As I mentioned yesterday, Wednesday’s are going to have a focus on the Gallup StrengthsFinder tool. Each Wednesday we’ll take one persons top five themes and discuss them, offering tips and insights.
Today we’re discussing Jennie Kohl Austin’s themes which are:
- Ideation
- People strong in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.
- Activator
- People strong in the Activator theme can make things happen by turning thoughts into action. They are often impatient.
- Strategic
- People strong in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.
- Input
- People strong in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.
- Learner
- People strong in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.
If you share any of these themes, why not join in by sharing how you see that theme functioning in your life. And let me know if you have any questions related to them as well.
Before going any further, let’s start by clarifying one key thing. StrengthsFinder does NOT identify strengths. It identifies talent. And, in helping you identify talent, the goal is that you add skills and knowledge to your talents in order that they can become strengths. You can read more about my perspective on what a strength is here. In summary though, here are some key Gallup definitions:
- Talents are defined as thoughts, feelings, or behaviours that can be productively applied.
- Strengths are the ability to provide consistent, near perfect performance in a given activity
Ok, let’s kick off today’s conversation with some questions for Jennie. We’ll then use her replies to take the conversation further.
- Which of your five talent themes do you feel is your strongest? Why?
- Which talent theme seems to fit you the best? Why?
- Are any of your talent themes misunderstood by the people around you, if so why do you think that is?
- Do you have any talent themes that you’re really not sure why it came up? Why?
- What other questions do you have?
Suggestion: read out the five full descriptions for your talent themes to several different close family members or friends who know you really well. What do they think? What’s their reaction? Are there any areas where what they think is really true about you differs from what you think is true about you?
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1. Which of your five talent themes do you feel is your strongest? Why?
I think Ideation is my strongest theme. It was difficult to say that, because I feel all of my themes together make a huge statement about who I am. But before I take action, make a strategic plan, learn all I can about a situation and collect the data – there’s always an idea. I think a lot. Sometimes that keeps me from making progress, I get easily distracted by the next shiny new idea.
2. Which talent theme seems to fit you the best? Why?
They are all an excellent fit, but Learner seems to be the predominant theme of my life. I simply have to learn! The Internet is the most wonderful world to someone like me, where the answers to many of life’s challenges are out there ready to found. Unfortunately, many of the answers I am looking for are not out there just to be found, and I struggle with understanding the “meaning of life.”
3. Are any of your talent themes misunderstood by the people around you, if so why do you think that is?
Absolutely. In my job, ideas are not for people in my position to provide. It can be incredibly frustrating to see that strengths and talents are not being addressed because they don’t have anything to do with job descriptions. I feel like if you have a problem, I can come up with ideas to solve it. They may not be well-thought-out at first but I guarantee if I don’t know the answer I can find it if it’s out there to be found. I can analyze a situation and see things about it that other people don’t see. If I try to contribute outside my “pay grade” then I’m generally dismissed. Unfortunately a lot of people are in planning-type positions simply because they worked their way up to there and not because that is their talent. My talents breed change and many people seem to fear change.
4. Do you have any talent themes that you’re really not sure why it came up? Why?
I think all my themes are a perfect fit, so I’m going to change this question.
Do you have any talent themes that were a surprise? In what way?
I was surprised to see that I am an Activator. The definition makes sense, but while I’m great at starting things, I’m not as good at finishing them. I’ve gone to college 4 times with 8 different majors. My world is full of halfway completed books, art projects, writing projects, home remodeling projects and more. I locked away trauma from my childhood without dealing with it properly, and I’ve even been divorced twice! I’ve been having such a hard time finishing things throughout my life, it never occurred to me that maybe I’m just extra good at starting things. I have a ton of accomplishments, but I couldn’t see them as clearly before this talent was identified.
5. What other questions do you have?
I’d like to know your (both you, Sam, and other readers) interpretation of my set of talents. What do you think I should be doing for a living without really knowing me? I will tell you I’m a 37 yr-old info and tech geek, artist, mom and dreamer who loves color and texture, problem solving, research, helping others and just being in awe of the world around me. I’ve extensively studied the social sciences, both on my own and in college. I have a computer degree but computer work alone is not creative enough to satisfy me. I dream of being a writer but I don’t actually write. I currently work as a researcher for a local government agency, which meets my basic needs but doesn’t fill my heart with joy. I believe as a Christian I was given this list of talents as a challenge…how do I use this information to best serve my fellow man?
Hey Jennie! what a great response to the questions! Thanks for taking the time and giving us something to work with.
I won’t respond to everything in this reply but will post stuff as we go along. I’d love for others to join in too.
What does ideation look like for you? This is one that I share with you though for me it is a supporting rather than dominant theme. I often think that ideation is a bit like making popcorn. Once one idea pops, another one does, and then another one, and on and on!
How do you process your ideas? On a scale of 1 to 10 where would you place yourself on the introvert, extrovert scale? (Full on extrovert = 10) I’m probably a 4 and so tend to think a lot about my ideas, filter them, and then bounce them around with others. I have a friend who’s probably a 9 or 10 and pretty much every idea that pops into his head pops out his mouth!
I loved how you put “I simply have to learn”. That’s definitely a sign of a strength. If a strength is defined as “Strengths are the ability to provide consistent, near perfect performance in a given activity”, what are some ways you could improve how you learn and how you might apply that productively?
Reading your comments about Activator made me chuckle. That is another theme that I actually share with you. I know the feeling about being a better starter than I am a finisher. The key here is to plan around that. What if, when it comes to projects, I work with others who have different strengths to me? So I help kick start – activate – the project and then hand it over to people with better strengths to carry it forward?
Of course there are some things that we must finish. Or at the very least, should finish. Here I think it’s about finding a strategy that’ll help you out. (You’re at an advantage here as Strategic is a talent theme of yours!) For me, writing for this Awaken site on a daily basis is not something that I’d usually manage to keep going with. So I decided to go public and say that I will post on a daily (Monday through Friday) basis. That self-imposed pressure is helping me stick with it. Find what works for you.
Ideation is a mixed blessing. I’d like to say that it’s the best thing that ever happened to a creative thinker, but…not always. I see it more like pancakes. You pour out lots of little circles of batter, but you have to stick around long enough to flip them over if you want to end up with something edible! Therein lies my challenge.
I’m not as good at processing my ideas as I would like. I have a pretty short attention span, so although I’m a total introvert I still blurt out ideas at sometimes inappropriate moments. I would say I feel and act like a 0-1 introvert in new places and situations, but am still about a 4 once I’m comfortable with people and my environment. I definitely need a fair bit of alone time.
Based on your strengths definitions, I guess I do have high performance in all these areas. My job is an example of how I have utilized some of my strengths. I plan my own work in self-directed way (strategy) and I research for the info I need to complete reports (input). I only very occasionally get to contribute ideas and learn new things after several years in the same job. I struggle with finishing what I start.
I would like to use my Learner talent to write. My ability to research and gather information, come up with ideas, learn all about them and start writing would be good. I’m trying to use Twitter to bridge that gap right now, to become more confident about expressing myself in writing.
I spent a lot of my life thinking that not finishing things was a weakness when really it’s just the result of the Activator talent. Like how they say that the baseball players with the most home runs are the ones that have been to bat the most. It would be impossible for me to finish everything I ever started, because I’m an Ideation Activator. I have to have ideas, and I have to act on them. I don’t have to finish them all. That’s just who I am.
Right now my goal is to figure out what I want the next part of my life to really look like. I feel like a round peg in a star-shaped hole. I fit in there but there’s a lot of spaces around me that I’d like to sparkle my way into.
As I mentioned, I’m using Twitter (@jennieofcourse) to become more comfortable with writing my thoughts. I was a watcher for a long time, like I am when I go to a new place. It also took me a while to get comfortable with being on there as myself and not through some persona. It’s been a voyage of self-discovery.
It is definitely very easy to feel guilty about being a better starter than a finisher.
I am convinced though that, if nothing else, StrengthsFinder highlights that we need each other. No one has everything. We all have strengths AND weaknesses. We need to function in teams.
The person who is brilliant at taking a project through to conclusion more often than not could never actually start the project up from scratch.
We need each other.
As a fellow activator I enjoy starting things up but I know I don’t do very well at finishing things off. And at the same time, I don’t want to leave behind me a trail of unfinished projects. But the only way that’ll happen is by working with others with different yet complementary strengths to my own.