Barnes & NobleStrengths finder 2. 0 by Gallup

A Personality Test for the Workplace

I picked up this book because a group at work was discussing their strengths, and I wanted to take the survey to devote some thought to how I might work with them better. Don Clifton, a workplace psychologist, identified these 34 atomized strengths and developed a questionnaire to help individuals find their personal preferred strengths. Among the 34 are themes like Belief, Communication, Significance, Responsibility, Woo, and Context. First, some important financial advice. If you choose to buy this book, ensure that you are getting an access code to take the online survey from Gallup. You will usually only get this key with a new book. If you buy a used copy, you likely will have to shell out more money to access the survey. The survey is like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test and outputs which of the 34 strengths you most identify with. The value of the exercise lies mainly in the survey, but if you take the survey, you might as well learn the science behind it in order to leverage your new-found self-knowledge. Like any good work of psychology, the book will teach you more about yourself and about the people around you. By directing your thoughts to the human side of work, it will help you acknowledge your go-to reactions and work with the personalities of your co-workers. Especially when perusing themes that I’m not strong at, I thought of individual co-workers that were strong at that trait. That’s the point of this book – to bring to conscious thought how to make use of yourself and the people around you. People often complain that psychological works like these are elementary and obvious. But their elegant simplicity are meant to center your disparate thoughts onto topics more important to the flow of life. Yes, this book may be a quick read, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that its proper audience consists only of youth. We all can learn to better harness our personal strengths and the strengths of those around us.