About a month ago, my good friend Ate Eds gave me a copy of StrengthsFinder 2.0 (thanks to the generosity of her friend!). The book is the second version of Gallup’s popular online assessment, StrengthsFinder.
Finally, last Sunday night, I decided to take the assessment and was a bit surprised with the results!
My Top 5 Themes
(Note: excerpts of Shared Theme Descriptions and Personalized Strengths Insights were lifted from http://strengths.gallup.com)
1) Developer
People who are especially talented in the Developer theme recognize and cultivate the potential in others. They spot the signs of each small improvement and derive satisfaction from these improvements.
Driven by your talents, you derive much pleasure from honoring and praising individuals, especially when their good results are the fruit of hard work. You regularly go out of your way to notice their accomplishments, knowledge, skills, or talents. Just having someone notice these contributions encourages many people to use their gifts much more often.
You can also determine the emotions of people. These insights help you know what to say and do when you interact with someone.
My take: This is my most fave theme, not because it’s on top, but because it perfectly describes who I am. I always find joy in giving out affirmation and giving people the “push.”
JUST A THOUGHT: Would this theme help me to launch a new career, perhaps as a talent manager? Of course this is a terrible joke. HAHA.
2) Belief
People who are especially talented in the Belief theme have certain core values that are unchanging. Out of these values emerges a defined purpose for their life.
Instinctively, you place more importance on the purpose and value of what you do than on the monetary rewards that accompany success. Chances are good that you are naturally inclined to make sacrifices that benefit someone else. You enjoy being generous with your time, knowledge, skills, experiences, resources, or possessions. Because of your strengths, you refuse to live a meaningless existence. You seek a vocation that allows you to express your deepest values every day. Work or school provides you with the opportunity to enrich and deepen the quality of your life.
You really want to do what you love doing. Your job or studies need to be much more than a means to an end — that is, a paycheck or a diploma. By nature, you are determined to leave the world a better place than you found it. This explains why you welcome many kinds of people into your life. You realize that when individuals fail to make their unique contributions, humankind suffers an irreversible loss.
My churchmate Rob said that this is exactly the reason why I want to go out to the field and do mission work. Maybe. 
3) Responsibility
People who are especially talented in the Responsibility theme take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.
It’s very likely that you place a premium on doing everything correctly. Whatever you are involved in or associated with must typify — that is, symbolize — accuracy and precision. Your high standards demand exactness. By nature, you are sometimes open and honest about who you are, what you have done, what you can do, and what you cannot do. Maybe your straightforward explanations and stories help listeners see you as you see yourself. You might reveal your strengths and limitations. You might choose to be forthright and plainspoken.
This partially explains why various people seek your company and want to work with you. Perhaps your words and examples move them to action. Instinctively, you normally strive to do things right. Taking shortcuts strikes you as unprincipled, thoughtless, and careless. You likely refuse to produce sloppy work or engage in unethical practices. Because of your strengths, you willingly assume moral, legal, and mental accountability for people, processes, or assignments. Your outward behavior demonstrates your reliability. Others view you as a person who can be trusted to follow through on commitments. Chances are good that you might go out of your way to do what you promised. Sometimes you are impelled to follow the rules of your conscience.
I hope that upon discovering this “strength,” I’ll have a greater sense of responsibility.
4) Input
People who are especially talented in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.
Chances are good that you are by nature someone who soothes people when they become upset, overwhelmed, angry, or fearful about life’s uncertainties. Because you read so much, typically you can expand their view of a situation by sharing a fact, a thought, a quotation, or a story you have discovered. Because of your strengths, you may realize you are skilled in particular areas of specialization. Sometimes you take advantage of certain opportunities to broaden your knowledge base. You might try to obtain the latest facts, news, data, or research discoveries in your field. At the time you amass this information, its importance may not be apparent to you. You might be content to pull together bits and pieces of material so you can refer to them later if the need arises. Driven by your talents, you can simplify the most complex, convoluted, or intricate procedure. People usually rely on you to offer clear and easy-to-comprehend explanations.
Rarely a stranger to hard work and long hours, you attempt to reinforce your grasp of a subject by reading, studying, discussing, or writing about it. From time to time, you may practice honing — that is, sharpening — a particular ability. Instinctively, you take in lots of information by reading books, newspapers, magazines, reports, documents, or correspondence. Typically you are eager to discover all the factors that are contributing to the current state of affairs.
I think the reason why this theme came up is because of the demands of my current job and nothing else. But, I must also agree with the fact that yes, I normally soothe people whenever negative emotions arise.
5) Achiever
People who are especially talented in the Achiever theme have a great deal of stamina and work hard. They take great satisfaction from being busy and productive (how I wish this is REALLY true!:D)
By nature, you routinely expend extra energy to keep materials or workspaces neat, orderly, and shipshape (true). You deplore — that is, regard as unfortunate or wretched — the messes other people leave. This explains why you scurry about to clean up things left in disarray.
Chances are good that you are hardwired to work industriously. You willingly devote hours and energy to your job or studies (yeah, true). When you know your scores, ratings, rankings, or performance might be compared to the results of others, you might redouble your efforts to be the best.
It’s very likely that you tend to be a very good adviser to many individuals (I hope so). When offering suggestions or asking questions, you probably are much more engaged, intense, and involved than usual. Driven by your talents, you may accomplish more when you take time to think about what you need to perfect, upgrade, or do better. Perhaps this is your way of being declared the best when your results are compared to those of others. Maybe your hours of hard work increase your chances of producing the right outcomes.
Well, I must say after reading through the descriptions and insights, I am pretty pleased with the results, although at first I cannot comprehend why did the “Achiever” theme come out.
I had fun taking the assessment, much more in reading the insights above. I strongly suggest you grab a copy of the book. It contains an access code to the online assessment which you can also use to access other Gallup resources. It might help you discover untapped talents and skills. Good old National Book Store has finally added StrengthsFinder 2.0 and other Gallup books on its product list. Check out http://www.nationalbookstore.com.ph/shop/search.asp
Now that I have already discovered my so-called “strengths,” what’s next?
Admittedly, there are times that some of these descriptions do not manifest in some situations distinctively. But it really felt good having known that I actually possess these strengths (you know, I’m often oblivious).
In church, we are on the last wave of the series entitled, “STRONG” which chronicles the Israelites’ fight for the Promised Land. I was just reminded, having taken the assessment and read the descriptions, where (or better yet), from whom do I draw my strength from? Whenever I need wisdom to decide and knowledge to accomplish every work given to me, whom do I call for help? In a middle of a crisis, to whom do I run to?
We often read or hear this: Every single day is a battle. Trials come in various forms – sickness, emotional problems, financial difficulty, broken relationships, persecution (and the list goes on and on). They will always attempt to ruin our lives in any manner and shatter our faith. But, remember, there is a promise – we can always find peace and comfort.
Go back to the Word!
In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul wrote about his “thorn,” that he pleaded with God three times to take it away from him. But this is what the Lord said: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (v.9a).
Paul said in response: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. FOR WHEN I AM WEAK, THEN I AM STRONG.” (v.9b-10)
It doesn’t really matter whether I actually possess the themes that I mentioned at the beginning of this post or not. The SOURCE does.
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