StrengthsFinder 2.0 Hardcover – February 1, 2007

I have taken quite a few similar assessments when I worked in a corporate world. I worked for an investment bank, and the obligatory week of training every year brought in an army of consultants who sliced and diced your personality like a mad chef on a 30-minute cooking show. I actually got this book for a book club reading at my last job, so it found me.I could honestly say that as I looked through the book prior to taking the assessment, I thought I had all of these strengths to some degree, and so I was curious to see what came up for me. Fundamentally, I agree with the approach that we should emphasize and play to our strengths - I think about it as not going against my nature.My top strengths came back as strategic, self-assurance, positivity, learner and activator, and I agree with all of these. The assessment is very accurate. Here's where it got even better: when I scanned through the ideas for action, I was initially too lazy to highlight the actions to take, and so I put it aside. Then, a few days ago, I was pondering a course of action to take in a difficult situation with competing priorities. I was drinking a cup of coffee in sort of a state of stupor over what I needed to do. Right in front of me, in a pile of papers on my desk, there was a page with Ideas for Action for my Strategic strength. The first item read, "Take the time to fully reflect or muse about a goal that you want to achieve until the related patterns and issues emerge for you. Remember that this musing time is essential to strategic thinking." It was right on the money. I kind of always knew it, but I'm a doer, and I feel guilty about giving my plans some time to hatch. I took notice of this, and thus my conclusion that this assessment is more useful than I originally thought, as long as I stay with it and slowly go through my Ideas for Action over a few months.Nothing struck me as inaccurate as far as the Ideas for Action are concerned, but I found it funny that my Strategic profile urged me to "partner with someone with strong Activator talents" and my Activator did the same for Strategic. (The Strategic strength is anticipation, and the Activator strength is a need for action). Since I have both, can I partner with myself? Or do I need two other people? Of course, this is harmless.If you like these sorts of tests, there a few good ones available for free as well. A friend and I have been compiling a list, which we will post on my site at [...]. Each of them puts a mirror to our face at a slightly different angle.

I've been a senior leader of several organizations, and consequently have been exposed to a gauntlet of industrial psychologists, personality tests, intelligence tests, leadership training, cultural orientations, yada yada.This book/body of knowledge/tool does 2 things extremely well. By well, I mean in an optimal way measured by the degree of understanding relative to the time investment. First, for an investment of maybe an hour at minimum, and an additional few hours to explore the guidance and begin to consider the implications and choose new behaviors, etc. you get, in my opinion, the best single, and correct perspective about yourself than any combination of the other methods mentioned above, period. It is not just directionally correct, like a horoscope type paragraph that would be true for anyone who read it, but rather a set of desciptions of your strengths that just "nail it" and descibe you as you know yourself. It tells you about yourself in a way that you can understand, regardless of whether you or anyone who is around you has ever articulated it.The second thing it does well is offer a rational and empirically validated framework that is just long overdue. It is a simple truth that has been so elusive. It addresses a major reason why leadership is so rare in business - the modern organization strangles out your ability to contribute by trying to fix what you will likely never be much good at, or hate doing even if you end up with some level of proficiency at it.Get it, read it (25 minutes) and take the online test (35 minutes). If you are like me and the 50 people around me who've infectiosuly taken and immediately recommended this thing to their inner circle of friends and family, you will absolutley find value in it. But like anything, an idea or a tool is only as good as it is put to use. A master craftsman never blames his tools. Remember to act on it and that is something for which only you can be responsible.