>> Finding my strengths Part 2: Achiever

Strength #2: Strategic

What does it mean?

People with a ‘Strategic’ strength create alternative ways to proceed, according to Gallup Strengths Finders. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

Specifically to my assessment, the following traits makes me stand out:

• Viewed to be an innovative and original thinker.
• Fixing people and things ranks in my top half of favourite activities.
• Identify problems that people fail to see.
• You study everything involved in a situation and conceive entirely new ways of seeing or doing things.
• Your inventive mind generates more possibilities that you can handle or fund.

What can I do to leverage this?

• Take time to reflect about a goal until all the related patterns and issues emerge. This is essential for my strategic thinking.

• I love to find solutions when others are convinced there is no other way. I should try to become known as someone to consult with when stumped by a particular problem, issue or obstacle.

• Get involved at the front end of new initiatives or enterprises. I am innovative yet procedural which are critical to the genesis of a new venture, keeping out of the tunnel vision.

• Trust my intuitive insights as often as possible. I may not be able to explain them rationally but my intuitions are created by a brain that instinctively anticipates and projects. Have confidence in these perceptions.

Don’t forget to:

• Help others  understand that my strategic thinking is not to belittle others, rather it’s a natural propensity to all facets to consider all options objectively.

My commitment

It’s taken me months to really understand this about myself. Reflecting and observing my behaviours in the work place after reading this has helped me identify how this has played out for me.

• I always wondered why I was always put in to a role or area that was relatively undefined. My last 3 jobs have been offered to me, and each time my mandate has been very broad with minimal existing infrastructure e.g digital marketing for a financial advice business, where there was no email platform, online tracking, SEO, SEM for our campaigns! Actually I am 7 weeks in to a new role now with a goal to ‘improve the client experience’ with the service and operational capacity of the business.

• Take the time to fully reflect or muse about a goal that you want to achieve until the related patterns and issues emerge for you. Remember that this musing time is essential to strategic thinking.

• I am extremely thorough with my approach to everything. Planning and thinking about all the possible outcomes, issues, risks and mitigations. This could be a good or bad thing. Good to be prepared. Bad when it turns in to analysis paralysis.

So what does this mean for me now and in future…I’m not 100% sure yet, but I will start to:

• Share my ability to seek solutions in challenging situations.
• Establish my identity as the person to get involved at the start of an initiative or when there are any obstacles or even in planning.
• Refine my strategic thinking capabilities at work and for Aid Asia Initiative (a charity I have co-founded)

One clear thing I am taking from this is to help others understand my strategic thinking and that it’s not an attempt to belittle them.  My demeanour and approach is very humble most people have not taken offence to my comments, but I can now see how one could.

It’s exciting to  be able to understand the reasons behind my actions and how I can harness this more effectively in future. Finally, it all makes sense now. My best discovery yet! 🙂

>> Finding my strengths

Results are in. I took the Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0 online test, it took 30minutes and it is ridiculously accurate!

My top 5 strengths

From the 34 attributes, the below came out as my top 5:

• Achiever – great deal of stamina and hard worker (below).
• Strategic – especially talented in creating alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.
• Learner – great desire to learn and want to continuously improve.
• Restorative – adept and dealing with problems. Good at finding out what is wrong and fixing them.
• Belief – have certain core values that are unchanging. These define the purpose of life.

So what does that mean and how do I harness these strengths? I’m not quite sure yet but I will share with you my journey of discovery, trials and insights.

Strength #1: Achiever

What does it mean? 

According to Clifton StrengthsFinder, “people strong in the Achiever theme have a great deal of stamina and work hard. They take great satisfaction from being busy and productive.”

What can I do to leverage this?

• Pick a job where I can work as hard as I want and measure my productivity. I will feel alive in these environments.
• List of tangible outcomes and being able to make them as ‘done’.
• Continue my education and attain certifications – giving me more goals to achieve.
• Set more demanding goals every time I finish a project. Take advantage of my self-motiviation. Partner with other hard workers. They can help me get more done.
• More work excites me. Launch initiatives and new projects. My endless reserve of energy will create enthusiasm and momentum.

Don’t forget to:

• Celebrate achievements. I tend to move to the next thing quickly.
• Add personal achievements i.e. goals for family and friends, this will help me direct my talents accordingly

My Commitment

It took me a while to get my head around adding a personal goal in to my ‘to do’ list. I always thought I do this naturally and it shouldn’t be just another thing to do, but on reflection I need to get better at this.

Every day I have a list of  things to complete, and I make sure I get them all done. Most of the time this leaves little to no room for personal things such as calling my parents, seeing my family and friends.

In the 7 Habits of Highly, Stephen R. Covey made me paint such a vivid image of my funeral that always appears when I reflect on my decisions. The fond memories and relationships with my family and friends are the most important things in my life. I always think they will always be there and will be understanding… I need to keep remembering to appreciate. They may not be here tomorrow.

My commitment going forward is to include at least 1 personal activity in my list every day. Yes, EVERY DAY! I want to let everyone close to me know just how much I love them.