Every hiring manager is rightfully concerned with how a potential candidate will fit in with his or her existing team. I can transparently provide results from my CliftonStrengths report, which may provide insight into how I would fit in, here. This report ranks 34 strengths to profile a candidate’s best and most natural positive attributes. Mine are strategic thinking, achievement, individualization, activation, and ideation.
Details
Strategic Thinkers thrive by creating alternate ways to proceed. They quickly spot relevant patterns and issues, pinpointing problems and identifying best solutions. They frequently find ways to transform obstacles into opportunities. That’s me. That’s my highest and best use to any team. There are drawbacks to this strength in the modern workplace: Strategic people like me are “self-reliant” workers “who need time alone to think and work.” Cubicle settings and 9-to-5 schedules won’t allow me to shine, although I am diligent and honest enough to strive to make them work. Strategic workers like me “generate innovative ideas and propose systematic programs of action.” I tend to be a future-oriented, results-focused, big-picture thinker and can get discouraged if action isn’t taken to achieve results. The Strengths report says it best: “You quickly weigh alternative paths and determine the best one. Your natural ability to anticipate, play out different scenarios and plan ahead make you an agile decision-maker.”
My secondary strength as an achiever means that I don’t know how to not give 110 percent. I am a diligent worker with a great deal of stamina and have been known to work 7o hours a week (all my professional roles have been salaried). “You take immense satisfaction in being busy and productive. You love to complete tasks, and your accomplishments fulfill you. You have a strong inner drive – an innate source of intensity, energy and power that motivates you to work hard to get things done.” This is absolutely true about me: I want to work hard, and I need to achieve my goals to feel successful.
My other strengths are individualization, which means I am intrigued with and value the unique qualities of each person I encounter. I am very much an extroverted people-person. I’m also an activator: I want to do things, not talk about doing things. Lastly, I possess a talent for ideation: I am fascinated by ideas and I can find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena. I’m a creative, outside-the-box thinker who loves to brainstorm.
If a weakness is anything that gets in the way of your success, according to the Strengths report, I will always have to work to make sure I don’t fail in the following areas: input, developer, includer. These are mostly relationship building skills, so my number three strength – individualization – helps me in this area. I truly value each human being for his or her unique skills and work diligently to let people in my life know how much I value them. When I’m working on a project, while focused on achieving results and moving in the right direction, I am purposeful about including stakeholders, communicating with my team and going the extra mile not to be so results-focused I lose track of people’s needs so that I don’t come across as uncaring.