I can’t believe we’re onto our fourth #StrengthsDay already. Each week so far has been a really fascinating conversation with some great insights coming to the fore. I’m looking forward to more of the same today.
For those of you who don’t know, every Wednesday on Awaken we profile one person based on their top five StrengthsFinder themes. You can find out more about it all here and submit your five themes for the chance to be profiled in the future.
Today we are profiling the top five themes of Felix Leong. Whilst we are specifically focussing on the five themes Felix has, if you have any of them or know people who do, then this conversation is for you as well.
Hearing each others’ stories about how each theme functions in our lives is what brings the themes to life and enlarges our understanding of each theme. So do please join in!
As always, let’s start by looking at the brief descriptions of each of this weeks themes:
- Connectedness
- People strong in the Connectedness Theme have faith in the links between all phenomena. They believe there are no coincidences and that every event has a reason.
- Intellection
- People strong in the Intellection Theme are characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.
- Input
- People strong in the Input Theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.
- Maximiser
- People strong in the Maximiser Theme focus on Strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. They seek to transform something strong into something superb.
- Relator
- People who are strong in the Relator Theme enjoy close relationships with others. They find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal.
Hopefully Felix will be able to interact with us during the day as well and, specifically, I’m going to ask him to answer the same few questions I give out each week:
- Can you start by sharing a little about who you are and what you do?
- 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 or were surprised by? Why?
- What other questions do you have?
Right, let’s get the conversation started. Add your own thoughts, stories, and insights here and be sure to check back later to see how the conversation is unfolding.
Thanks for being a regular visitor to Awaken. If you haven't already subscribed, you can stay up-to-date by email, RSS, or Twitter
{ 1 trackback }
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Let’s kick this off!
1. Can you start by sharing a little about who you are and what you do?
I’m an analyst programmer from Malaysia and, well… as the title implies, I write and design software for gaming companies (note the context of “gaming” here relates to those of casinos). :p
2. Which of your five talent themes do you feel is your strongest? Why?
The first theme that came to mind would be “Intellection” – which I rarely find myself not living without that mental hum (other than times when I meditate). I really enjoyed working on the mental sandbox which I could take apart my thoughts and piecing them together in new ways that I couldn’t have thought of. I would not be surprised if I find my thoughts going adrift in the later part of my writing.
And to be frank, sometimes I find that I would occasionally wander off in my thoughts, so engrossed that I would tune off from the world around me. (with my subconscious guiding my path from bumping myself into people and walls)
On another perspective, I wouldn’t really say that there is a strongest theme in the sense that I personally find it interesting to note the fact that three of the strength reflects different aspects, or rather my conscious levels, of myself, namely:
- 1st theme – Connectedness: relates strongly to my super-conscious, which I would find myself often operating based on purpose and sometimes ethics, and that “guiding light” would greatly influence how I feel and how I feel about the things I’m doing
- 2nd theme – Input: relates strongly to my subconscious, which I personally naturally attracted to things that I find interesting and often hoarding such materials: physical or mental
- 3rd theme – Intellection: relates strongly to my conscious, which relates to how I interacted with the physical world I’m in
3. Which talent theme seems to fit you the best? Why?
At this part, it’s probably a mix between the last two themes – Relator and Maximizer… which I personally find quite amusing that I could compartmentalize all my strengths to find into the set of questions you gave me.
Seriously, picking only one, it’s definitely have to be Maximizer. I have pretty much discussed about it in the previous StrengthsDay discussion (see comment #9) and honestly there’s often occasions that I feel a hit on my self-esteem when I could achieve the best from my talents and potential. And honestly if Connectedness is my “guiding light”, Maximizer is definitely the “life purpose/path”.
4. Are any of your talent themes misunderstood by the people around you, if so why do you think that is?
)
That reminds me of my brother’s remark when I was a teenager that she asked my mom “My brother was reading so much about self-help and personal development books, did he actually apply any of it in life?”, which I personally find it interesting much later in life when my mom told me much later that my brother is very proud and looks up to me now. (which gave a bit of pressure on me
So, in that way, people sometimes didn’t understand why I’d spend so much time gathering input or data when I start up a project; or why I’d collect stuff like books and Japanese pop CDs – which I’m just relishing the enjoyment of discovering interesting things and collect things being an Input-themed person.
Even strongly, I think, is that I felt that I’m most misunderstood for being a Relator, which usually in a group setting with lots of strangers, I tend to step aside and spend a lot of time observing people and overhearing conversations (though the fact that some people may find that rude). Or upon meeting up with new people, I tend to play the listener role before actually speaking much. But typically that what I do to personally try to relate as much as I could with someone and I feel a strong need to know a person before actually starting “blending” into their lives.
But on the other hand, I’m wondering whether I may be using Relator as an excuse for not fixing my social flaws and awkwardness, though.
5. Do you have any talent themes that you’re really not sure why it came up or were surprised by? Why?
When I first took the test, I’m quite surprised that Relator came out – as I’m under the perception that I’m not much of a “people’s person” (no thanks to the fact that I’m really living the geek stereotype, though on a moderate basis). But as I observe the friends that I have, which I have a smaller social group and each of those within my circle are really close friends and I could related to them strongly, it’s surprising to see how I have actually played out the theme without me knowing it.
6. What other questions do you have?
. (judging from my Input and Intellection tendencies)
Not at the moment, but I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with some when we start to discuss it
I love that you’ve clearly given so much though to processing your five themes, Felix. It’s all too easy to take an assessment like StrengthsFinder and simply end up with 5 words. You’ve clearly given a lot of thought to them (perhaps connected to input and intellection!) that means you’re integrating them to your life. As someone who is passionate about seeing people living strengths based lives, it gets me excited to see someone who so clearly is striving towards that.
On your strongest theme, it was fascinating to see how you described that. I often say that you know when you a have a strong, dominant theme because you – literally – can’t seem to switch it off. For me, this is futuristic. It is practically impossible for me to pull away from this because it is so instinctively integrated to who I am.
It’d be interesting to hear a little bit more to see how you specifically utilise your top themes in your work context. Are there some that fit more easily, or do you find yourself using them all?
It was interesting to hear you talk about how Relator works for you. Is the same way that Maximiser and Developer are opposite ends of the same scale, Relator and Woo seem to be similar themes operating in very different ways.
In a social or networking context it seems that someone with Woo would rather have a short conversation with everyone whilst someone with Relator would rather have a long, meaningful conversation with one person. Relators tend to be great at going deeper with people and build really significant relationships.
In the work context, being a programmer myself, I tend to use more of my Input and Intellection capabilities, which I tend to try to understand and gather data as much as I could about the project on hand and working out a solution from there. Typically a great match when I’m working on new realms and domains.
Though, admittedly, it’s not without it’s downfalls though, here’s where the Maximizer theme, tendency for Intellection to treat time as infinite whereas the world we live in have deadlines and the insatisfiable need for Input to get more interesting data, I often find myself in situations where I over-analyse the problem and only come to a rude awakening of a closing deadline, which ends up having myself agonizing over picking the best out of a bunch of “imperfect” solutions and “wing it”.
Most of the time my solutions tend to be greater than “good” (not surprising, coming from the fact of the Maximizer theme), but the experience would leave me completely drained.
I personally find Relator does help a great deal in working together within my department. I’m now finding myself having quite a strong bond among most of my colleagues and personally I find working with people in my department (and external parties as well) mostly a smooth experience without much of a hitch and we could corporate very well due to our understanding with each other.
Come to think about questions, does reminded me about the lack of mention of Connectedness for the whole discussion. Personally I find the strength quite hard to grasp and I personally find myself trying to get hold of it.
Personally I do find Connectedness sort of a great undercurrent beneath the earth, or of the humongous roots of a great oak tree, or even the concept of air – which we can’t see it’s appearance yet it’s extremely vital for us to survive.
On the outset, it’s not hard to notice that I hold myself accountable towards a higher moral conduct and have a strong interest in philosophy and spirituality subjects. I also find a lot of enjoyment in helping and teaching others in achieving the greater good and solve their deeper problems.
However how does such underpinnings of Connectedness help me still eludes me somewhat (other than being praised for being the “nicest person they knew” by some friends and family).
Only hint I ever get from Connectedness is that I always felt as if my super-conscious is sort of guiding me throughout in life and unknowingly, I’d find myself tuning to this “channel” or “wavelength” and sought out paths that I should be taking in life.
I would really like to hear from those who had Connectedness and how you relate that strength theme in your daily life: What does Connectedness means to you? In what ways you see it affect your life and others? How do you translate such a very prominent, strong and yet “intangible” talent into a physical manifestation to bring the greater good out of our own environment and surroundings?
Hi Felix,
I have Connectedness too. I like the way you likened it to the air, or the roots to an oak tree.
I have that feeling of every one I meet is for a reason, and that I have been guided through life by just “knowing”. I think the main way I use this talent is in meeting people. I think because of it, I find myself thinking if I met someone, or came into the life of someone, it was for a reason, as we are all connected and there are no mistakes in coming to the places we have in life. And if I look at life this way, it’s hard to find the bad in situations…because in the end, they are all part of the bigger plan in life.
It is a hard one to explain, but I wanted to add my thoughts here too.
Deana
Colorado, USA
Speaking of Connectedness again, it reminds me of the book If Life is a Game, These are the Rules by Cherie Carter-Scott – which I believe easily resonates how someone with Connectedness sees the world.
I have posted up a follow-up on my thoughts after being profiled for #StrengthsDay. Those interested could read it up here. (I think the post itself pretty much reflects how all my strengths theme come up into play in writing that up)