According to Gallup, the people who created Strengthsfinder:
- People who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged on the job.
- Teams that focus on strengths every day have 12.5% greater productivity.
- Teams that receive strengths feedback have 8.9% greater profitability.
It makes career and happiness good sense to find out what your strengths are.
I love Strengthsfinder 2.0 because it’s low-cost: you buy the book (only in hardcover) and the book includes a one-off code for you to do the instrument. Tip: only buy new: a 2nd hand one will have no value if the code has been used.
There are 34 categories of strength. And the test responses come with a comprehensive explanation and workbook to give you some hints about how to capitalise on your strengths.
To be clear, knowing your strengths is not your boss’ job. It’s yours. Act as if you’re in charge of your own career and find your strengths.
Alternatively there is a free character strengths assessment here at Via Character, but I’ve not used it as often. It seems to be more about values than strengths (and that’s interesting, but different to the Gallup ones).
Consider all of this in the context of the research in this article which suggests we don’t actually have a good understanding of ourselves at all in many contexts.
