Greetings colleagues, students and guests!
My name is Jason Gray and I am an Associate Professor from JCCC’s award-winning Hospitality Management Department, and, more poignantly, an avid lover and advocate for Strengths™! What I love and appreciate most about Strengths™ is that it is uniquely personal and in my opinion, accurate. So accurate, in fact, that it’s almost scary! Something else I really like about Strengths™ is how applicable and timeless the information and resources have proven to be.
Before I go any further, please allow me to give you my “TOP 5”: Individualization, Communication, Discipline, Positivity, Relator. In the event you’re not quite sure what I mean by “TOP 5”, I’ll be sharing more on that as we progress.
As a member of the JCCC Strengths Advisory Council (SAC), I’ve recently been afforded an opportunity to assist with reinvigorating our Strengths™ blog. My goal in doing so is to address the subject of Strengths® from different, albeit valid, perspectives in hopes of increasing relative meaning making with as many different audiences as possible, including students, educators and student affairs personnel, and then from that of a general everyday approach as well.
I see so much value in Strengths™ from each of these aforementioned unique perspectives. It has been nearly four years since I first completed the Strengths™ assessment and I still regularly have epiphanies that connect to all aspects of my life, personally and professionally, and in past, present and future context.
I hope, via this blog, to help other faculty discover and/or enhance their approach to and utilization of Strengths™ in their classrooms, labs, clubs and any other interactions with students they may have. It is also a hope of mine to show and illustrate to students the value of the information from a personal, an academic, and a professional perspective. I have been incorporating Strengths™ in my classroom for six semesters. I’d be lying to you if I said that every student and faculty member who has been introduced to Strengths™ have fallen in love with it as much as I have, or that everyone whole heartedly buys into the program. So to be clear and honest, much like everything that’s out there related to personality and/or aptitude related assessments (Myers Briggs, Holland Inventory, etc.) there are some people who just don’t buy in as much as others, and that’s ok. However, my experiences tell me that substantially more times than not, the information that Strengths™ provides really knocks the socks off the individual!
So what exactly is Strengths™ and what is this “TOP 5” that I’ve mentioned? Well, Strengths™, also known as StrengthsQuest™, is a program which is centered on positive psychology developed by Dr. Donald Clifton and current administered through Gallup®. You can access more in-depth information at http://www.strengthsquest.com/content/141728/index.aspx or if you peruse this blog site, you’re bound to find more details. In short, for starters, Strengths™ begins with the individual taking an online assessment. Upon completion of this assessment, the individual will have access to their own, individually-unique “TOP 5” strengths (also referred to as talents and/or themes) and an extensive amount of supporting material. Here’s where one really can identify the uniqueness of Strengths™.
Strengths™ utilizes a vocabulary or vernacular unlike any similar assessment out there, and it’s within this vocabulary and its understanding that the true development of application and meaning making begins to occur. Remember, Clifton is all about “POSITIVITY” here. So he basically has created an assessment that identifies and thereafter focuses on only the most positive attributes of the respective individual.
The individual who completes the assessment really has to give the assessment and results a chance here. You have to really dissect the information. Often times, those who dismiss the program have either not given the assessment the true honesty and attention that is necessary, or have not fully investigated, read and/or understood the assessment’s results. Here’s a prime example:
As you may recall from above, the first of my “TOP 5” is Individualization. If I hadn’t fully read and investigated this, I quite easily may have dismissed it, and perhaps the entire program, for an unjust assertion of inaccuracy. When I first saw Individualization I didn’t interpret the meaning of this talent the way Strengths™ intends. I took this to mean that I was someone who is all about me and my own individuality and/or someone who is more concerned with me alone, if that makes sense. On the contrary; according to Strengths™ (Gallup®), it means that I am someone who is “…intrigued with the unique qualities of each person…” someone who has “…a gift for figuring out how people who are different can work together productively.” After giving it a chance and some attention, this started to make a lot of sense. In fact, if you were to dissect my life, my career, my successes and failures, my likes and dislikes, it would make perfect sense to you too.
This seemingly inconsequential anecdote actually proved vital in my understanding of my own unique Strengths™, as well as the program as a whole. It led to further investigation. As a result, I began to quickly identify when and where these “TOP 5” Strengths™ truly resonated throughout my life, both personally and professionally.
So now, as I still continue to learn more and more about the program and the 34 areas of talent, I try to illustrate and help students learn and discover as well. The beautiful part of it is that it’s all positive and it’s all individually unique. In fact, according to Gallup®, “1 in 278,000 people have your top 5 strengths in DIFFERING orders and 1 in 33.3 million people have your top 5 strengths in the SAME order”. That’s unique! And, this is something that you can take or leave – your choice. But I sure hope you TAKE!
As this blog develops, it is my intention to include in each post, material that I think both educators and students will find helpful and/or beneficial. I hope this has whetted your appetite for Strengths™. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about the program and/or find out how you can take the assessment to get started, please contact or visit the JCCC Career Development Center – careerdevelopment@jccc.edu or 913-469-3870, JCCC Student Center building, 252.