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A brief review of the Strengths Profile

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#Strengths Together

The Strengths Profile (formerly the REALISE2) from CAPPInfinity is long established and well-respected assessment along with Gallup’s CliftonStrengths (formerly Clifton Strengthsfinder) and VIA Character Strengths. Unlike the other two, its reports not just the strengths you use, but your unrealised strengths , your learned behavior and your weakness.

Normally, the Strengths Profile costs 10 Pounds, but CAPPinfinity wants everyone to better know their strengths during this global crisis so is giving the assessment away for free.

How it works?

Simply create your account using an email. Take the assessment. You will need about 20 minutes to go through the 180 questions. Each question asks for your level of agreement with a statement like this one:

This is from early in the assessment when they are reviewing your performance. Next they ask questions about Use and finally energy. The questions are not timed and you can go backwards if you need to.

What you get

Once completed they ask a few research questions before generating your report.

For each strength (they identify 7 from 60 possibilities), they give you a definition and advice on using it wisely.

For unrealised strengths (again they identify 7), they present the definition and a suggestion for how to use it more.

Learned behaviors are things you do well, but perhaps do not energize you and thus they advise using sparingly. Here they list four.

And finally, here is a strengths assessment that actually labels weaknesses–ie that which de-energize you. Here they give you a manageable 3.

Many of the 60 strengths look similar to either Gallups or VIAs but others are wholly unique. More on that in a future post.

I have always been intrigued by the idea of unrealised strengths–something that perhaps with coaching you can more actively leverage. Likewise, identify weaknesses not to fix them or even management them, but rather work through them by leverage your strengths and partnering with people with their own strengths.

I was also super excited that they now provide a career guide (included in this month’s free offering), identifying six careers based on your strengths:

and even a couple from their unrealised strengths:

You can learn more about the Career Guide in this webinar:

In addition they are posting strengths tips for two strengths per day throughout the 30 days of April, thereby covering the full 60 strengths of Strengths Profile.

I cannot recommend it enough.

#Strengths Together

 

Podcast of the week: Marcus Buckingham @ WorkLife with Adam Grant

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Marcus Buckingham helped launch the Strengths Revolution when he co-authored Now, Discover your strengths. For two decades he has been a leading proponent of strengths based development. In this interview with Adam Grant he tackles overusing strengths:

“I’m just giving you my reaction. A strength is not good or bad, it’s morally neutral. You can use it for ill and you can use it for good. You can never have too much of a strength, you can only use it poorly. What we’re talking about here is intelligence. You can use your strengths unintelligently. If you think you can ever have too much of a strength, your coaching then sounds like this: “Be less of yourself, Adam. Turn yourself down.” And for you, you’re like, “How do I metabolize that?” Whereas if I say to you, “Listen, you’ve got a great strength in…” — maybe you’re super assertive — “Stop pissing people off, and start using that to persuade them to do something they didn’t intend to do.” And then you lean in and go, “How do I do that?” Now all of a sudden, I’m like, “I don’t know. Here’s what I would do, but what you might try …” That just feels better than me going, “Turn yourself down. You’re at 11. Turn it to six.” And you’re like, “I can’t.” Or “You’re too empathetic.” No. You can never be too — if you’ve got empathy, you’re empathetic. A challenge with you then is how do leverage that intelligently to create the outcomes that you want? You can’t be crying all over people all the time. But that doesn’t mean you have too much empathy. It means we’ve got to help you channel that productively. It leads to different conversations.”

Maximizers and Developers will love this episode, but so too will anyone interested in Strengths based development.

xxx

Podcast of the week: Sam Harris @ Impact Theory

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Wow. Just wow. Wellbeing is a skill. How Brazilian Jujitsu and mindfulness are alike. There is so much going on in this episode of Impact theory, that I know I will listen to it several times. After founding Quest Nutrition, TOM BILYEU turned his attention to pulling “people out of the Matrix, at scale, by giving them an empowering mindset.” He does this by interviewing really interest people who offer some insight on breaking free of the matrix. Enter Sam Harris.

Sam Harris not just ridiculously intelligent, but thoughtful as well. He thinks deeply about how the world works. Perhaps it was the two years of silent meditation or his own daily practice or his writing or his psychedelic drug use or the fact that he earned a PhD in Neuroscience after studying philosophy, but he speaks with alacrity. He deliberates carefully about how to explain that. Sam is well known in meditation community for wis approach to spiritual well being without the religious dogma.Try Sam Harris’ Meditation App “Waking Up” FREE for a month! Just use code “IMPACT2019” at checkout: http://bit.ly/2xgfsPy He has his own fantastic podcast, Making Sense. He is author of seven books, five of which have been New York Times Bestsellers. I loved Waking Up and it is probably time to read it again.

On this episode of Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu, Sam Harris talks about what to do if you suffer from anxiety, feel lost or hopeless, or just want to connect more effectively with real life. Listen here.

Tom’s podcast, Impact Theory, is well worth subscribing to as it hits 300 episodes of impactful discourse.

Broaden and build on a genetic level

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Barbara Fredickson proposed the broaden and build theory in which she posits “that these positive emotions broaden an individual’s momentary thought–action repertoire: joy sparks the urge to play, interest sparks the urge to explore, contentment sparks the urge to savour and integrate, and love sparks a recurring cycle of each of these urges within safe, close relationships.”

Her own experiments showed the powerful physiological response as illustrated below:

Now, research is showing that positive emotions impact on genetic level. When DNA was physically separated from the subject and the subject was then exposed to either Positive or Negative emotions, the DNA responded as well. With positive emotions, the DNA strands expanded. With negative emotions it contracts.

 

podcast of the week: Chip Conley @ The Tim Ferris Show

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SO much good stuff going on in this episode featuring a man who’s midlife mission is to help others find meaning in their midlife through the Modern Elder Academy .Chip’s book, Wisdom @ Work: The Making of a Modern Elder, distills his learnings from starting successful boutique chain and then helping grow Air BnB to the juggxrnaught it is today. He brings his wisdom and zest full on.

He shares approaches that have served him well like his Wisdom book: Every week he takes time to write what he learned this week. Of course he meditates. “But the simplest thing to do, I think of two things: It’s learning how to breathe. The thing that I do, that’s the Chip Conley little trademark, is I think of louvered windows in my forehead.” He asks the simplest question: “What business are we in?” Repeat the question at least five times, offering up different answers each time. You can do this on an individual level. “What mastery do you offer?” or “What mastery can you offer?”

 

Podcast of the week: Adam Savage @ The Tim Ferris Show

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For 14 years; 1,015 myths; 2,950 experiments; eight Emmy nominations; and 83 miles of duct tape, Adam Savage regaled us with the scientific method as he and Jamie tacked various myths and movie magic: Which will keep you die walking or running in the rain? How does was escape a sinking car? Thee wee so many…and like all good things, it had to come to an end. Yet, he goes on: He has a book, aptly named Every Tool’s a Hammer, he is making bags out of sail cloths, and has a new show on Discovery: Savage Builds.

Yep, he build an iron man suit out of titanium and a  D printer with the gang at Colorado School of Mines.

As you may have guessed, Adam’s greatest strengths must be Creativity and Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence . In this free wheeling interview in which he discusses his love of building and creating from Iron Man to sword scabbards to scrambled eggs, you get a sense of his Humor  and incredible Zest for life. This is a guy clearly playing to his strengths. None of that surprised me. I knew this would be a fun interview. What I did not expect was how insightful and down right profound he would be showcasing Perspective his as he s

It’s still very difficult for me to confront the fact that I’m a flawed human being. There’s still some part of me that thinks, “Oh, as long as I perform all these things correctly, everything will go smoothly.” The answer is, no. That’s fiction. Nothing will ever go smoothly. No plan ever survives first contact with implementation and we’re all going to screw up and feel unworthy at a very constant pace in our lives. That’s being a person. The trick is to be honest about that.

Podcast of the week: Seth Godin @ Akimbo

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“Akimbo is an ancient word, from the bend in the river or the bend in an archer’s bow. It’s become a symbol for strength, a posture of possibility, the idea that when we stand tall, arms bent, looking right at it, we can make a difference.

Akimbo’s a podcast about our culture and about how we can change it. About seeing what’s happening and choosing to do something.” So goes the introduction to Seth Godin’s contemplations on how the world works. This is not your usual podcast: No guests. No fancy production. Just Seth and his thoughts. His very well groomed thoughts. Seth is the thinker’s thinker. Author of 23 books, many best sellers, Seth has long been the go to person for all things marketing every since Purple Cow took the world by storm.

I have long been a fan, having read the said Purple Cow, Linchpin and Tribes (among others and watched his Ted Talks like How ideas spread:

Seth’s podcast listens like a series of essays. Really thoughtful essays. Episode 19, the Big Sort, gets to the heart of arranging. “People strong in the Arranger theme can organize, but they also have a flexibility that complements this ability. They like to figure out how all of the pieces and resources can be arranged for maximum productivity.” Seth gets to the heart of our compulsion to organize, the incredible Discipline it takes.

All of Seth’s shows go beyond the topic at hand, giving incredible Context to listener.

Aikimbo will feed not just your Context but also your