.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that we need to focus on our strengths more often. As Shelly said in class, we never really seem to focus on our strengths as we are always talking about our weaknesses. I do think it is important to work on our weaknesses, but it is great to talk about and recognize what we are good at as well. I really wish I had the strength of positivity, this is a weakness of mine that I am working on as well. Based on that, I think we can think positive (about our strengths) instead of negative (about our weaknesses)!
I thoroughly enjoyed talking with others in the class about our strengths and what are beneficial and challenging. I thought it was a great way to get to know classmates since we will be spending a close semester together. I think most everyone agreed with me and I was able to learn from some people on what my strengths meant as well. As far as picking our groups, I think it would be beneficial to work on a project with a group with many different strengths. I don't believe I would not get along with someone with different strengths, it might be better that way actually. As they say, opposites attract. :) On the other hand, I do not think working with someone with the same strengths as me would be difficult either.
StrengthsQuest did a great job on analyzing my strengths which are Adaptability, Restorative, Harmony, Responsibility, and Developer. After learning that these strengths where my top 5, now going back on some of the answers I chose I really saw these strengths in how I answered a question. I agree that I now notice each one of these strengths show up in my daily life on a regular basis. After reading the StrengthsQuest Reference Sheet I also saw some themes that I think should have been within my top 5 as well.
ReplyDeleteI do believe it is important to focus on strengths to keep us going on a daily basis. However, I think its also very important to spend a lot of time on our weaknesses. Because maybe by working on eliminating our weaknesses, one day a weakness will turn into a strength and we can better our lifestyles.
When it comes to working within groups I think it is important to work with those who have different strengths. While working in a group, each person who has a different strength should use that strength in making the project different and unique. I think its important for everyone to have a different leadership role within a group and by having different strengths, it provides each leader to show what they have to offer and better the group.
The results for my strengthsquest were very helpful in helping me recognize my strengths. I knew their were things I was good at or passionate about but I never knew how to narrow them down. I believe that it is positive to focus on our strengths, as spending too much time on our weakness may not develop our full potential. For those who have no idea what their strengths are it may be a good idea for them to start with their weakness to create a better idea of what their strengths will be.
ReplyDeleteI found it hard to find people with similar strengths as me, but for those I did definitely viewed them a little bit differently than me but I still respected and could relate to their perspective as it helped my understanding of the strength. As far as connecting with people on our group project, I have the ability to relate and and view a variety of perspectives so it wouldn't matter if our strengths are different. I would also think that it may be an advantage to have a mix of strengths in a group because it gives you a variety of strengths therefore covering more aspects of possible results.
I feel that StrengthsQuest did a pretty accurate job of describing what I've always perceived to be my strengths, however, I would also be interested to know what my top 10 were altogether, because we do often fluctuate between those 10 strengths. There were some times that I felt that there were strengths that DID describe me that weren't in my top five. However, I try to keep in mind that just because it was not on my list does not mean it isn't something I am still good at or could be good at.
ReplyDeleteFocusing on strengths rather weaknesses isn't to say that you shouldn't pay attention to and develop your weaknesses, I just think that it is more important to use your strengths and make them the strongest they can be because those are what is going to get you far, not focusing on what you struggle with and trying to perfect them. It is going to bring you down and not get you anywhere fast. Great musicians don't spend their time trying to strengthen their weaknesses in math or physics, they strengthen their strengths on their instruments or their voices.
It is just so interesting to me how people can value and interpret the same thing so differently, such that something that you'd never think would be a quality in someone could actually prove to be a strength and a persistent quality when interpreted in a certain light. This really goes to show the dynamic nature of individuals and how that can affect a group or a team of such dynamic individuals.
Sharing strengths may seem to be initially important, but I feel that it is almost more important to understand others' strengths, without having to possess them. Having everyone with the same strengths would lack the qualities of a well-rounded group and may cause power clashes in highly extroverted groups, or seem unproductive or lacking initiative in "quieter" introverted groups. Every group has roles that different people fill with different strengths and it is important to recognize and emphasize that diversity when building a strong, interdependent, well-rounded group.
I was actually getting really mad at the survey at first. They would put up two traits that are mutually exclusive. I just wanted to say yes or no to both because they were not opposites like I am used to seeing on personality tests. However, once I got the results I felt that they were pretty accurate.
ReplyDeleteI also thought it would be nice to know what you are not so good at as well. I also think it would be really neat to see more explanation on what types of people you should work with.