Last week we all had to read “Strength Finders” and take a test online where you had to pick one phrase or the other depending on what you feel more stronger about. The test determines your top 5 strengths based on the answers. The test was given company wide and the results were compared within each group to see where our strengths lie. “From cradle to cubical we spend our lives we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths.”

The idea is building a team through strengths. One of the ideas in the book is if you spend your life trying to be good at everything you will never be good at anything. Society encourages us to be well rounded but this theory breeds mediocrucy – instead we should focus on what we are good at. My top five were:

communication: people with strong communication theme generally find it easy to put thoughts into words. They are good conversationalists and presenters.

individualization: people strong in individualization theme are intrigued with the unique qualities of each person, They have the gift of figuring out how people who are different can work together productively.

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 lean and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome excites them.

restorative: people strong in the restorative theme are adept at dealing with problems. They are good at figuring out what is wrong and resolving it.