Strengths Advocate Training - Gallup University Omaha - Day One...

The first day of Strengths Advocate training at Gallup University happened today in a sunny and warm (64F) Omaha. we spent most of the day reviewing in depth the 34 strength themes that make up the strengths process.

One of the interesting things that came out of the day was that while two people might have the same strength, it is different based on the other strengths they have and the items in the inventory that identifies that strength. Two people can have the same themes and be completely different - and that is not only OK, but perfectly natural.

It was interesting to see all 34 themes – it is revealing :-).

My top 10 strengths themes are:

1. Learner
2. Intellection
3. Input
4. Achiever
5. responsibility
6. Arranger
7. Activator
8. Relator
9. Developer
10. Context

And my bottom 5 are:

1. Empathy
2. Maximizer
3. Competition
4. WOO
5. Individualization

All in all a pretty accurate description of who I am (for those of you who know me, what do yiu think?). The best part of the day was this afternoon when we had one on one strengths coaching sessions – lasted over an hour, going over all 34 of the themes – the facilitator was excellent, describing me accurately just from my strengths! It was quite impressive and an amazing discussion. She felt that some people find me intimidating because of my intellectual capacity and approach, my need to be learning and acquiring information, and all the thinking I do (I hope that isn’t true - the intimidating part, not the thinking part). We both agreed that I spend a lot of time in my own head thinking – and that saying “NO!“ is a difficult thing for me to do (but I am trying to learn, so just say NO!!). It may explain my overly long blog posts, among other things. Hmmm...