Previously I talked about playing to your strengths. This doesn’t mean being complacent and not growing yourself. Hardly, it says rather than focusing solely on being super humanoids, let’s look at what we do best and leverage the heck out of it.

Among all the self-help business books out there is one which focuses on this – helping you identify your strengths and how to use them to your advantage. StrengthsFinder 2.0 is from the Gallup Organization. It is the second edition of a book which came out from the poll people in 1998. This book was recommended to me by a colleague and I bought my own copy of the book.

StrengthsFinder 2.0 comes with a single-use code for an accompanying Web site. The main feature of the site is the assessment. It is a survey which takes about a half hour to respond to all questions, and upon completion it gives you a list of your top 5 strengths, which come from a pre-defined list of 34. I took the assessment test first then read the book, upon my colleague's recommendation, rather than reading the book first. He recommends this approach so that the person who takes the assessment will have no preconceived notions of what the results will be.

After taking the Web-based assessment, here’s my top 5 strengths:

The above photo is of the cover of the book, where you can write your strengths after removing the dust jacket. If you don’t see the photo, my top 5 strengths are: Activator, Adaptability, Relator, Connectedness, and Responsibility.

Now What?

After I got my results from the assessment, I sat back and took a look at the 5 words given to me. At first glance, they were not a complete shock or surprise to me. I like to think I know myself pretty well, and coupled with what others have said to me about me, these were in line with what I would expect from such an assessment. That being said, I did not know specifically these would come up as my top 5 strengths, so it was a good use of my time.

I then went to the book, reading the opening then the write-ups on my top 5 strengths. For each, there is a brief discussion on it, quotes from a selected people who have the same strength, “ideas for action” on how to leverage this strength, and tips for working with someone else with the same strength. Following reading on my top strengths I read through the remaining 29 strengths defined in the book. After reviewing the entire list and reflecting on all of it, there certainly are others strengths defined which would apply to me, but I am not discounting the top 5 selected as it is a good list to work with.

My takeaway from StrengthsFinder 2.0 is the overall experience that is the book, from the assessment to the discussion on all strengths identified. Although I don’t consider myself an expert at assessing people, I do consider myself a decent judge of character and how to get the most out of people whom I work with. As Gallup is the expert at surveying, this was a great process to see how the questions in the assessment derived this list. The Web site has other tools, including one which allows you to make a poster of your strengths. I have this posted in my office, and glance at as a reminder on occasion.

I recommend StrengthsFinder 2.0 to anyone who is interested in playing to their strengths. It was not a complete life-changing experience for me, rather a good reaffirmation of who I am and what I can do. I do recommend getting a new copy of the book so you can get the code to take the assessment and get the full effect of the book.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Book Take-Aways • Business • Strategize • (2) Comments • Permalink

“Play to your strengths” is a phrase I use a lot. I feel most of the time I say it to myself, in observation of something I or others do. All in all, it is great advice and something I may tattoo on my forehead backwards as a reminder for whenever I decide to take on something I really shouldn’t, as it isn’t in my “strengths zone” (I made up that term, feel free to use it!).

You may have just read that and thought, :”what a wimp, he’ll never go anywhere as he is not a risk taker.” No, that’s not what I said. I am all for taking on something new, stretching boundaries, expanding knowledge and awareness and recognizing and taking risks. There’s a big difference between taking on a new role or project, parachuting out of an airplane and, say, plumbing.

When evaluating a new move, there is always that “butterflies in the belly” feeling, and it maybe as much euphoria as anxiety. In breaking down the components of a move, maybe it may not as much of a stretch as you had thought. For example, when I moved to Chicago several years ago after I broke it down, it wasn’t as big of a deal for me as I had originally thought, not to mention what others thought as they did not know my thought process.

In playing to your strengths, you are not being weak. Rather, you are using and exploiting what you can do and analyzing anything new to see if you even want to do it yourself at all. Learning new, complicated software may be a challenge you want to do with little downside, other than the time you are spending on it that could be spent on something else. Expanding a business to a new city or country may be more logistical and cultural than you could have anticipated. Deciding not to do these as planned but instead hiring someone with the skill or partnering with someone in the new location could achieve the same goal. If the end result achieved, you may have just played to your strength to facilitate and manage the relationships.

Earlier I mentioned plumbing. This is something where I should have played to my strengths and just hired a plumber out of the gate to fix my toilet. I did assess the issue, went to the mega hardware store and was told all I needed was a US$5.00 flapper to fix it. What I didn’t assess was the potential downsides, namely I would do damage I couldn’t fix like breaking the overfill pipe in the toilet tank trying to replace the flapper, and as a result would have to use my daughter’s beach pail to flush the toilet until the plumber came to fix everything, which in the end was much less than the value of my time and the aggravation on my family. Thus the accompanying photo.

Strengths have been on my mind a lot recently as I just read the book StrengthsFinder 2.0 and took the accompanying strengths assessment survey. I will write about this book separately. In the meantime, my strengths will always come into play, even as I am expanding into unchartered or simply greater waters.

What say you – do you play to your strengths or just go with your gut and take on a task? Or something else? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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Business • Strategize • (7) Comments • Permalink

The next likemind will be Friday, December 3, 2010 in dozens of cities around the world.

Note this is not the usual 3rd Friday of the month, as there is a combined November/December likemind each year due to the holidays.

In Chicago, it will be at Argo Tea, 140 S Dearborn St. at the corner of Adams and Dearborn Streets in the Loop from 8:00 am to 10:00 am.

I call likemind a gathering of creative-minded people, from various disciplines including Internet, advertising, art, social media, et. al. For more on likemind, read this great article on likemind Chicago from the Newcity and likemind from the New York Times. Follow @likemindchicago on Twitter.

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Announcements • Business • Technology • Thrive • likemind • (0) Comments • Permalink

This past Friday was likemind Chicago. This monthly meetup (with the exception of 1 date for November & December) brings together an eclectic mix of people. Where typically people work in and around the Web, media, advertising and marketing, it also brings out a number of people who work in different fields who have interests in these areas. We meet at Argo Tea on Adams and Dearborn Streets at 8 am, where their great teas and coffee compliment what’s happening.

Myself and Bruno Pieroni “host” the meetup – we greet everyone, but we are by no means the pivot point of the gathering. Over the past couple of years we have been proud to host the local meetup of what is a global networking meetup. We have had people from around the world – literally – come by as they attend a likemind gathering in their home city. We also have many people who come by each month, and some who come once and we never see them again.

Where Were You?

On average a dozen people come to likemind, and I have always wondered why more don’t. Where we meet at 8 am, surely people are up at this hour. Maybe people indicate on Facebook they are coming but don’t really plan to. Rather than overanalyze this, I thought instead I would share some of the topics of conversation at last Friday’s likemind, and leave it to you to determine if you are missing out on anything!

Here goes, as many as I could write down, in a somewhat chronological order:

• Pek gave a demo of his “Amazon instant” Web app called ShelfLuv and iPad app BizTome
• Erin talked about SteepandCheap.com where she got her 66 North jacket, and we talked about how it was an Icelandic brand, and told the story about an employer who bought a coffee pot for a late-night project
• BookBook is an iPad case that looks like a vintage book binding
• Ryan showed us his Droid X, which he bought to “fit in” with everyone else’s smartphones
• There is a likemind Chicago location in Foursquare, and Mike took the mayorship from Bruno
• Kate said the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum is more than butterflies
• Talk about various marathons around the US
• How Foursquare’s School Night badge is awarded for checking in anywhere after 3 am, even at work
• Bruno referred to a colleague as, “my other Pek” and talked about an app he created called GeoPollster which integrates with Foursquare and you can tag a location with a political party
• Interhoods is a location-based designer and developer showcase, now in Chicago, New York and San Francisco
• Sortfolio is another location-based showcase, which presents project price ranges
• A lot of discussion around passive, recurring revenue
• Victoria is working on a Web site for the Girl Scouts
• Mike inserted QR codes into conversations whenever and wherever possible
• Discussion on examples of augmented reality
• Comparing TEDx Windy City vs. TEDx Midwest vs. TEDx Naperville
• Mike brought up the Nokia Qt mobile development platform and some wondered why they hadn’t heard about it
• Discussion around where people worked and some asked Mike about OfficePort Chicago
• The Windows 7 Phone compares with Android and the iPhone

As well, a few things were talked about which some felt were private conversations and shouldn’t have been mentioned here!

All this, in just under 2 hours. Would you have learned something being there? Could you have contributed? Watch for the announcement of the next likemind Chicgao on our Facebook group.

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Business • Strategize • Technology • Thrive • likemind • (14) Comments • Permalink

The next likemind will be Friday, October 15, 2010 in dozens of cities around the world.

In Chicago, it will be at Argo Tea, 140 S Dearborn St. at the corner of Adams and Dearborn Streets in the Loop from 8:00 am to 10:00 am.

I call likemind a gathering of creative-minded people, from various disciplines including Internet, advertising, art, social media, et. al. For more on likemind, read this great article on likemind Chicago from the Newcity and likemind from the New York Times.

Announcements • Business • Technology • Thrive • (0) Comments • Permalink