Now Discover Your Strengths Test Results and Review

First some clarification. I’m sure a lot of people have questions and confusion on all the Strengths Books.

Here they are in order that they came out:

1. First, Break All The Rules (1999 – Mainly how to be a great manager)
2. Now Discover Your Strengths (2001- can use as a self-development tool, this book is more personal, for You but also has advice for managers)
3. Discover Your Sales Strengths (2003)
4. Living Your Strengths ( 2004)
5. How Full Is Your Bucket (2004 – also have a new expanded edition)
6. Teach With Your Strengths (2006)
7. Strengths Quest (2006)
8. Strengths Finder 2.0 ( 2007)
9. Go Put Your Strengths To Work (2007)
10. Strengths Based Leadership ( 2009)

For the Entrepreneurs I would only focus on 3 of these books, #2, # 8, and #9. You don’t necessarily need Strengths Finder 2.0, but it has 30 pages of new content which are good, updated more in depth Strengths Finder assessment,  and 10 action ideas for each theme. So really, you’d be just buying Strengths Finder 2.0 for the new assessment and action ideas.

You get your unique access code by purchasing either Strengths Finder 2.0 or Now Discover Your Strengths. I would recommend buying a new copy as you can currently only get an access code from purchasing the book. If you purchase a used book the access code may have already been used.

As far as the books go, Now Discover Your Strengths is a must read. Awesome book! Has many insights, examples, exercises and tips to help you find your strengths.

OK, now on to the Strengths Finder 2.0 Assessment

I took the new and updated Strengths Finder 2.0 Assessment at StrengthsFinder.com

The assessment took me about an hour to complete.

For most people after their finished, their probably like, now what…? That’s what I initially was thinking after I completed it.

I think most of us that take this want very specific information delivered on a silver platter without having to think. You should form a company in x industry and only do these tasks 20% of the time and heres 80% of the things you should never focus on. To get all this data requires that You do some self discovering. That’s a good reason why I took 4 self assessments tests. I wanted to see where they all converge and what stood out the most.

If you take this assessment and your not open, think you know it all, your not going to learn much. Be open and willing to learn more and why your actually taking this assessment. Ask yourself, why am I really taking this assessment? If its to find your perfect job or finding that perfect business…

My Top 5 Themes of the 34 total themes are:

• Command
• Competition
• Futuristic
• Learner
• Self-Assurance

UPDATE: The first time I took Strengths Finder 2.0 was on 2-22-2010. The second time I took it was almost a year later on 1-20-2011. I was curious so I wanted to see how Accurate the Strengths Finder Test was. So here are my results the second time I took it.

• Command
• Competition
• Maximizer <– the only one that changed
• Futuristic
• Learner

So this test isn’t going to vary that much. As you can see only one has changed.

My Notes From Each Of My Top 5 Themes

Where did I come up with these notes. I combined these from the two books, Strengths Finder 2.0 and Now Discover your Strengths. I talk about this below under additional insights #2, and #3.

COMMAND

Since I like being in the drivers seat, I’m independent, don’t like authority and like to be in charge, creating a business or being an entrepreneur is an obvious choice. The key is to keep the business running with the right people and relating well to each person.

• I’m good at persuading and confronting
• I like to come up with ideas and don’t like being supervised
• Don’t let me assertiveness turn into being too aggressive or being over offensive
• I may intimidate others with my assertiveness
• I’m independent and don’t like authority

COMPETITION

• I like contests and want to compete with others who are very close to my skill level and don’t don’t like competition with people that aren’t
• When I win, take the time to investigate why I won, this will give me insights
• Best environment is for me to compete against another competitive person who produces more and to turn ordinary tasks into competitive games.
• Use my competition theme to create better products and make them easier to understand through better frameworks

LEARNER

• Turn the process of learning into getting a specific result that energizes me
• Track my learning process by identifying milestones I’ve hit and celebrate those milestones
• My Learner theme combined with my Futuristic theme make me interested in lots of stuff and ideas of “what could be”. I need to focus on learning skills based on a certain topic and see it to fruition before starting multiple projects
• Time disappears and my attention intensifies when I’m immersed in studying and learning new things. Schedule learning sessions during time I will not be interrupted.
• Pick something of high interest that will hold my attention for years on one thing. The topics can be different but the overall goal needs to be towards the same thing.

FUTURISTIC

• Choose roles in which I can contribute my ideas about the future. I will excel in entrepreneurial or start up situations.
• Partner with an Activator, they can remind me that you don’t discover the future, you create it with the actions you take today.
• This talent could equip me to be a coach for others, if I catch a vision of what someone could be or do don’t assume that they are aware of the potential, share with them.
• Read articles about technology, science, and research to gain knowledge to fuel imagination
• need to “stick to one plan” until I’ve accomplished it instead of getting FUTUREFIED about the possibilites

SELF-ASSURANCE

• I don’t require any hand holding, and can make my own decisions
• I also possess the Futuristic theme which means I’m a leader in any business organization so long as I’ve chosen something that matches my purpose
• Look for start up situations for which no rule book exists
• Seek roles in which you convince people to see your point of view. My self-assurance talents when combined with my command theme can be extremely persuasive. Leadership, sales, legal or entrepreneurial roles might suit me.

Additional Insights from the Strengths Finder 2.0 Assessment

1. Your Themes Aren’t Ranked In Order – Its good to only focus on your highest themes, but since you only get your 5 highest themes and not with any percentage basis, you could be very close to the next 6-10 themes that could have easily made it into the 4th or 5th spot.

Lets take this as a scenario:

• Your 1st highest theme – 30%
• 2nd highest theme – 26%
• 3rd – 20%
• 4th – 15%
• 5th – 9%

Say your 6-10 themes are all around 5%-9%, very close the the 5th theme. Just something to think about… Don’t use this as an excuse though! Out of your 34 themes these are your highest 5 themes so your actually still applying paretos principle by focusing on the few.

2. After your done with your assessment you’ll probably just read more about your 5 themes and that’s it. If you just bought Now Find Your Strengths go to a coffee shop and read the 10 action items after each theme in Strengths Finder 2.o. Not all the action items will help but may spark an idea for you.

3. If you just bought Now Discover Your Strengths, find each of your 5 themes in the section starting on page 176, One by One, How can you manage each of the thirty four themes of strengths. Even though these are tips for managing specific themes, it will give you insights in how you can relate with other people in business, work, etc..

What are your top 5 themes. How have you used them to create a successful business or get into a rewarding career where you actually get to apply and work in your strengths. If you have taken the strength finder 2.0 test share your results with others and offer any tips on how to apply the test to real life.

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