StrengthsFinder: 5 Years Later

June, 2017

The first time I took the StrengthsFinder assessment was in June of 2017 at a summer leadership camp at my college. We discussed a variety of aspects of leadership during the three-day two-night camp, but understanding our own and each other's strengths was a large part of the experience. Since that day, I have come back to my top 5 strengths often and have seen the ways they have impacted my career journey so far and even my possible future aspirations.

It has been 5 years though since I took the quiz for the first time. I wanted to go back, take it again, and see if I still lined up the same way. Read on to find out whether my strengths have changed or whether I've mainly stayed the same.

StrengthsFinder #1

I have latched onto StrengthsFinder as my "personality" test of choice because I believe it has been the most accurate (compared to things like Myers Briggs and Enneagram), but I think it is also the broadest yet specific. The strengths are all very precise and indicative of your natural personality; however, they do not pigeonhole you into a category like many of the others do. It instead points out natural strengths and also encourages practice of weaknesses. So let's see what my original top 5 strengths were!

1. Input - "a need to collect and archive. They may accumulate information, ideas, artifacts or even relationships."

2. Maximizer - "focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. They seek to transform something strong into something superb."

3. Learner - "have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. The process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them."

4. Intellection - "characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions."

5. Achiever - "work hard and possess a great deal of stamina. They take immense satisfaction in being busy and productive."

It brings back a lot of excitement for me to read back through these definitions and insight. I won't belabor our time discussing each of the five and how I see them impacting my life and career, but I will say 2 things:

1. 3 out of the 5 are in the "Strategic Thinking" category and deal with learning, pondering, and delivering information. I was not surprised then, and I'm still not surprised now by this! I always loved school, and I love learning! I will be a student of the world forever!

2. I have always attached myself heavily to my Maximizer designation. I am both proud of this one and shocked that there is such a theme out there like this one that would fit my pursuits so perfectly. In high school and college I coached tennis. I have always enjoyed teaching and mentoring (and come from a long line of teachers in my family). I achieved my Yellow Belt just this past July. My current rotation is in a Change Management space. All of this points directly to my Maximizer strength - I love to see others (and processes) go from good to GREAT! I hope that I never lose hold of these trait.

So on reflection, I feel that these 5 strengths still represent me well, but as a data person I had to actually TEST my theory!

*All quotes above taken from Gallup.

StrengthsFinder #2 - September, 2022

Transparently, this won't be quite an exact comparison because I wasn't able to take the exact StrengthsFinder assessment again; however, I took a very similar free version (High 5 Test), and I feel that the attributes it provided were similar enough to do a comparison. Any thoughts on what my new top 5 strengths were??

1. Believer - "Your objective is to believe and to do ‘the right thing’... team members respect your integrity, consistency and reliability."

2. Deliverer - "Your underlying goal is to take responsibility...you’re the first person they turn to when assigning new responsibilities, because they’re 100% sure that whatever needs to be accomplished will get done."

3. Coach - "Your goal is to develop people’s potential...you always look for ways to facilitate their learning, from challenging their thoughts in a discussion to creating environments that facilitate progress"

4. Time Keeper - "Your objective is to set timelines and deadlines...you don’t necessarily need full control, but there must be order and predictability in the world around you"

5. Philomath - "Your objective is to learn new things...You’re not necessarily interested in becoming a subject matter expert — it’s the process itself that excites you."

*All quotes above taken from High 5 Test.

Well...some of these surprised me and others...not so much! Let's review.

1. Coach and Philomath are right on point with my original StrengthsFinder although lower on the list than before. I am glad that these traits still seem prominent in my life though.

2. Time Keeper and Deliverer are both decently different from anything I received in StrengthsFinder (or knew might exist there); however, they make total sense to me! I definitely feel strongly about following through on tasks and assignments and keeping my ducks in a row. I also definitely complete my work best with deadlines or timeframes - even if super general and flexible!

3. The biggest surprise to me though is my top strength - Believer. I credit this one completely to my growing maturity in faith. I do not think when I took this in 2017, going into college, that I had a solid set of beliefs driving me towards a greater purpose. Now though, with 5 more years of experience, 5 more years of spiritual growth, I see how this is true. I don't think I express it as outwardly as this test makes it seem, but I do think that everything I do in life is driven by a desire to represent Christ to the world and to rely on him in everything. I think that could be described as a believer.

Well I hope you enjoyed this look at my strengths. If you are interested in learning more about your strengths check out StrengthsFinder here, and for a simpler, free alternative try the High 5 Test here.

Let me know in the comments what your top strengths are and how they have impacted your career!