Temet Nosce. Or to be more precise, “thine own self thou must know”.
Allow myself to introduce myself. For those that know me best, seldom a day should pass that I am not asking, “Who am I”? And I know that you do it to, evidenced by the more than 1 MILLION user generated quizzes on Facebook. You know the ones. ”What Periodic Element Are You?”, “What Friends Cast Member Are You?”, “What Golden Girl Are You?”, ”What Famous Starlet Are You?” (OK, I sort of like when my friends take this one), and so on, and so on, …
Understand that I am not ignoring the entertainment value of these quizzes. I am just puzzled by our need to compare ourselves to things and people both real and fictional. Admit it. Some people believe that these quizzes are revealing something new about themselves that they would otherwise not have known. (I won’t go into the concerns some have raised in regards to information privacy.)
But, I am not immune to taking quizzes to learn something about myself which is why I recently purchased the new Strengths Finder 2.0 and took the online assessment. Watch this short clip from The Matrix and I’ll share what I have learned.
That Was Then, This Is Now
In 2001, I first took the Gallup Strengths Assessment after having read Now, Discover Your Strengths. These were my results:
- Self-Assurance: Confident in ability to manage their own lives. You possess an inner compass to know when decisions are right.
- Strategic: Create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with a given scenario, you quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.
- Achiever: Great stamina and work hard. You take great satisfaction of being busy and productive.
- Arranger: Flexible Organization. You like to figure out how the pieces fit together.
- Maximizer: Stimulate personal and group excellence. You seek to transform something strong into something superb.
In 2009, here are my results:
- Strategic: Create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with a given scenario, you quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.
- Ideation: Fascinated by Ideas. You are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.
- Futuristic: Inspired by what could be. You inspire others with your vision of the future.
- Maximizer: Stimulate personal and group excellence. You seek to transform something strong into something superb.
- Self-Assurance: Confident in ability to manage their own lives. You possess an inner compass to know when decisions are right.
Interestingly enough, what this tells me is that my inner compass has primarily remained true to course. Personally speaking, what I feel has changed in the past 8 years is that I now have a more outward (Futuristic/Ideation: Make the world a better place) as opposed to an inward (Achiever/Arranger: Make my world a better place) focus.
Knowing this allows me to focus my strengths on what really matters. And this is great, but my next question is, “How do I know what really matters to me?” and “And how can I make a living doing it?” This is the topic for next weeks post: Know Thyself, Part Two. Let’s hope that I have some answers by then.
Facebook quizzes that may be of some use and an Idea
During my research for this post, I found these quizzes that may, I say may, be of some use to you if not at least to make you think. Search for “What kind of friend are you?” or “What are you born to do?”. But please be weary of what information your are willing to expose.
And here’s an idea. These self-assessments are interesting and all but I’d really like a way to anonymously discover what my family, friends and colleagues really think I am like and what I am good at. It may be time for a Personal/Professional Advisor web site where you can invite others to take the same self-assessments but as if they were you.
