Strength = Talent x (Knowledge + Skills)
Talent is defined as the ability to provide consistent, near-perfect performance in a given activity. Talent is a naturally recurring pattern of thoughts, feeling or behavior that can be productively applied. A talent is a potential strength.
Strengths-based education is based on identify talents, adding knowledge and skills and working to build and enhance your strengths and those of others.
Knowing and understanding our strengths not only help us as individuals working towards our goals, but even more effectively they help us work in teams and groups. Understanding how we can become stronger by working in an effective team is perhaps the most powerful way to live harmoniously in our professional and personal lives.
So, how have these talents been categorized and labeled so we can adequately pinpoint them and develop them? The following is a list of individual themes, which are natural strong areas in individuals that can be developed into strengths.
Learning your strengths requires the proper assessment, however, perhaps you will recognize some of your strengths below…
Themes in individuals that can be developed into strengths:
Personal Themes
- Achiever – one with a constant drive for accomplishing tasks
- Activator – one who acts to start things in motion
- Adaptability – one who is especially adept at accommodating to changes in direction/plan
- Analytical – one who requires data and/or proof to make sense of their circumstances
- Arranger – one who enjoys orchestrating many tasks and variables to a successful outcome
- Belief – one who strives to find some ultimate meaning behind everything they do
- Command – one who steps up to positions of leadership without fear of confrontation
- Communication – one who uses words to inspire action and education
- Competition – one who thrives on comparison and competition to be successful
- Connectedness – one who seeks to unite others through commonality
- Consistency – one who believes in treating everyone the same to avoid unfair advantage
- Context – one who is able to use the past to make better decisions in the present
- Deliberative – one who proceeds with caution, seeking to always have a plan and know all of the details
- Developer – one who sees the untapped potential in others
- Discipline – one who seeks to make sense of the world by imposition of order
- Empathy – one who is especially in tune with the emotions of others
- Focus – one who requires a clear sense of direction to be successful
- Futuristic – one who has a keen sense of using an eye towards the future to drive today’s success
- Harmony – one who seeks to avoid conflict and achieve success through consensus
- Ideation – one who is adept at seeing underlying concepts that unite disparate ideas
- Includer – one who instinctively works to include everyone
- Individualization – one who draws upon the uniqueness of individuals to create successful teams
- Input – one who is constantly collecting information or objects for future use
- Intellection – one who enjoys thinking and thought-provoking conversation often for its own sake, and also can data compress complex concepts into simplified models
- Learner – one who must constantly be challenged and learning new things to feel successful
- Maximizer – one who seeks to take people and projects from great to excellent
- Positivity – one who has a knack for bring the light-side to any situation
- Relator – one who is most comfortable with fewer, deeper relationships
- Responsibility – one who, inexplicably, must follow through on commitments
- Restorative – one who thrives on solving difficult problems
- Self-Assurance – one who stays true to their beliefs, judgments and is confident of his/her ability
- Significance – one who seeks to be seen as significant by others
- Strategic – one who is able to see a clear direction through the complexity of a situation
- Woo – one who is able to easily persuade
Developing Talent into Strengths
Strengths Development Framework
| Development Stage | Understanding |
|---|---|
| Discover/Awareness | • Understands and can define your strengths • Has a basic understanding of your Signature Theme • Uncover and acknowledge your innate talents through the StrengthsFinder Assessment |
| Develop/Integrate | • Can see a clear relationship between past and present behaviors • Can link your strengths to success • Accept these talents and learn what they are, their potential, and how you can use them |
| Apply/Application | • Can utilize their knowledge of their five themes to plan, strategize, direct, and analyze their behavior • Learn how to adapt your behavior to manifest your strengths in your tasks |
| Relationships | • Has a clear understanding of the uniqueness of strengths. Sees and hears strengths in others. • Has relationships that encourages strengths. |