AGENDA

 Persona and personal brand

 The social media spectrum – where to focus your effort
 Why you need a high quality photo (and where to get one)
 Profiles
LinkedIn
GitHub
 StrengthsQuest
 Plan for next week
“Try not to become a [person] of success but a
[person] of value.”
Albert Einstein
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 ASSESSMENTS
We use assessment tools to better understand a person, a process or a system.
• Like we do when profiling & debugging an IT system, we use personality assessments to understand
ourselves and others and how we fit together to create a team.
Gallup [Research] Inc. publishes a series of strengths-based systems.
• Focusing on strengths allows us to optimize our contribution to teams,
work, etc.
• The system allows us to “see ourselves”, and optionally each other,
through the lens of our strengths rather than our deficiencies.
• The StrengthsFinder / StrengthsQuest assessment tools:
• Are based on 40 years of research.
• Have been taken by more than 3 million people.
• Are backed by empirical studies of more than 1 million work teams.
• Are used by workplaces, businesses schools, and community groups
(for example) to understand and leverage their strengths.
• The first version of the StrengthsFinder book spent more than 5 years
on the business book bestseller list.
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 WHY FOCUS ON UNDERSTANDING OUR STRENGTHS?
Often we have an idea of what our strengths are but find it difficult to articulate them and the
positive impact they make.
• Think back to when you were a child – did you instinctively know what motivated you?
• Over time, we lose touch with our strengths (often to “fit in”, to be “responsible”, to do what we think our
parents/teachers/bosses want us to do.
What the StrengthsQuest assessment does is help you organize information you already know
about yourself into a series of strengths themes.
• It’s not going to pull out anything negative or hidden.
• I won’t tell us anything about your intelligence (or if you are completely nuts – in a good way).
The report you will receive will indicate your top 5 Signature Themes.
• They are not necessarily your strengths…yet.
• They are the areas in which you display natural talent.
• This is an important distinction to remember.
• Your dreams and circumstances may change, but the core of who you are remains constant.
If you can find a role in which you play to your strengths, everybody wins.
• People who do have the opportunity to focus on their strengths every day are six times as likely to be
engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life.

From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths.
Tom Rath, Strengthfinders 2.0
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 WHAT IS A STRENGTH?
Most successful people start with [a] dominate talent, and then add skills,
knowledge, and practice to the mix.
This raw talent serves as a multiplier.

TALENT X Investment = Strength

Strength is the
Talent is a natural Investment is time spent
ability to
way of thinking, practicing, developing your
consistently provide
feeling or skills, and building your
near-perfect
behaving knowledge base
performance

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 WHAT HAPPENS WHEN…

You don’t get to

use your strengths
at work?

You get to use your

strengths at work?

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 WHAT THE RESEARCH TELLS US
Focus on developing & aligning
strengths in individuals and teams
• Our productivity goes up by as much as 40% when
we focus on activities in our strength areas
• Talents are enduring and unique
• Most of us grow in our areas of strength

Most organizations are built on two

flawed assumptions about people:
• that they can learn to be competent in almost
anything; and
• that their greatest room for growth is in their
areas of greatest weaknesses.

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SO WHAT? WHY SHOULD “I” CARE?
You will spend a significant
portion of your life at work.
With everything changing at the
pace it presently is (technology,
globalization, population age,
etc.), you have more control than
ever to shape your career in the
way(s) you want.
Knowing what you are good at,
what you enjoy doing, and what
you can be unique at will create
further opportunity for you.
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 4 STRENGTH DOMAINS
Executing Themes Influencing Themes Relationship Themes Strategic Themes
Achiever Activator Adaptability Analytical
Arranger Command Developer Context
Belief Communication Connectedness Futuristic
Consistency Competition Empathy Ideation
Deliberative Maximizer Harmony Input
Discipline Self-Assurance Includer Intellection
Focus Significance Individualization Learner
Responsibility Woo Positivity Strategic
Restorative Relator

“Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong,
and yet a person can only perform at peak from a strength.”
Peter Drucker
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MY STRENGTHS SAME PROGRAM
Strategic. Focus on creating alternative
ways to proceed. Faced with any given
scenario, they can quickly spot the
relevant patterns and issues.

Futuristic. Inspired by the future and

what could be. They inspire others with
their visions of the future.

Learner. Operate with a great desire to

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

Individualization. Intrigued with the

unique qualities of each person. They
have a gift for figuring out how people
who are different can work together
productively.

Intellection. Defined by their

intellectual activity. They are
introspective and appreciate
intellectual discussions.

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NOW IT’S YOUR TURN
Over the next 7 days, you will have the chance to take a
strengths-based assessment using the StrengthsQuest
system.
• While you will prepare a brief analysis of your findings for me,
the results of the assessment are COMPLETELY private to you
and for your use only. The College doesn’t get a copy of your
report or responses.
You will need a code to access the system.
• I will email you a code this week along with the URL.
• Your code only works once. If you need a second code you will
have to purchase a replacement for $10 US.
You MUST set aside a hour of “quiet” time to take the test.
• The assessment will ask you a series of questions. The
response period is timed to encourage you to provide your
initial thought, not what you think the “right answer” is.
• Don’t let interruptions and distractions limit the value you
receive from this exercise.
You’ll need another hour to review and prepare a brief
reflection paper that is due at the start of class in week 4.
Details are on DC connect and this is worth 5 marks.

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 TRUST ME…
This assessment will be the highlight of the course!
The key is to find the time to reflect on what the
assessment highlights and how it helps you focus.
I have used this assessment to organize teams and
to guide me in focusing my career goals.

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