Strengths Found!

 1+2+3+4+5 = Katie!

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been looking at each of my strengths as given to me by Strengths Finder 2.0.  Here is the quick rundown again of my top 5 Strengths:

Belief

Learner

Responsibility

Harmony

Developer

(The links on each go to the post about the individual strengths)

I think that these strengths are in a pretty good order of how they are listed, as each one builds on the next; well, maybe it should be a pyramid but Belief on the bottom....Anyway, what I mean is that my belief is the base of everything I do.  Not only does it dictate what job I have, but also how I live my life and what I hold as valuable, but then not far off from that is learning more about my beliefs and other things that I find interesting, but all the while, still guided by my beliefs.

Then responsibility comes into play in how I accomplish what I say I will do.  This is in my work and in my personal life, each of which requires learning new things as well as staying inline with my beliefs.  Then comes the harmony; this helps keep me grounded and listening to those around me.  And finally Developer, the one that I'm still developing, but I like to keep others encouraged, but in order to do that I need to listen to them, hold them responsible for their actions, learn about them but still guided by my beliefs.  

One of the beliefs that I thought would be there and isn't:

Competition - I like it when there is a winner and something to shoot for.  

Well, now that I've talked about my strengths, what else should I talk about?  Any thoughts?

Potentially There Is Potential

Strength #5: Developer

"You can do it!" Those are words that can either be encouraging or frustrating, and I say them all the time (or at least something like it), or do I?  My fifth strength is called "Developer" which basically means that I like to encourage people to find their potential and try to help them improve.  There are defiantly times where I can see this happening, but unlike my other strengths this was the one I had the most trouble accepting at first.

When I first saw that I was a "Developer" I didn't even know what that meant.  I was very confused by it, because I still think that I'm working on this strength.  It wasn't until I read the personal insights about developer that it began to make some sense.  My developer strength is one of the main reasons I worked in youth at my church and why I enjoy spending time with my discipleship group, I like it when people grow!

What better place for me to work than an organization that is shaped around seeing people develop and grow in their walk with Jesus!  But like I said, while this is a strength, I think it's one I'm still developing (yes, I'm developing my developer strength).  Here is what I mean:

I get excited when people grow and learn, it helps me get energized, but at the same time I don't think I'm all that good at it!  There is a big downside to this strength, I often forget to include myself in those I want to see grow; I become OK with being stagnate.  I'm in a constant tension of not feeling like I'm growing and at the same time being excited about others getting stronger.  The book Strengths Finders 2.0 suggest that people with a Developer strength find themselves a mentor to help them in their development.  I'm working on finding someone to come alongside me too, to help me grow in my strengths and abilities so that I can better equip those that I'm invested in.

Do you get energized when you see others succeeded and grow? Maybe you're a developer too? Have you ever thought of coming alongside someone to help and encourage them as they learn?

Off Key, but In Harmony?

Strength #4: Harmony

No, I don't sing well and if I try to pick out a harmony in a song I quite often fail miserably at it; I'm talking about a different type of harmony.  I've heard that the third child is often the peacemaker in a family...or maybe I made that up because I'm a third child and like to keep the peace.  Whatever the case, it is one of my strengths, to create harmony.  According to Strengths Finder 2.0 when you have high harmony, "You look for areas of agreement.  In your view there is little to be gained from conflict and friction, so you seek to hold them to a minimum." 

When I first saw this come up in my top 5 strengths I was convinced that that fully understood what they were talking about.  I don't like to be the one to make waves, and I hate it when people get upset, especially at me.  But then when I read more about the Harmony strength I realized there is a lot more to it than just relating with others in conflict.  I want there to be harmony in my work too; not just with the people but with how I accomplish tasks.

I appreciate it when tasks and work load makes sense; when it has a starting and an ending and defined steps along the way.  It makes me feel comfortable when I know what I'm supposed to do and how to do it.  That is why when I have questions I ask people who know how to do things, that are smarter than me, or have done it before.  It is refreshing to me that I can follow a step-by-step plan for things. 

One aspect of harmony is I hate putting myself in situations that may cause conflict.  I think that this is why going out on campus to share my faith has always been so hard for me.  I don't want to make people feel upset.  However at the same time, it helps me, because I want to make sure that they know that they are heard.  It's a really tough place.

So, a final though...this is why when I was in college and was in a Market Research class that required us to make cold calls for a phone survey I HATED doing it!  I didn't like to annoy the people I was calling as well possibly make them upset.  I, myself, got very upset and spent several nights crying when I would have to make phone calls. 

What do you think?  
Are you one to make Harmony, or do you like to provoke debate just to do it?  
Do you know someone with harmony as a strength, and do you enjoy being around them or do you find them frustrating?

Just for the "Run" of it

I've started running again.  Mostly just because I've been feeling very out of shape lately and I want to make sure that I stay in great shape so that when the weather gets nicer I can do things like go for a hike, and I want to be able to have the endurance to surf...A LOT! :-)

So, while I run I often think of a lot of different things, but today it was a little bit different.  Since I got out of High School and got an mp3 player (No, I don't have an ipod, itouch or anything that begins with an i) I haven't really run without some sort of music playing.  Don't get me wrong...I LOVE running to music.  It's one of the reasons that I would rather run by myself, because that way I'm not ignoring the person I'm running with.  But now that I have a smart phone this has transformed into Pandora playing while I run, which gives me a nice mix of all kinds of music.  Not only do I have music but I also have a GPS that tracks how long and how fast I run.  Before I would have to time myself, then get home and map it myself to find out average pace. 

Today while I was running I changed a setting in my running app.  I had my app, RunKeeper, say when I reached each mile of my run.  Well, this caused Pandora to stop playing, so after a mile and a half I lost music. At first I was really annoyed, but then I started to like it.  Without music all I heard was my breathing and the birds, which helped me to quiet my mind a little bit and think.  It's really hard to run for both fun and a good workout, at least for me anyway.  I ran longer and faster today that I have in quite a while.  But I had to choose, do I want to know how far I'm running or listen to music. 

I really enjoyed running without music again.  I often forget to quiet my mind and just relax and reflect on what the Lord is teaching me.  I've got to remember to His faithfulness and goodness.  God invented running! :-)

So, we'll see if this actually happens, but I'm thinking about trying to run the Portland Marathon in October.  But for now these are my accomplishments:

The 5K Badge from Foursquare

You can click the link under the badge to read more about it. :-)

Responsibility

Strength #3: Responsibility

If you were in school with me and we had to do a group project, I was that person in the class who would almost prefer to do it myself.  Why?  That has to do with my third strength: responsibility.

When it comes to doing what I said, I'll get it done, if I don't...well, lets just say I'd owe you about a million favors to make up for my slacking.  According to Strength Finders 2.0 when responsibility is high you, "take psychological ownership for anything you commit to, and whether large or small, you feel emotionally bound to follow it though to completion."  I can see this strength really play out a lot in my life, almost to the point where it is one of my MAJOR downfalls in my personal life.

Having a high responsibility is excellent while at work.  When I commit to doing something, 9 times out of 10 I'm going to make sure it's done, when it needs to be done.  When I do fail to complete something, I'll be the first to admit that I didn't follow through, and usually start beating myself up over it until I'm able to make amends or right the wrong.  As I said, this is great in a work environment, and even when I was in school, however, as I mentioned before, I would be the person in the group project to make sure it got done.  But I often would have my responsibility strength placed on the others in my group as well.  If I felt like some didn't do work or that their work was only half complete, I would pick up that slack, and then inform the instructor to this.  I feel that you need to be responsible for your actions as well.

Responsibility is great, but as I said, it has become a major downfall as well.  For example, when I take on responsibility for a project I might overload myself.  I'll feel an obligation to say, "Yes" to almost anything that comes my way.  This, is not a good thing, because when I inevitably fail at completing all of these tasks I begin to beat myself down, and feel as though I am a failure.

I also will take on responsibility for things that I don't really need to or have responsibility for; this happens more in my personal life. Often times, if there is an issue, or problem at my house, I'll take blame, responsibility, for it, even if it wasn't my fault, or mine to deal with in the first place...but I also think this has to do with my next strength as well, Harmony (but that's for another time).

I need to continue to work on a balance in taking on and dealing with my responsibilities. 

Knowledge is Power

Strength #2: Learner

My Learner strength is really what caused this whole blog thing to be started.  In my post How Strong are You?  I talked about my need to learn new things and how it's started to play out in my job.  But I want to think about this a little deeper.

This is what Strengths Finder 2.0 says about the Learner strength, "You love to learn...The process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you." I really find this true.  I really miss school.  Like I mentioned in my belief post, I do value my education, however, it was more the actual act of learning things, sitting in class and being fed information that I miss.  It has taken me a while to accept this strength of mine for what it truly is, learning.  (I guess that's why growing up in a town who's name means "The Love of Learning" was so exciting for me!) 

Being a learner, I have picked up many hobbies and interests, which in-and-of itself is quite expensive, but very rewarding.  I like the mental challenge of learning new things.  Perhaps that's why when I was in high school I chose some of the most technical track events: pole vault, high jump, triple jump and hurdles.  Each of these required learning more than just "move your legs to propel you around the track."  They required hours of honing my technique and skills in order to compete at a level I felt good about.  Maybe that's why Cross Country (while I had been running XC since I was in 5th grade) by the end of my senior year was no longer exciting for me; I felt as if I had learned everything there was to learn about the sport.  You run and try to pass the person in front of you, not much to learn about that. 

Learning has been a big part of my life in general, as I'm sure you can tell.  I have realized that my desire to learn is no longer being fulfilled through school, so I need to cultivate it in my own time, and by disregarding my yearning to learn only plays this strength of mine against myself.  When I'm not learning new things I feel like a bump on log and lazy.

My learning has been showing itself at work a lot lately.  I've been learning how to work in an office, reading books about having an effective ministry, dealing with issues among coworkers, and spiritual things too.  It's been great! 

Here is the downside to being a learner...often times its just learning that is exciting, not always the follow through on what I've learned.  A strength that I don't have in my top five that I wish I did is the Maximizer.  Maximizers want things done the best they can be...I sometimes settle for mediocrity.  I learn things but I don't always apply them to the fullest that they could be.

I have found that being partnered with someone who is a Maximizer is a great way to help with this though.  One of my co-workers is a Maximizer and I love working with her because together we learn and maximize lots of things!

Do you enjoy learning?  
How do you see my learning played out my life?
Do you have any suggestions for things I should learn more about?

Believe it or not

Strength #1: Belief

My "top strength" is listed as Belief, but what exactly does that mean?  Belief in what?  When I saw this I the first thing that came to my mind was, "Why wouldn't this be anyone's top strength," which goes to show how much belief is one of my strengths.  Let me explain, according to Strenghts Finders 2.0 people with a strong Belief theme "have certain core values that are enduring."  My beliefs and values shape my life and, because of them, my idea of success is often different from others.  This is pretty evident in the line of work I'm in.

If you don't know me well, I'll give a little history on myself.  I have a college education in a pretty interesting field, Animal Sciences as well as Applied Economics and Business Marketing.  I'm currently working for the largest evangelical non-profit in the world, not really using the Animal Sciences degree (except while around the lunch table, we tend to talk about all sorts of farm animals!).  I'm following my beliefs.  I feel that my belief in God and my relationship with Jesus Christ is more important than formally using my 6 years of college education.  While I do find real value in my education, I feel that by increasing the spread of the Gospel among college students and around the world is just MORE important.  Sure, I use my education serving on the operations team (I've spent many hours going through evaluations, thinking about how to market different areas of our ministry, etc.) however, it's not like I'm working for an agricultural industry looking to maximize their profits so that I can move up in the company and make more money.  I could do that, but when I worked selling eggs to grocery stores (just starting out) I felt like I was missing my bigger purpose, to see others know Jesus.

This shapes who I am.  I want to see others grow.  I want to see others learn about God and find peace and understanding.  I want to use the talents I have to pursue what I view as important.  While this is a great strength to have, it can also be a struggle when it comes to some of my interactions with others.

For example, when we go to campus to share the Gospel, I often can't understand how someone couldn't believe in God, because He's such an important part of my life.  I also can't understand how someone can't want to use their talents and abilities to bring God praise, honor and glory!  When I'm passionate about something it's hard to try and stop me from going after it, which can bring issues between me and others if they don't feel that that value/thing isn't worth what I think it is.

Without my Belief I wouldn't be moving forward.

To be honest, I'm glad this is my strongest strength.  It helps me drive forward in my purpose in life: To Bring God Glory!

How about you?  Do you think you have Belief as one of your strengths?
How do you see Belief play out in my life, your life and/or our relationship?

I'd really love to hear your answers to these questions!  :-)

Katie Q.