So far in my journey to find a new role, I’ve written about letting go and envisioning the future. Now let’s focus on some self-awareness.
As part of my discovery process, I’ve taken a number of assessments to better understand my strengths and my values. I think you’ll find them useful too:
1) Standout – this is the latest strengths assessment from Marcus Buckingham, and I love it. My signature strength is Teacher Creator, and when I read the description, it made me grin from ear to ear. I found this to be the easiest to remember afterwards too, because it’s just two words! (Having said that, I have taken it twice within the space of 3 months and the first time I came out different – draw your own conclusions about how accurate the tool is, and how much it depends on your mood on the day).
You can take the assessment by buying the Standout book and getting your own unique code to put into the website assessment tool. It’s just the cost of the book.
2) Realise2 http://www.cappeu.com/realise2.aspx Cost for the basic report £19
This gave me a broad ranging view of my strengths – those that I use all the time, those that I have learned to use, those that I hide under a bushel for some reason, and my weaknesses. Most noticeable in this one for me was that scribe came out as my number 1 strength, and that was a huge surprise for me. Just goes to show how writing a blog for 7 years can prove your English teacher wrong!! My English teacher wasn’t very impressed with my creative writing; and I credit my current style to Bob Gerard, who schooled me in simple English that is straight from the heart.
I also found out that two of my unrealised strengths are that I am an improver, an innovator – I don’t give myself enough credit for the hundreds of incremental improvements I’ve made over time. So I asked my colleagues to tell me what innovations they had seen from me over the years. I got lots of amazing emails back, highlighting all the things I had done.
What can you ask your colleagues that will give you information about your strengths?
3) Values in Action – http://www.viacharacter.org/www/ – free
From this assessment, I learned how important honesty is to me, and authenticity. When people around me are not being honest and authentic, that is not a good place for me to work or play. I also learned that I am humble, and that isn’t going to help me at interviews, is it?! Time to get over that.
4) Myers Briggs Type Indicator – I took the MBTI years ago, and I am an ISTJ (surprising to some people, who might think I am more E and more F). I do think this is a great assessment, but the downside is that it is much more expensive that the others above, and you need someone qualified to debrief it with you.
I hope this post gives you some inspiration to get clearer about your own strengths and values. I’ll be back again later in the week, with more insights from my journey of discovery.
