Using your natural talents – and stop focusing on your weaknesses
Find out where your talents lie and spend time turning them into strengths. In areas where you are weak, stand back and let others do the work where they excel. When educational psychologist Donald Clifton began asking, “What would happen if we studied what is right with people?” a strengths philosophy emerged. Its assertion is that individuals can gain far more when they expend effort to build on their greatest talents than when they spend a comparable amount of effort to remediate their weaknesses (Clifton & Harter, 2003).
The Clifton StrengthsFinder (CSF) is grounded in more than three decades of studying success across a wide variety of functions in the workplace. I would recommend that you invest your hard-earned money in performing the test. However, in my humble opinion, they still do not have it quite right.
I have designed a simplistic test, based on the CSF and modified to include some missing talents (which are in italics). I have also reworded some of the talent explanations to make it clearer.
The 42 traits are:
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Talent themes*
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Ability to excel in a crisis
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Achiever *
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Activator *
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Positivity *
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Ideation *
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Adaptability *
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Technology adapter
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Maximizer *
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Developing others *
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Communicator *
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Competitive *
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Commander *
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Deliberative *
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Self-Assurance *
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Disciplined *
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Focused *
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Embraces abandonment
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Empathetic *
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Harmony *
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Includer *
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Individualization awareness *
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Consistency *
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Relates to others*
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Wooing others *
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Finisher
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Going where angels fear to tread
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Belief *
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Responsibility *
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Collector *
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Intellectual *
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Learner *
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Significance, seeking recognition *
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“Love thy neighbour as thyself”
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Arranger, organizer *
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Analytical *
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Connectedness *
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Context *
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Restorative, problem solver *
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Futuristic *
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Self-awareness and self-regulation *
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Strategic *
Extract from ‘Don’t Say I Never Told You’ Series 1 www.PatStormBooks.com
-A guide to life from a loving father to his millennial daughters