“Success is how high you bounce when you hit the bottom.” — General George S. Patton

Be strong all day long.  Leverage four sources of strength by drawing strength from your mind, body, emotions, and spirit.

Life can have a lot of ups and downs and your ability to bounce back is one of the keys to your success.  This is a simple model I put together as part of my 30 Day Bootcamp on Getting Results to help you multiply your ability to bounce back in any situation.  I wasn’t sure whether to call my model a 4×4 Force Multiplier Frame or Four Sources of Strength.   For now, I’m going with Four Sources of Strength.

If you know somebody who’s been knocked down and needs help getting back up, share this frame with them as a way to help them get back on their feet and find their sources of strength from the inside out.

I tried to keep the model as simple as possible and easy to remember, while giving you a variety of sources of strength and energy to draw from.  I wanted this frame to serve as an “at a glance” reminder of how you are a force of one, from the inside out, as well as from the outside in.  Change your frame to change your game.

The Four Sources of Strength Model
The Four Source of Strength is a simple grid of four boxes and each box has four items:

You can use each of the four boxes as a lens for looking at your source of strength.  For example, in terms of mind and mental strength, some of your primary sources are your beliefs, what you focus on, the mental models you use, and your self-talk.

You can draw from the Four Sources of Strength when you need to bounce back or when you want to make the most of what you’ve got.  It’s a more consistent way of helping you fire on call cylinders.

Mind
Here are some ways to bounce back with your mind:

1. Focus on what you control and let the rest go.
2. Like a rubber ball … Having the right mental model or metaphor is where it starts.  You can be like a rubber ball and bounce back from anything.
3. Set limits on things.   If you let your body go until it crashes or runs out of steam, it can be too late.  You have to set limits either in terms of buffers or boundaries or timeboxes.
4. Ask yourself, “What do you want your life to be about?”
5. Turn resistance into your sparring partner.  Resistance is the enemy.  Respect it, but don’t let it wear you down.
6. Visualize the prize.  If it works for Olympic athletes, it might just work for you.  Picture it, then make it so.
7. Improve your self-talk.
8. Change your beliefs.   Find a model or learn from others what some more empowering or useful beliefs might be.
9. Change your focus.   You can change your focus by changing the question.
10. Focus on what you control and let the rest go.
11. Change your state.
12. Know how to psyche yourself up.
13. Don’t keep solving the same problems.  Burnout isn’t caused by working hard or working long hours.  It’s caused by working on the same problems or not making progress.
14. Mentally prepare for it.   Simply resetting your own expectations can help you prepare for anything.  Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
15. Choose to act strong
16. Turn a setback into a defining moment.
17. Take breaks.   Even little breaks interspersed can help you mentally, emotionally, or physically.
18. Use your renewal patterns.   Maybe this means taking an afternoon siesta.  Find what works for you.
19. Shake things up.   Sometimes the best way to break out of a rut is to shake things up.
20. Shift to the future.
21. Ask yourself, “Who’s in your corner?”
22. Know that resistance is the enemy.
23. Brace yourself and pace yourself.  You might have to chip away at the stone.
24. Remember your heroes.
25. Remember your shining moment.
26. Play the right “head movies.”  If you keep playing the wrong scenes in your head, you wear yourself down.  Find a new scene or movie to play in your head that inspires you.

Body
Here are some ways to bounce back with your body:

1. Allow for recovery.
2. Take action.  Sometimes you have to take action first and then energy and motivation follow.  You can think of this as “fake it until you make it.”  This is especially true for me when I run.
3. Play like a kid, sleep like a baby.   I heard Deepak Chopra say in an interview that children sleep like a baby because of their dynamic activity throughout the day. To know great rest, we need to know great activity and vice-versa.  I know for myself that if I don’t get my downtime, I go into a slump. I’m a fan of giving my all while I’m driving a project, and then taking a break after I ship.
4. Avoid spiking your blood sugar.   Spiking your blood sugar is one of the worst ways to work against your body.  It creates higher highs, and lower lows.  You can reduce the roller-coaster effect by limiting your intake of things that have a high-glycemic index.  Another approach is to balance your ratios of fat, carbs, and protein, such as in the Zone Diet.
5. Swap out starchy carbs for more fibrous ones.  This seems to be a pattern that helps a lot of people find more energy in a consistent way.
6. Eat more frequent and smaller meals.   This is another way to balance your body’s needs throughout the day.   One pattern is to aim for having a small meal or snack throughout the day, such as every three hours.
7. Respect your cycles.  We all have our up times and our downtimes, even throughout the day.   If you find you need more sleep, test giving yourself more sleep.   Know your peak energy cycles throughout the day and leverage those.
8. Don’t bake bad habits in.  When Bruce Lee was “off” or he couldn’t practice a technique properly, he stopped.  The last thing he wanted to do was burn in a habit or practice that was ineffective.

Emotions
Here are some ways to better balance and bounce back with your emotions:

1. Think the thoughts that serve you.  Your thoughts create your energy.
2. Pull yourself forward by what you really want to do.
3. Grow your compassion.  Keep your heart open.  One of the worst ways to kill your lust for life is to grow callous and cold.
4. Hold yourself high.  Your physiology affects your emotions in a strong way.  Sometimes you need to smile before you feel happy.
5. Believe in yourself.  This might mean as simple as deciding that you’ll “give it all you’ve got” and “whatever happens happens.”  You don’t have to put your focus on your ability.  You can put your focus on your effort or your determination.  Where you put your focus will change how you feel.
6. Find your “why.”  This is how you light your fire from the inside out.  Don’t depend on external things to keep you going.  Root yourself firmly in your own foundation.
7. Leverage your relationships and network.  There is strength in numbers or even just somebody who wants to listen.

Spirit
Here are some ways to bounce back with your spirit:

1. Make it bigger than yourself.   Find a cause where you can put your focus on something you think is great.  Having a cause is a great way to get back on your horse or back up to bat.
2. Do what you love or do what you were born to do.  Either way, you win.  If you can’t find your calling, then look for your unique contribution.
3. Connect to your values.
4. Immerse yourself in great literature or music.
5. Find the synergy.  According to Stephen Covey, we unleash our spiritual intelligence when we combine meaning, integrity and contribution – by serving and lifting all stakeholders: customers, suppliers, employees and their families, communities, society — to make a difference in the world.

“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” — Christopher Reeve

Your personal strengths are your natural patterns for thinking, feeling, and doing.  These are the activities you can do all day long.  You get energy from doing these activities rather than get drained.  Things that drain you are your personal weaknesses.

I’m spelling out these specific distinctions of strengths and weaknesses because many people just think of them as things you are good at or things you are bad at.  It’s actually more effective to look in terms of things that come natural to you, and things that go against your grain.  If you focus on your personal strengths in terms of your natural thinking, feeling, and doing patterns, then you can amplify your results and you energize everything you do.

Your personal power, unique capabilities, and inspired action comes from spending more time in your strengths, and less time in your weaknesses.

Why a Language for Personal Strengths

One of the challenges to knowing your personal strengths is knowing what to call your strengths.  Lucky for us, we can leverage some existing vocabularies for personal strengths.  Having a vocabulary helps you both understand the key concepts and it gives you a lens for looking at your personal strengths.

You can build your vocabulary of character strengths, by drawing from multiple bodies of work within the strengths arena.  Here are a few character strength vocabularies to draw from …

24 Signature Strengths (Martin Seligman)

Martin Seligman named a set of 24 Signature Strengths.  You can find out more about Martin Seligman’s work at the Authentic Happiness Center.  Here are Seligman’s 24 Signature Strengths:

1. Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence
2. Bravery and Valor
3. Capacity to Love and Be Loved
4. Caution, Prudence, and Discretion
5. Citizenship, Teamwork, and Loyalty
6. Creativity, Ingenuity, and Originality
7. Curiosity and Interest in the World
8. Fairness, Equity, and Justice
9. Forgiveness and Mercy
10. Gratitude
11. Honesty, Authenticity, and Genuineness
12. Hope, Optimism, and Future-mindedness
13. Humor and playfulness
14. Industry, Diligence, and Perseverance
15. Judgment, Critical Thinking, and Open-Mindedness
16. Kindness and Generosity
17. Leadership
18. Love of Learning
19. Modesty and Humility
20. Perspective  and Wisdom
21. Self-Control and Self-Regulation
22. Social Intelligence
23. Spirituality, Sense of Purpose, and Faith
24. Zest, Enthusiasm, and Energy

34 Key Strengths (Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton)

Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D. identified 34 key signature themes of strength.  I have a brief description of each strength in my post, Finding Your Strengths.  Here are the 34 signature themes:

1. Achiever
2. Activator
3. Adaptability
4. Analytical
5. Arranger
6. Belief
7. Command
8. Communication
9. Competition
10. Connectedness
11. Context
12. Deliberative
13. Developer
14. Discipline
15. Empathy
16. Fairness
17. Focus
18. Futuristic
19. Harmony
20. Ideation
21. Inclusiveness
22. Individualization
23. Input
24. Intellection
25. Learner
26. Maximizer
27. Positivity
28. Relater
29. Responsibility
30. Restorative
31. Self-assurance
32. Significance
33. Strategic
34. Woo

How To Use the Language of Strengths

One way to use the labels for strengths is to take the tests and find out what they say about you.  I do like the fact that they frame and name the strengths, which makes it easy to explore, test, and evaluate.  Personally, I’ve found more value by simply exploring the labels and using them as lenses.  I’ve been rationalizing them against the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) as well as my own frames for strengths, looking for underlying patterns and practices.

At the end of the day, the most important thing for me has been finding where I get energy from, and finding what takes it away.   This leads me to a personalized strengths frame that I can use as a lens for investing in my portfolio of strengths … and this is the key to exponential results.

An Example of Using Strengths

At Microsoft, there are a lot of demands on my time and competition is fierce.  I’ve learned to keep my energy strong while making things happen.  The best ways I’ve found to do that are follow my growth and follow my passion.  Another way, that’s very important, is to play to my strengths.  Spending time in my strengths is the key to hitting the high notes and getting exponential results.  It keeps me strong, my energy high, and produces more impactful results in less amount of time.

Whenever I find myself drained, all I need to do is take a look at where I’ve been spending my time.  Sure enough, it’s always from spending too much time in my weaknesses and not enough time in my strengths.   That’s the interesting lesson too … I can spend more time in my weaknesses, as long as I’m spending enough time in my strengths.

By strengths, I’m not talking about the skills I’ve learned.  I’m talking about my natural strengths – the ones that I can count on no matter what.  I didn’t find my strengths over night and it’s a continuous process of gaining clarity and precision.

The key here is knowing the language.  When you know what to look for, it’s easier to find your own strengths, label them, and use them to your advantage.

Photo by Mell P.

“You do not merely want to be considered just the best of the best. You want to be considered the only ones who do what you do.” — Jerry Garcia

It’s a Darwin world.  If you want to survive, or thrive, in a Darwin world, you have to play to your strengths.  More than that though, you need to differentiate and specialize.  Specialize to win. Specialization is nature’s strategy for winning.  And there are multiple ways to define how you win.

In the book Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance , Marcus Buckingham writes about how nature shapes you towards your unique strengths.

Find Your Natural Advantages and Then Seek Out Unoccupied Niches
It’s nature’s way of helping you out.

Buckingham writes:

“Why did nature design you this way?  The same reason it gave you an adaptive immune system and opposable thumbs.  Because you’re more competitive this way.  Find your natural advantages, then seek out unoccupied niches where you can capitalize on these advantages, and you are more likely to thrive, whether in a group of hunter-gatherers or a team of co-workers.  Specialization: It’s nature’s strategy for winning.”

Nature Wants You to Seek Out Your Strengths and Strengthen These Strengths
Nature wants you to be your best.  It wants you to find your strengths and grow your strengths. 

Buckingham writes:

“Nature makes sure you are born different, and then, not content with this, it has designed a complex feedback and personality-molding system to ensure that you become even more different.  It wants you both to seek out your strengths and then to strengthen these strengths.”

We see this pattern in nature and we see this pattern in work.   One of the most actionable things you can do to give yourself an advantage in the workplace is to find your unique strengths and differentiate based on that.  You can then bring your special blend of strengths to whatever you do.  What doesn’t work is trying to be the same as everybody else or investing all your time improving your weaknesses instead of growing your strengths.

My Related Posts

• Your Peers Shape Your Personality Towards Your Strengths
• Nature vs. Nurture
• Find Your Strengths
• Find Your Strengths Among Your Team

Photo by gwrrty.

“Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength.” – August Wilson

As a parting gift at the end of one of my projects, I wanted everybody to walk away with their list of personal strengths.  Not just a list that I made up, or their own list, but a list of strengths through the eyes of the team.

I wanted everybody to know exactly how the other team members valued them.  I wanted each person to have a new lens on their strengths that they could carry forward for their future adventures.  I’m a fan of focusing on strengths, but part of that means knowing what your strengths are, as you see them, and as others see them.  I know too many people with hidden talents, simply because they just don’t know how valuable their skills and strengths are to the situation or to other people.

I kept the process simple.  I sent an email to my distributed team around the world, and then compiled the results, and shared with the team.   It was nothing fancy, but it meant a lot to each person on the team because it was real.

The Request
Here is the simple mail I sent to my team:

For today … Take 15 or so minutes to …
… send me 3 unique strengths for each person, you’ve seen demonstrated during the project.

The Results
Here are the results:
(I’m included in the results, but for privacy I used “teammate” as a place holder for each team member)

J.D.

• Driving project forward
• Providing vision for the end result
• Making decisions quickly and efficiently
• Effective leadership
• Drive to execute
• People management
• Vision for customer impact and results
• PM ability to manage multiple threads and bring them together at the right time
• Framing out new areas, new chapters, guide structure, etc. So that the team can follow behind.
• Management
• Vision
• Architecture
• Keeping things on track
• leadership/ mentoring
• Political interference for team
• Visionary
• Great networking skills
• Good mentor
• Always knows what he wants. Driven by a vision.
• Has a positive vibe that infuses confidence in the team
• Very vocal

Teammate 1

• Reliable
• Consistent
• Pragmatic
• Seems to be knowledgeable about architecture
• Consistently working on updating docs
• Work ethic and speed
• Persistence
• Discipline
• Technical
• Feedback
• Writing
• Good at reviewing and asking questions
• Good at filling out documents to get something to start with
• Eye for details
• Committed
• Strive for Project Goals
• All round performer.
• Does a good job with the tasks assigned to him.

Teammate 2

• Fast
• Reliable
• Consistent
• Writing skills
• Accuracy of details
• Team player
• Video creation
• Ability to learn new tech areas
• Familiarity with MS and p&p
• Editing
• Writing
• New Technologies
• Rewording and editing
• Starting documents.  Getting something going.
• Video creation
• Fast in execution
• Resourceful
• Focused on task at hand
• Very articulate.
• Knows how to express practice in words.

Teammate 3

• Fast
• Results focused
• Solution-oriented
• Managing project when required
• Steering others and confirming tasks and requirements
• Technical skills
• Perfectionist
• Technical
• Writing
• Architecture
• Pruning down text
• Security experience
• Team leadership
• Knows to reduce the flab (compressor)
• Quick at task in hand
• Great sounding board
• Frames crispier sentences from long-running paragraphs.
• Driven by vision.
• More or less knows/expects a given outcome from a task.

Teammate 4

• Knowledge and experience of architecture
• Fluent writer
• Willing to provide assistance when required
• Robust thinking
• Great experience
• Open to new ideas
• Technical skills
• Influential
• Problem-solving ability
• Architecture knowledge
• Patterns knowledge
• Technical ability and information in head
• Application development experience and wisdom
• Standing up for useful over “marketing speak”
• Good at technical knowledge
• good reviewer
• can talk in architecture lingo
• Highly knowledgeable.
• High motivation.

Teammate 5

• Managing day to day activities
• Planning and executing the plan
• Producing and refining content
• Hard working
• Results focused
• Solution-oriented
• Motivation
• Interpersonal skills
• Big picture thinking
• Understanding of the quality bar
• Driving releases
• Retains knowledge of old areas and can synthesize new knowledge into his existing framework
• Collaboration
• Writing
• Technical
• Only doing what needs to be done
• finishing and shipping
• positive attitude on how to deal with pressure
• Gets stuff done one way or another.
• Prioritizes tasks well.
• Precise. Doesn’t like beating around the bush.

Teammate 6

• Consistent work on improving content
• Pragmatic
• Ability to be wrong / no ego
• Solution-oriented
• Detail oriented and thorough
• Customer focus, understands the right quality tradeoffs for customer impact
• A good writer, his suggestions and changes are almost always very high quality
• Feedback
• Technical
• Architecture

Teammate 7

• Finding and maintaining contacts with reviewers and advisors
• Maintaining consistency and eye for detail
• Willing to help when required
• Due diligence
• Teamwork
• Eager to learn
• Networking
• Team player
• Willingness to do whatever is necessary or needed of him
• Growing SEO knowledge
• Interaction with and management of reviewers/contributors outside the team
• SEO
• Collaboration
• Writing
• Great passion and energy
• Good marketing skills
• Striving to improve himself
• Great team player
• Wants to be involved in everything.
• Process based.
• Loves Visio and drawing figures.:)

Some people were surprised by the strengths that others saw in them.   Some were deeply touched.  Everyone felt stronger with a clear picture of what they brought to the table and how they were valued for their contribution.

Photo by kevinpoh.

This post is an experiment on multiple levels.  First, I’m testing how well I can get feedback on content for my book, by sharing content on my blog.  Second, I’m testing how well I can share a techniques that’s easy for me to do live, but tough to write down.  This is the same exercise I go through with my mentees at Microsoft to have more energy, have more fun, and get more done.  It’s about spending more time in your strengths, and less time in your weaknesses.

The first time I did this exercise for myself, it was eye-opening.  I was spending way too much time  in my weaknesses and not enough time doing what I do best.  A little awareness can go a long way.  Once I knew the problem, I refocused, reprioritized, and reorganized my weekly schedule to spend way more time in my strengths, and a lot less time in my weaknesses.  It’s not an easy battle, but it’s a worthwhile one, and if you don’t fight the good fight, nobody will fight this one for you.  It’s all you.  Even if you have the best manager in the world, you first need to do your homework.  You need to know which activities make you strong, and which ones makes you weak.

Why a Strong Week?
A strong week is one where you spend more time in your strengths, and less time in your weaknesses.  This will boost your energy and results.  When you don’t spend enough time on your strengths, you gradually get drained.  It’s a slow emotional drain.  By spending more time in your strengths, you renew yourself, rebuild your energy, and unleash your results.  The big deal is that by consolidating activities that make you weak and adding activities that make you strong to your day, you have more energy throughout the day, and throughout the week.  Rather than end your day or weak drained, you are continuously recharged.

Summary of Steps

• · Step 1 – Map Out Your Weaknesses.
• · Step 2 – Map Out Your Strengths.
• · Step 3 – Design a Strong Week.

Note – In the following steps, we’ll focus on just Monday through Friday. You can include Saturday and Sunday too if you want, but I suggest first getting a handle on the core week days, before worrying about the weekend. The exception is if your work week starts on a Sunday, then I would start there.

Step 1 – Map Out Your Weaknesses
In this step, think of the activities you do during the week and identify the ones that make you weak.  Trust your gut.  You can use a whiteboard or a sheet of paper.  Think of it like a heat map and scan your week quickly, along with key activities, and identify whether they drain you.  If that doesn’t work for you, then walk each day and determine which activities make you weak.  Chance are, when you first do this, it will look like a scatter chart.  Your weak activities will be all over the board.

Example of Mapping Out Your Weaknesses
Here is an example of a map of activities that are weaknesses throughout the week:

Note that “W” in the table above represents “weakness”.

Checkpoint

• Can you identify the top 3 activities that make you the weakest?
• Can you identify the types of work that make you weak?
• Can you identify the patterns of people that drain you?

Step 2 – Map Out Your Strengths
In this step, think of the activities you do during the week and identify the ones that make you strong.   These are the activities that come easy for you and you enjoy doing.  When you first do this, chances are, your strong activities are like a scatter chart, just like your weaknesses.  Awareness is the first step.

Example of Mapping Out Your Strengths
Here is an example of activities that are strengths throughout the week:

Note that “S” in the table above represents “strengths.”

Checkpoint

• Can you identify the top 3 activities that make you strong?
• Can you identify the types of work that make you strong?
• Can you identify the patterns of people that catalyze you?

Step 3 – Design a Strong Week
In this step, you design a strong week.  You do this by eliminating weaknesses, adding strengths, and consolidating your weaknesses that remain.

Eliminate Your Weaknesses
If there are activities that make you weak that you can get rid of, do so.  You need to make room for your strengths.  For a lot of people, this means eliminating some meetings.  This also means re-negotiating some of the tasks they do.

Consolidate Your Weaknesses
For the weaknesses you can’t get rid of, try to consolidate them.  If you adopt a “worst things first” practice, you can try to get your weaknesses out of the way, first thing in the morning.  This creates a glide path for the rest of the day, especially if you can add more strengths.

Add Strengths
Add activities that make you strong.  This may require negotiation with your team, your manager, or your family, but this will be one of your best moves for renewing your life and getting more from your day to day.  You might find that it’s tough to add activities that make you strong.  Start simple.  For example, you might schedule a weekly lunch with a mentor or a friend that lifts you up.  You also might find some simple ways to adjust the work you are already doing to play to your strengths.  Get creative.  The more focus and energy you put on playing to your strengths, the more you’ll amplify your results.  While you might get some quick wins under your belt, it’s really a winning strategy for the long run.  You can continuously improve your weekly schedule by adding more strengths, and eliminating more weaknesses.

Example of a Strong Week
Here is an example of a strong week by design:

Notice that weaknesses are consolidated and there are strengths throughout the week, and throughout the day.  In fact, one key way to improve your energy later in the day, is to add activities that make you strong.

Guidelines

• Consolidate your weaknesses as best as you can.  For example, you might use the first hour of each of your days as a timebox for activities that make you weak.
• Add more activities that make you strong.
• Start with something simple.  You don’t need to make it all or nothing.  Simple wins add up.  Just by eliminating a few of your weaknesses, can really lift a weight from your shoulders.  Similarly, adding a few strengths can really help you renew your energy and make things happen.
• Pair up with people.  You might find that pairing up on things that make you weak, helps you enjoy them more.  You might also find that you get more from your strengths when you pair up or team up with others.
• Test your results.  Rather than try to predict every possibility, test combinations and evaluate your results.  Pay attention to how you feel.  Simply making a few shifts in your weekly schedule can dramatically impact your energy.

Checkpoint

• Have you eliminated as many of the activities that make you weak as you can?
• Have you found a way to add a few activities that make you stronger?
• How you consolidated your weaknesses as best as you can?

My Related Posts

• A Language of Strengths
• Strengths and Talents
• Why Strengths?
• Strengths and Weaknesses

Photo by Incase Designs.

I like learning the language around a given topic to build precision and depth.  When you have a language for something, it helps you to think, organize, and share knowledge more effectively.  The 34 themes of strengths listed below represent an attempt to create a common language for strengths and talents.  To find, study, and explore your strengths, you should know the language of strengths.

The power of the 34 themes of strengths is that they represent recurring patterns from talent-based interviews.  They give you a lens to see your own strengths and the strengths of others using very specific names (such as positivity, empathy, harmony … etc.).  You will be more effective at developing your own strengths or the strengths of your kids, or teams, or friends.

In Strengths Quest Discover And Develop Your Strengths In Academics, Career, And Beyond , Donald O. Clifton and Edward Anderson share a language for strengths, talents, and abilities.

Key Concepts
Here are some of the key concepts to keep in mind when you are studying strengths:

• Strengths are the key to success.  Your ability to know, understand and develop your talents influences your success in school, career, and life.  To put it another way, your strengths are your edge.
• Talent.  According to Clifton and Anderson, a talent is a naturally recurring pattern of thought, feeling or behavior that can be productively applied.
• Ability.  According to Clifton and Anderson, ability is “what a person can specifically do.”
• Strength.  According to Clifton and Anderson, a strength is “the ability to provide consistent, near-perfect performance in a given activity.”  In other words, it’s your ability to perform a given function extremely well.   You start with dominant themes of talent and then you refine them into strengths through knowledge, skills and experience.

34 Themes of Strengths and Talent
According to the book, Strengths Quest Discover And Develop Your Strengths In Academics, Career, And Beyond , the 34 themes of talent are organized into 4 quadrants: relating, impacting, striving, and thinking:

In Quadrant 1, Relating, the themes are interpersonal about bonding and connecting.  In Quadrant II, Impacting, the themes are interpersonal about your impact and influence on others.  In Quadrant III, Striving, the themes are about motivation and energy.  In quadrant IV, Thinking, the themes are about information and perception.

34 Strengths Explained
Here are summaries of the 34 signature themes of strength based on Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton in the book, Now, Discover Your Strengths :

Finding Your Top Five Strengths
There are 33 million different combinations of Signature Themes.  One of the recommended practices in the strengths literature is to find your top five strengths.  If you can identify your top five themes, you can use the information to start cultivating your strengths for personal excellence and stop focusing on weaknesses.  Your top five Signature Themes is your unique combination.   You can use the Clifton StrengthsFinder to identify your top five strengths.  (Note that you’ll need an access code from one of Gallup’s books, such as Strengths Finder 2.0 or Now, Discover Your Strengths .)

If you don’t easily identify your strengths yourself, ask your friends who know you best, what they might think your top five are.  Compare with what you think your top five are.  Also, consider taking the test and see what the Clifton StrengthsFinder thinks your top five are.  Remember, this exercise isn’t about identifying what you want them to be — it’s about identifying where you currently are.  A strength is something you do extremely well, consistently, and builds on your natural patterns for thinking, feeling, or doing.

Additional Resources

• Action Ideas for the 34 Strengths
• FAQ for the Clifton StrengthsFinder Profile
• Cheat Sheet of the 34 Strengths (PDF)
• The Gallup Organization’s StrengthsFinder Instrument (Career Trainer)
• MP3 Files of Each Strength

My Related Posts

• Why Strengths?
• The Strengths Movement
• 3 Myths About Strengths and Weaknesses

Photo by Klearchos Kapoutsis.

As I’ve been studying strengths and helping people find their super powers, I’ve realized that some of the strengths literature is very specific in describing strengths versus talents.  What’s the difference between a strength and a talent?  Simply put, a talent is your natural pattern for thinking, feeling or doing.  It represents your potential.  A strength, on the other hand, represents an ability that you’ve developed into a consistent, near-perfect performance.  So you start with your talents, and from them, you develop your strengths.  Of course, you could start from your weaknesses and try to develop those into strengths, but it’s ultimately an investment decision, and, in many cases, a losing battle.  The key is to unleash your best, based on what you want to accomplish.

In the book Strengths Quest Discover And Develop Your Strengths In Academics, Career, And Beyond, Donald Clifton and Edward Anderson write about strengths and talents.

Key Take Aways
Here are my key take aways:

• A talent is a naturally recurring pattern of thought, feeling or behavior.  It’s something you naturally do.  It’s the way that you naturally think or naturally feel or naturally behave.  It’s your defaults.   While you can train yourself to think, feel, or behave another way, it can be like going against the grain and you’re no longer leveraging your natural talent.
• A strength is the ability to provide consistent, near-perfect performance.  Your strengths are your abilities that you’ve developed and can count on.  You can consistently demonstrate peak performance.
• A strength begins with a talent.  You discover, develop, and apply your talents to build your strengths.   Your talents are a breeding ground for your strengths.  By starting with talents, you can accelerate your learning curve and get more return for the time and energy you invest.  It’s making the most of the hand you’re dealt.

A Strength Begins with a Talent
You can think of this as smart, selective strength growth.  Clifton and Anderson write:

A strength begins with a talent … a naturally recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied. A great number of talents naturally exist within you, and each of them is very specific … Your talents empower you. They make it possible for you to move to higher levels of excellence and fulfill your potential. … A talent represents a capacity to do something

Strengths are Discovered and Developed
Your strengths are the refinement of talents with knowledge and skill.  Clifton and Anderson write:

A strength is the ability to provide consistent, near-perfect performance in a given activity. … strengths are produced when talents are refined with knowledge and skill

Fulfill Your Personal Destiny
You can think of growing your strengths as a lifelong adventure and fulfilling your personal density.  Clifton and Anderson write:

In a sense, the development and application of strengths generates a feeling that you are fulfilling your personal destiny. Your strengths quest is a lifelong adventure. Each of the three aspects — discovery, development, and application — will continue throughout your life. This exciting and fulfilling process should bring you a lifetime of great satisfaction and joy.

My Related Posts

• Why Strengths?
• Strengths and Weaknesses
• Spend 75 Percent on Your Strengths
• SIGN – The 4 Signs of a Strength

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In this post, I’ve collected the most significant data points I could find to help answer the question “Why strengths?” Simply put, you might just be the world’s next best, you name it, but we’ll never know. Why? … Because we don’t spend enough time in our strengths. Worse, very few of us even know what our strengths are. I’m talking about natural talent here, not skills, knowledge, or experience. Your natural talents are your default thinking, feeling, and doing patterns. Luckily, there is a language for talking about these. The Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment is a language of the 34 most common talent themes, based on Gallup’s 40-year study of human strengths.

Why do we even care about care about our strengths, though? Because spending time in your strengths unleashes your best, gives you more energy, helps you find your flow, and gives you an advantage in the market place. Your strengths are your differentiators. Perhaps, the most important point though is, you grow more in your strengths than in your weaknesses. To clarify this, you grow more where you have natural talent. Why? Because talent is the multiplier.

Even if you know and can name your natural talents by heart, none of this matters if you don’t actually spend time in your strengths. Knowing and doing are two separate things. When it comes to strengths, it’s the doing that makes the difference.

Key Take Aways
Here are my key take aways:

• Only 17 percent of us play to our strengths most of the time. We spend more time in our weaknesses than our strengths. Our natural talents and passions last a life time, and yet our talents go untapped. We spend more time in activities that make us weak, than activities that make us strong.
• Strengths are the key to improving life. Focusing on strengths improves engagement, job satisfaction, and quality of life. It’s how you find your flow and get your groove on and unleash the best version of yourself. It’s how you realize and put into practice your authentic self. It’s ultimately about your core and most enduring personality traits – your passions, interests, and talent.
• Talent is the multiplier. If you put the same time and energy in a place where you have no talent, you’ll burn a lot of energy for less return on investment. If you apply that same time and energy in a place where you have natural talent, you’ll amplify your impact.
• Map out your strengths and weaknesses. When you know your strengths/weaknesses, you can invest more time in strength activities and less time in weakness activities
• You’re wired for some things more than others. You’re able to get better results by growing your strengths (the stuff you’re wired for) than by fixing your weaknesses.

The pattern I see time and again is be more of yourself with skills. A core part of who you are, or, your authentic self, is your natural talents and strengths.  Knowledge and skills are amplifiers for your natural talents.

It’s About Results
Do what you do best … every day.  According to The Marcus Buckingham Company:

• … the single best predictor of a consistently high-performing team is the answer to this question: “At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best everyday?”
• Teams with individuals who do massively outperform teams with people who don’t-they’re more profitable, more productive, less likely to quit, less likely to have accidents on the job…the list goes on.

Avoid the Path of Most Resistance
You can follow your weaknesses.  That’s the path of most resistance.  You can also choose to follow your strengths and make the most of your innate talents.  Before trying to turn your weaknesses into strengths, explore where you’ve made the most of your talent or if you’re missing an opportunity.  In the book, StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths , Tom Rath writes:

• Avoid the path of most resistance.
• We celebrate those who triumph over their lack of natural ability even more than we recognize those who capitalize on their innate talents.

The Story of Hector
In the book, StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths , Tom Rath writes how Hector increased his results three-fold, by spending more time in his strengths and less time in his weaknesses:

Hector had always been known as a great shoe-maker.  In fact, customers from such far-off places as France claimed that Hector made the best shoes in the world.  Yet for years, he had been frustrated with his small shoemaking business.  Although Hector knew he was capable of making hundreds of shoes per week, he was averaging just 30 pairs.  When a friend asked him, Hector explained that while he was great at producing shoes, he was a poor salesman — and terrible when it came to collecting payments.  Yet he spent most of his time working in these areas of weakness.  So Hector’s friend introduced him to Sergio, a natural salesman and marketer.  Just as Hector was known for his craftsmanship, sergio could close deals and sell.  Given the way their strengths complemented one another, Hector and Sergio decided to work together.  A year later, this strength-based duo was producing, selling, and collecting payment for more than 100 pairs of shoes per week — a more than threefold increase.

The Greatest General of All Time
In the book, StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths , Tom Rath writes about Mark Twain’s story of opportunity lost::

Mark Twain once described a man who died and met Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates.  Knowing that Saint Peter was very wise. the man asked a question that he had wondered about throughout his life.  He said, “Saint Peter, I have been interested in military history for many years. Who was the greatest general of all time?”  Saint Peter quickly responded, “Oh, that’s a simple question.  It’s the man right over there.” “You must be mistaken,” responded the man, now very perplexed.  “I knew that man on earth, and he was just a common laborer.”  “That’s right my friend,” assured Saint Peter.  “He would have been the greatest general of all time, if he had been a general.”

People Change, But Their Natural Talents Stay the Same
While people change over time, some things are more durable than others.  Research has shown that your interests, passions, and natural talents tend to be enduring.  In the book, StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths , Tom Rath writes

• Although people certainly do change over time and our personalities adapt, scientists have discovered that core personality traits are relatively stable throughout adulthood, as our passions and interests.
• More recent research suggests that the roots of our personality might be visible at an even younger age than was originally thought.
• A compelling 23-year longitudinal study of 1,000 children in New Zealand revealed that a child’s observed personality at age 3 shows remarkable similarity to his or her reported personality traits at age 26.
• This is one of the reasons why StrengthsFinder measures the elements of your personality that are less likely to change – your talents.

Increase Employee Engagement by Six Times and Have an Excellent Quality of Life
You can dramatically improve your engagement at work, as well as your quality of life, by playing to your strengths, instead of focusing on your weaknesses.  In the book, StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths , Tom Rath writes:

• Over the past decade, Gallup has surveyed more than 10 million people worldwide on the topic of employee engagement (or how positive and productive people are at work), and only one-third “strongly agree” with the statement:  “At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.”
• … and for those who do NOT get to focus on what they do best – their strengths – the costs are staggering.  In a recent poll of more than 1,000 people, among those who “strongly disagreed” or “disagreed” with this “what I do best” statement, not one single person was emotionally engaged on the job.
• In contrast, out studies indicate that people who do have the opportunity to focus on their strengths every day are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life in general.

When Your Manager Focuses on Strengths, You’re More Engaged
In the book, StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths , Tom Rath writes:

• if your manager primarily ignores you, the chances of you being actively disengaged are 40% .
• if your manager primarily focuses on your weaknesses, the chances of your being actively disengaged are 22% .
• if your manager primarily focuses on your strengths, the chances of you being actively disengaged are 1%..

Only 17 Percent of Us Play to Our Strengths Most of the Time
Even if we know what our strengths are, very few of us spend significant time in them.  For one reason or another, we end up spending most of our time in activities that are more of a weakness than a strength.  Imagine the world of difference when you start spending the majority of your time in your strengths? In the book, Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance , Marcus Buckingham writes:

• … only 17 percent of us have our strengths in play most of the time.
• The truth is, we are not our organization’s greatest asset, at least not nearly to the extent that we could be.
• Today, despite more than two million people taking the Clifton StrengthsFinder profile, when you poll people with the question “What percentage of a typical day do you spend playing to your strengths?” only 17 percent answer “most of the time.”

Talent is the Multiplier
Your natural talent is the multiplier.  When you invest your time in something, it’s your natural talent that can help you make the most of it.  If you don’t have any talent, you can thrash away just to break even.  That’s why finding and playing to your talents is so powerful.  It multiples and amplifies your impact.  It’s your personal game changer.  In the book, StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths , Tom Rath writes:

• Adding raw talent is not the same as adding skill.
• Start with a dominant talent and add skills, knowledge and practice.
• Talent is the multiplier.

(Talent) X (Investment) = Strength
There is a simple formula for strength.  It’s talent times investment.  When you sharpen and hone your talent, you build your strengths.  These are your authentic strengths.  They are at your core and reflect your greatest gifts.  In the book, StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths , Tom Rath writes:

• Talent X Investment = Strength
• Talent is a natural way of thinking, feeling or behaving.
• Investment is time spent practicing, developing your skills and building your knowledge base.
• Strength is the ability consistently provide near perfect performance.

How Talents are Expressed Varies a Great Deal from Person to Person
One person’s ability to inspire may be completely different than another’s.  You might have the same general talent, but entirely different approaches or “how”.  That’s why the key is to find what works for you.  Take your talent, but find your best way for unleashing it.  In the book, StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths , Tom Rath writes:

While you and a few friends may each have Learner among your top five themes, the fine points of those talents and how they are expressed vary a great deal from person to person: One of you may learn from reading several books each month, while someone else learns primarily from doing, and yet another learns from an insatiable curiosity and Googles everything.

Managing Your Weakness
Don’t let your weaknesses be your downfall.  Your weakness is anyplace where you don’t have natural talent and you have to work extra hard at something.  In the book, StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths , Tom Rath writes:

• In any occupation or role, it’s helpful to know your areas of lesser talent.  That’s especially true if the demands of your job pull you in a new direction, as your lesser talents can lead to weakness.
• As you study the descriptions of the 34 themes, see if you can identify a few areas in which you are clearly lacking in talent and have little potential to create a strength.  In many cases, simply being aware of your area of lesser talent can help you avoid major roadblocks.
• Another strategy is to partner with someone who has more talent in the areas in which you are lacking.

Be a Lot More of Who You Already Are
Be YOUR Best.  That’s the key.  First take inventory of what your core strengths really are.  From there, pick and choose where to play your best game.  In the book, StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths , Tom Rath writes:

• The American myth – be whatever you want.
• A person who has always struggled with numbers is unlikely to be a great accountant or statistician.
• The person without much natural empathy will never be able to comfort an agitated customer in the warm and sincere way that the great empathizers can.
• Each person has great potential for success in specific areas
• The key to human development is building on who you already are
• You cannot be anything you want to be — but you can be a lot more of who you already are.

Where to Go From Here
When you’re on the strengths path, you have a lot of support.  Not only is there extensive research and bodies of knowledge to draw from, but there are heroes, and examples to draw from.  Here are some key books to explore and experiment with strengths:

• Read the book, Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance
• Read the book, StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths
• Read the book, Now, Discover Your Strengths

Photo by fPat.

If you’re not good at something, is it a weakness?  If you’re good at something, is it a strength?  No, it’s not that simple.  There’s a difference between natural talents or strengths, and things that you learn over time by building skills and knowledge.  There are many things that when you start out, you will be unskilled.  That’s not a weakness.  I’ll pause right there, to let that sink in.  It’s a key concept when you’re trying to figure out your strengths and weaknesses.  While I wish there was one simple way for you to just figure out your strengths, in my experience it’s not that simple.  There are many great lenses, but at the end of the day, you really own figuring out what your strengths are.  Tests, lenses and feedback provide the clues, but you have to test what works for you.  You spend time with yourself 24×7, so the least you can do is figure yourself out, if you haven’t already

Key Points
Here are some key points that can help you identify strengths and weaknesses vs. skills:

• Start with some simple self-awareness.   Some tools such as the Myer’s-Briggs Type Indicator or NLP Meta-programs can help you find your core preferences and patterns for thinking, feeling, and doing.   They’re just lenses, but they can help you see your durable and pervasive strengths.  For example, do you recharge by spending time alone or with others?  If you recharge by spending time alone, you might be an introvert.  Just knowing that can help you tease out some strengths vs. weaknesses vs. skills.
• Distinguish between strengths and weaknesses.  Strengths are your dominant thinking, feeling, and doing patterns that come naturally for you.  You grow stronger when you spend time in your strengths.  A weakness drains you and you no matter how much you work at it, you don’t really improve.  It’s like going against the grain.  Another way to think of this is, know what kind of bike you’ve got.  If you take your street-bike off-road, you can make it work, but you’re not making the most of it.  Keep in mind that one person’s strength is another’s weakness.  For example, I know some people that can do, but can’t teach, and others that can teach, but can’t do.
• Distinguish between weaknesses and skills.  Some things require skill, knowledge, and experience.  Don’t write things off as a weakness, just because you aren’t good right now.  Consider whether you’ve had the right training, put in enough right time, or have the right coach.
• Distinguish between strengths and skills.  Skills are a learned ability to do something with competence.  For example, I’m good at drilling into details in a spreadsheet.  It’s not a strength, it’s a skill.  It makes me weak and I don’t enjoy it.  On the other hand, I can whiteboard all day.  It’s a strength and I leverage my ability to share information visually.
• Distinguish between information, knowledge, and experience.  Information is just raw facts, figures, and data for a given situation.  Knowledge is putting that information to use.  Experience is you’ve been there and done that. Information transfer is easy.  Knowledge transfer is tough.  I’m a fan of mentoring, apprenticeships and first-hand experience for that.
• Distinguish between intellectual, emotional, and physical stages.  You can read about a diet and regurgitate the information.  That’s at the intellectual level.  You can experience it first hand, and have an emotional reaction to the information.  If you adopt new habits, eventually it’s burned in physically (your basal ganglia and muscle memory.)  Think about this when you first learn something new.  You have stages to go through before you’ve burned it in intellectually, emotionally, and physically.
• Know the continuum from unconscious incompetence to conscious competence.  When you don’t know what you don’t know, you have unconscious incompetence.  When you know what you don’t know, you have conscious incompetence.  When you can think your way through it, you have conscious competence.  When you can do it without thinking, you have unconscious competence.  For example, you can probably drive your car or ride your bike without thinking, but it didn’t start off that way.  This is similar to going through the intellectual, emotional, and physical stages of learning.
• Distinguish between motivation, skills and feedback.  There’s a difference between wanting to do something and having the right technique.  If you need to find your motivation, change the why or change the how, and that just might lead to your next break through.  If the problem is your technique, find a mentor that helps you find the right technique for you.  For example, everybody can take martial arts and learn how to punch and kick, but a great instructor can help you find and perfect the technique that works for you.

Examples
Here are a couple of examples that might make this real for you:

• Learning an instrument.  When I was younger, I took saxophone lessons.  I didn’t have the passion at the time.  I also had no idea how to practice right.  If I hit a note, I figured I was done.   Why practice if I already proved I could hit the note?  Well, it’s one thing to hit a note while concentrating, it’s another to hit it without thinking.  I never practiced enough to reach a flow state.  I assumed I had no talent, when really I never even gave myself a chance.
• Learning martial arts.  When I was younger, my Dad introduced me to a lot of martial arts and I picked up some heroes to model from.  One of them was Bill “Super foot” Wallace.  He’s kicking speed was clocked at more than 60 MPH, give or take.  I decided I would kick like him.  Long story short, after a lot of wicked stretching and leg training, I could kick my foot above my head and snap my leg against my upper chest in the fraction of a second.  It was as if I could make my legs do whatever I wanted.  I remember one incident really surprised me.  I was walking through a parking lot with friends.  I picked up a soda can, threw it up in the air, and with perfect timing, jumped in the air, spun around and sent the can flying.   I had unconscious competence and could just do it.

My Related Posts

• 3 Myths About Strengths and Weaknesses
• Finding Your Strengths
• Strengths and Weakness vs. Personality Profiles
• Spend 75 Percent on Your Strengths

Photo by Jordan Cole.

Everybody has a super hero power (or at least I haven’t found anybody yet who doesn’t.)  The funny thing is, not everybody knows what their super hero power is (or at least not off the top of their head.)  The people that know their super hero power and use it, find work more rewarding and they get more rewards.  Why?  Because they are giving their best where they have their best to give.  They stand out.  They go into a flow state more often.  They make more impact because they get leverage and they play to their strengths.

Your One-Liner Super Hero Power
I highly recommend expressing your super hero power as a one-liner.  I like helping people find their one-liner super hero power.  It’s fun to help people unleash their best.  In fact, one of my super powers is, I “make others great.”  Another one is, I “stand on the shoulder’s of giants” or “turn insight into action.”  One of my former manager’s is “take teams from good to great.”  One of my friend’s is “frame and name a problem.”  Another friend has the super power to “innovate at the speed of thought” and “turn ideas into working software.”  I encourage people to use it on their resume.  It makes them stand out.

It’s similar to having a one-liner vision.  For example, I think ITunes is “world’s best music store.”  I think Google’s might be “organize the world’s information.”  I think Starbucks’ might be “world’s best coffee.”  These one-liner tag lines make it really easy to stand out and stick in the hearts and minds of yourself and others.  They are empowering.  They are compelling.  They are simple reminders that give you lift off or get you back on track.

Go From Ordinary to Extraordinary
Which is a better day at work?  Slogging through the day, or mastering your craft while flexing your super hero power?  I look for ways to test my strengths.  I grow more from it.  The more I grow my super power, the more valuable I become.  It’s a self-fulfilling loop and the beauty is working on my super hero power gives me energy.  I can do it all day … and then some.

Finding Your Super Hero Power
You might figure it yourself, but I recommend asking a trusted set of friends, as well.  What do they rely on your for?  What do you do better than anybody else?  For example, one of my friends has a knack for “orchestrating a group.”  He’s like a band leader and he doesn’t even have to try.  It’s wired in him.

Your super hero power might be a blind spot.  Here’s why.  It comes so easy to you, you might not value it.  Or, you might not have thought about it in the context of your current job.  A friend can help you see what you might not see in yourself (remember the Johari Window?)  You might have several super hero powers.  Look for the one that maximizes your passion, profit, and value.

So find it.  Name it.  Have fun with it.  Make your one-liner evocative.  And, when the going gets tough, whip out your super power.  If we all unleash our strengths, it might be just the boost the economy needs.

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Photo by chanchan222.