Finding your Strengths and Utilizing Them

This article does not only pertain to designers; it pertains to anyone. For me, the design field is vast and growing with many different facets and jobs being created daily. Finding a personal path that best suits you can be a task that many never complete. Learning how to best position yourself among colleagues and co-workers can produce great personal gains as well as business productivity increases and accomplishments.

I strive, and I hope that many others out there are also trying to figure out what am I supposed to do, or how can I help change the world? Even if it is not world changing, knowing your personal strength and using it to your advantage is critical for optimum success.

When I was asked, “What is your strength, Clint?” I did not have a solid answer. Thinking to myself, I could name many things I am good at, but not something I could consider a strength. Having an outside perspective from a friend, co-worker, or even a book can help identify qualities within yourself that you may not be able to pick up on. So when I was perplexed and couldn’t formulate an answer to the proposed question my mentor had asked me, he supplied me with a book called Strengths Finder 2.0.

This book is very short; in fact it’s only a readable 20-30 pages that sets you up for an online test. The online test generates the results for your personal strengths. The test is timed and should be taken directly after reading the 20-30 pages in the book with zero interruptions. The test takes about 30 minutes. Each question has a rating in which you adjust the pointer closer to one of the answers displayed, and you only have an 8-10 second window per question. This time frame, along with zero interruptions, will allow for instinctual answers rather than analyzing them in way that will morph your results. The results are dynamic with the fact that it supplies you personal advice as well as how to work with other people and their specific strengths.

The whole point of the book is to help people realize and understand their strength(s), and how to better concentrate on them instead of possibly wasting efforts on things that you will never be great at. The book can be picked up at a local book chain for under $15, and it can be found online. Here is the author’s web page with more info on the Strengths Finder 2.0 book and others he has published.

http://www.strengthsfinder.com/

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Clint Smith