Continuing the theme of strengths

In my last long post, I left off wondering how to effectively identify our natural talents. We are told as children and young adults what our talents are. There were things I was "good" at, like ballet, long-distance running, teamwork-related activities, a bit of art/creative stuff, etc. Yes, these were things I liked to do but I was also told that I was good at them and should further pursue them. Told by whom? Do these people, regardless of how close they are to us (friends, family, teachers, etc.) really take into consideration how we are reacting and feeling about a certain said talent? Maybe. Sometimes they do have a bird's eye view. Furthermore, do these "talents" change as we enter adulthood? Everything else changes as we enter adulthood, as we start to make it our utmost priority to be functioning and influential adults in our families, communities, career fields, etc. How do our natural "talents" influence how we function in these respects? How do our "talents," which we can develop into "strengths" help us become good leaders in said aspects of our lives? That is what I'm hoping to figure out.

So far, I've learned a few things about how to discover talents, but I'm still unsure if my talents have always been or how they've changed throughout my life. My brilliant wife reminded me a while back to pay attention to activities I'm doing where I completely lose track of time because I am so "in to" whatever it is I'm doing. I can think of many, such as:

1. some types of art projects,

2. analyzing data,

3. developing a really neat research idea,

4. cooking,

5. making graphs and figures for a manuscript,

6. working on a presentation,

7. developing a lecture or seminar,

8. hanging out with friends, talking, playing games

9. going for a hike

10. writing my blog

11. exercising or talking about exercise and nutrition.

This list names a few of these types of activities that, in my life, I can get carried away and

completely lose track of time. However, I wonder a bit, as some are not consistently like that, e.g. meaning that I consistently lose track of time enjoying what I am doing. For example, sometimes I'm doing yoga and wondering when it will be over! Ha ha!! Does that mean that yoga is not a talent? Hmmm... I realize that this strategy is only a start to figuring things out, however. I've read to pay attention to five distinct themes regarding an activity, hobby, sport, etc.

1. Yearnings: you feel as though an internal force leads you to that activity or environment over and over and over again.

2. Rapid learning: while doing this activity, you find as though it is easy for sparks to fly and you really understand what is going on, are able to acquire any new skills associated with that activity or gain new knowledge associated with the ideas of the activity

3. Satisfaction: you feel a sense of great achievement when participating in these activities, when you take on and successfully meet challenges, they are extremely energizing experiences , fuelling you

4. Timelessness (close to what I was referencing above): you become so engrossed in this activity you completely lose track of time

5. Glimpses of excellence: you or others observe moments of outstanding performance in these activities

I can think a bit more about these five themes and the aforementioned 11 talents I think that I have, based on timelessness. Do they fit for the other four criteria as well? Yes and no. Having said that, I have also been going through the first module of Level 1 of Susanne Conrad's goal setting and leadership program. Part of this module involved interviewing people that are very close to you about their perception of you (me). I have interviewed 7 of the 8 people in my life that I definitely wanted to interview. I'd like to interview a few more that are close to me, but this has been a good start. The hard part for me has been that it has to be via voice at least, if not in person, which would be ideal because this module also dealt with communication, specifically listening. Being 8, 14, or 16 hours time difference to almost everyone on this list made that logistically challenging, but with skype I have managed to make it happen. However, I'm still waiting to work out a time and day with my sister, who has been ill. Germane to the earlier rhetoric on talents and strengths, the majority of the nine questions request your friend/family member/colleague, whomever you are interviewing to describe your strengths and talents. For example, "What do you see as my key strengths?" "When am I most powerful?" and "When am I most inspired?" I'm finding this most helpful... incorporating perceptions of me by others that are extremely close to me, on one level or another. This is equally important, in my mind, as figuring out things on my own. Because these people are being lead by me, influenced by me, and/or inspired by me in some way or another, by seeing ME inspired and feeling great about what I am doing. It is that kind of back-and-forth reciprocity that is the whole point of this!

I'd like to talk more about others' perceptions of me relative to my talents (that I have developed into strengths), but given that I committed to including my sister's thoughts, I really want to wait and thus will save that information for a post a little later in the week. Meanwhile, as I am hugely supportive of Strengths based Leadership and Strengths Finder, which are Gallup-based survey protocols to help people sift through the nonsense of every day life and identify their strengths and talents. I highly recommend this to anyone and everyone, especially if you are in this transitional-type period of your life. This has really given me a foundation to further explore my talents and hone my strengths as a result. Furthermore, I am more cognizant of those with which I surround myself, not only on a personal/friend day-to-day basis, but also in my professional life and eventually the laboratory and research team I am establishing during my career as a scientist.

So, I started reading the the Strengths based Leadership book last summer (2010) and a lot of the content really resonated with me, leading me to take the very long strengths-finder test that they offer online if you own the book. The overall theme of the book was that knowing your strengths and investing in others' strengths, getting people with the right strengths on your team, and understanding and meeting the four basic needs of those who look to you for leadership is what being a good leader is all about. Again, at the brink of a major transition point in my career, I thought that there could be no better time!

Four basic domains of leadership (needs of those that look to you for leadership):

1. Executing: a good leader needs to be able to put an idea into motion, they take an idea and make it happen

2. Influencing: a good leader can take charge, speak up, and yes... influence people

3. Relationship building: good leaders can create groups and organizations that are much greater than the sum of their parts, they are likened to the glue that can bind ideas and people together to work even better as a group

4. Strategic thinking: good leaders can easily absorb and quickly analyze information while determining how it will affect future actions and make better decisions

Every leader will have their strengths spread out between these four domains differently. It is the domains that don't get filled by the leader that raise the awareness as to the type of people he/she wants to attract to his/her team. This is what makes me think that I will be a good academic supervisor (graduate students and supervising large projects and communicating huge ideas) because my strengths, I've found, fall into every category except the first domain (executing). In other words, I'm just not strong at actually doing the project. I can get it going, get the team together, get the information and planning done, and get everyone motivated, but when it comes to collecting the data... that's where I need my team!

You can't imagine how validating that is! For years, I've thought something was wrong with me. I'd love getting a project going but actually doing the experiments... nah! Well, let me back up. I love doing the experiments the first few times, but once they get to be routine... I'd prefer to move on! But then when it was time to sort through the data and determine how to communicate it all and get everyone excited about our findings... I'm back! This sounds kind of bizarre, I'm sure.

So, drum roll... my strengths are as follows:

Within the "Executing" domain:

nothing

Within the "Influencing" domain:

1. Activator

2. Maximizer

Within the "Relationship Building" domain:

3. Harmony

4. Individualization

Within the "Strategic Thinking" domain:

5. Learner

There are 34 "strengths" in total, and the survey/testing is based on scenarios that are given and your responses to those scenarios. I remember it taking a long time, at least an hour to complete. But I am very intrigued with the outcome and integrating it into my plans for my future, both in my career and in my personal life.

I'm going to spend the next few blog posts to delve into what each of these "strengths" mean to me and how I will utilize them to the utmost potential in setting and achieving my goals and continuing to surround myself with the types of people that a) are in line with my values, b) will help highlight my strengths, and -- because of their own innate talents and strengths that I have learned to recognize and appreciate -- c) will make up for my weaknesses. I'm sensing my favourite word coming on... interdependence. I leave it at that for tonight!

To be continued...