I'm doing a 'leadership' program offered by my college this semester, mostly because it's something I would have REALLY benefited from about five years ago, but it wasn't a thing then. I'm not getting a ton out of it so far, but I'm also not regretting it. The assoc dean who leads it keeps meetings to an hour a month, plus the occasional optional workshop.
Yesterday, ironically enough, was a meeting about meeting culture. I also received results of one of those personality assessment (the StrengthsFinder one). What floated to my top 5 (the ones they ranked for us) clarified much for me.
My strengths are: Intellection, Input, Discipline, Strategic, Relator [yes, it bugs the shit out of me that these are different parts of speech]
Here's a description of my first: "People exceptionally talented in the intellection theme are characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions." More words about roles: thinker, philosopher, muser, longer, writer, blogger. You think?
Perhaps not surprising for a group of academics, of the 26 of us who were tested, this one came up in the top 5 for 12 of us. It was FIRST only for me and a dept chair in a closely related dept. Interesting, huh?
What occurred to me, as I was sitting in the meta meeting thinking about meetings and what pisses me off and also what feels so good about the occasional thing that goes right is that while I have spent much time thinking about my lack of knowledge in my DISCIPLINE, I haven't spent much time thinking about these 'soft skills.' And I really should. On sabbatical.
More later.
Yesterday, ironically enough, was a meeting about meeting culture. I also received results of one of those personality assessment (the StrengthsFinder one). What floated to my top 5 (the ones they ranked for us) clarified much for me.
My strengths are: Intellection, Input, Discipline, Strategic, Relator [yes, it bugs the shit out of me that these are different parts of speech]
Here's a description of my first: "People exceptionally talented in the intellection theme are characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions." More words about roles: thinker, philosopher, muser, longer, writer, blogger. You think?
Perhaps not surprising for a group of academics, of the 26 of us who were tested, this one came up in the top 5 for 12 of us. It was FIRST only for me and a dept chair in a closely related dept. Interesting, huh?
What occurred to me, as I was sitting in the meta meeting thinking about meetings and what pisses me off and also what feels so good about the occasional thing that goes right is that while I have spent much time thinking about my lack of knowledge in my DISCIPLINE, I haven't spent much time thinking about these 'soft skills.' And I really should. On sabbatical.
More later.
Interested your opinion of validity of test and if it would have turned out differently at a different time of your life.
ReplyDeleteVery much appreciate your posts and the reality grounding oftoday work and parenting roles.
rose
PS: Thank you for allowing posting in anon.
Hi, Rose. Not sure. I can definitely say that these five traits jive with me...but there are 34 total. I'd be really interested in my top ten (but I wasn't provided with that info).
ReplyDeleteI've taken other tests (like Myers Briggs) at multiple times in life with little to no variation. so probably that's just me...
Generally, I'm interested in this sort of info. Not sure it makes any difference about practical application, though it does seem I'm in the right field(s)