Social Experiments 2011 in 3....2....1!

Last year, I applied for this Leadership Program offered by one of the transportation organizations I'm involved with. I found out before the holidays that I was accepted into the program (I'll tell you more about the program itself in another blog) and included with my acceptance letter was the first assignment.

The assignment was to read the first 30 pages, take the online assessment, and submit the results to the Director (of the organization). My guess is they're going to split the class into work groups based on our strengths.

This book is a really quick read and the assessment is just as quick, if not quicker. What the book says, in a nutshell, is that most people are SO focused on overcoming their weaknesses that they forget (or neglect) their strengths. This was particularly insightful to me because (to quote Kanye West), "I'm so gifted at findin' what I don't like the most." The book was right...I'm definitely one of those people who give 150% into trying to compensate for a weakness that I completely overlook what I'm actually good at. In fact, if you asked me, "What are your strengths?" or "What do you think you're good at?" I would give you some smart ass answer like, "Blow jobs" or some canned answer I read in a book about how to succeed in an interview.

The "reading" part of the book is really about 30 pages, the rest of the book describes the different talent themes you would fall into based on the online assessment. After taking the assessment and reading through the descriptions, I felt that I had a better idea of what my strengths are or a better way to articulate them. If you're one of those people who like to read and like the idea of broadening your perspective through books, then StrengthsFinder 2.0 is worth the $25.

Thanks to the book, I'm going to do little social experiments throughout the year to test out the author's theories. My first social experiment is actually one of my resolutions for 2011 - Focus on what I'm good at instead of trying to make up for what I'm not so good at. This has led to a lot of reevaluating where I'm at in all aspects of my life: family, love, career. With this new perspective, I feel great about where I'm at in everything  except for career...how ironic, since this book landed on my lap because of my job. LOL.

Stay tuned...