Our uniqueness may be designed in, so we’ll be interdependent. That’s my belief. Read on and you’ll learn how your uniqueness can fulfill you and benefit those you know and care about.
We each have unique strengths
Technically you were born with talents and inclinations. A strength is a talent that you do quickly and almost perfectly, almost every time. When we make the most of our strengths our performance improves. Here are some examples.
My wise wife Sandy has an amazing ability to write. Her first draft is always well organized: A, A1, A2, A3; B, B1, B2; C C1, C2, C3, C4… It comes naturally to her. It’s one of her strengths.
My brokerage coach has the gift of strategic insight. He can quickly assess a broker’s unique talents and recognize where they waste time or effort. He can clearly and politely cast a vision about how they can accent their strength and pivot away from what wastes their time. That’s one of his strengths.
My architect friend, John, can visualize reality in three dimensions. He can create a 3D image and manipulate it in his mind. That’s one of his strengths.
My gifts differ. I do mental math and am wired to seek more efficient ways to accomplish our goals. My top strengths include a drive to achieve and a continual mental hum, but they carry the risks of winning trivial battles and the paralysis of analysis.
We all face the challenge of learning what we do well.
Learning about our strengths
When Don Clifton began his research, shortly after World War II, he noticed that all the psychology books he could find were about what’s wrong with people. He decided to devote his life to identifying what’s right with people.
Over the course of a generation, he crafted and refined an instrument that allows an individual to discover their strengths. The instrument was called Clifton Strengthsfinder when it was introduced in 1999. In 2015 it was re-christened CliftonStrengths. Hundreds of studies have validated what the assessment reports.
Over 30 million people have taken the CliftonStrengths assessment. Here’s how the assessment works. Electronically you answer almost 100 questions spending 20 seconds or less for each. The questions are like: Are you more like A or G? Are you more like H or L?
You get a report on which of 34 different strengths is your most dominant. The odds that someone else will have that same top strength is about one in 34 or about 3%. The same thing for your second most dominant characteristic. By the time your top five are ranked, roughly 1 person out of 33 million has the same five strengths in the same order. That means there are only 10 Americans with the same top five strengths in the same order as you.
Heads up! Your mom was right, you’re special! Wait, keep your humility in tow, you won’t be famous or featured on national TV. Rejoice! You’re designed to be unique. We really need your set of gifts.
What to do with what you learn
I began this post by admitting my weirdness. Now, let’s get to the real point… YOU! You have talent – not just playing a musical instrument or the ability to juggle or tell a story. Your talents are your unique mix of inclinations to do things well.
CliftonStrengths suggests maximizing your strengths and finding ways to make your weaknesses irrelevant. If people are interdependent by design, that implies working with others is a good way to showcase your gift by partnering with somebody else who can easily do what is quite difficult for you.
When you recognize and focus on your strengths, you accent your one true chance of greatness. Your calling, if you’re willing to acknowledge it, is tied to using your gifts to benefit others. I choose to believe we are interdependent by design. When we work together and use our strengths to offset each other’s weaknesses we can accomplish great things.
The world needs your gift. We’re not interchangeable. You can ignore your gifts or develop them. You can do easily and excellently what some of us can’t do and what few of us can do well. Maximize your strengths and find ways to make your weaknesses irrelevant.
Maybe one day you’ll take CliftonStrengths or maybe you already have. It can be well worth your time to find a coach who can help you leverage your uniqueness.
Rejoice in your uniqueness! Find where your gift set is needed most. There are more places that need your gifts than you can imagine.
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What’s your experience with discovering and developing your strengths?
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Terry Moore, CCIM, is the author of Building Legacy Wealth: How to Build Wealth and Live a Life Worth Imitating. Read his “Welcome to My Blog.”