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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
I read this book as part of a Leadership Development course. I found my Strengths to align with traits I have exhibited in the past. However, I feel that it's hard not to be biased while reading these types of books as you know you're meant to relate.
After taking the StrengthsFinder 2.0 Test, it was great to read a bit more on different strengths, how they interact, and actually put to words somethings you already know about yourself but have never really thought about! The tips on relating to others with differing strengths was quite insightful as well.
I rather enjoy learning about who I am (or who this book thinks I am, rather) and learning how I can use those strengths to keep improving. I would need to actually write out the pages to remember what each strength said about me. All but one felt like it 100% spoke to me, but I wouldn't expect everything to be 100% or that I'll always be those 5 strengths. I'd say their downfall is that this is a system book. You must buy the book (work did) to take the test online...those systems feel shady to me. But what I gained outweighed the shadiness I suppose. Interesting insightful read!
informative
medium-paced
This is a straightforward book that goes through the 34 different strengths from Strengthsfinder. I have found knowing my own strengths to be useful, but this was the first time I actually read about the other strengths. I would love to come back to this when working with a team to be able to read about their strengths and how those can help me understand my teammates better.
Understand what you are getting: the "book" is essentially a reference volume of all 34 strengths. It is not a "book" in the traditional sense, and beyond a fairly short introduction (as others have noted), you may not find much use for the material unrelated to your top 5 unless you use the StrengthsFinder in your work as I do. If you buy this book new, you do get an access code for ONE administration of the StrengthsFinder assessment. ALTERNATIVES TO PURCHASING THIS BOOK: (1) You can simply visit the Gallup StrengthsFinder website and pay (currently $15) to take the StrengthsFinder assessment. You will get a report with your top 5 / signature themes and much, if not all, of the same material you'd get from the StrengthsFinder 2.0 book in PDF reports that are generated following the assessment. (2) Consider purchasing a different book that also includes a StrengthsFinder assessment code - for example, if you are interested in a positive/reinforcing approach to improvement, [b:How Full Is Your Bucket?|49266|How Full Is Your Bucket?|Tom Rath|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1441843038s/49266.jpg|48192] also includes a StrengthsFinder assessment code and offers a bit more as a "book" than this StrengthsFinder 2.0 reference.
I started this as required reading for a mentoring group at work, but I ended up having quite a bit of fun with it. Especially valuable for young professionals who are just getting to know their work styles.
The whole point of this book is to provide a unique access code to take the online assessment. The first 31 pages are an advertisement for the assessment. The rest of the book contains a brief overview of each of the 34 "themes", which could have just been accessed on their website. This makes no sense as a book at all.
Additionally, the basis of the strengths concept comes from polls and interviews. It is not grounded in actual Psychological research (though they throw around Psychology words like DSM and Personality to try to legitimize their assertions). These 34 traits (like Intellection, Futuristic, and Arranger) are claimed to be innate characteristics that a person has and cannot develop past his or her natural capacity. All these are are a reflection of what you've already told the assessment you're good at. Save your money and just keep doing what you do well.
Additionally, the basis of the strengths concept comes from polls and interviews. It is not grounded in actual Psychological research (though they throw around Psychology words like DSM and Personality to try to legitimize their assertions). These 34 traits (like Intellection, Futuristic, and Arranger) are claimed to be innate characteristics that a person has and cannot develop past his or her natural capacity. All these are are a reflection of what you've already told the assessment you're good at. Save your money and just keep doing what you do well.
Interesting to see what this program determined my strengths to be! Pretty accurate.
Just to read for funzies, this book isn't the most thrilling. However, my work incorporates Strengths Finders into our on boarding and carries it into some team building activities and our email signature blocks. It was fun to understand my top five strengths more, and to read about the strengths of my co-workers and how we can combine our talents into a successful team.
I've always had mixed feelings about taking exams that assess your feelings or actions. Many times the questions and how you respond to them are subjective to the moment in which you're answering and how you feel. When I first checked-out the book and realized that I'd need to purchase the code in order to take the assessment, I was very annoyed. It reeked to me of a money-making mechanism. But, I finally decided to shell over the $10 so that I could at least find out my top 5 skills and to be honest, the results were not that groundbreaking. The questions are timed as a way to force you to rate where you are on a scale by your initial gut reaction. Even this, I feel, can be very faulty given the experiences of your day and mood. I found the results to be very much what I already felt I knew about myself, with a couple nuggets of interest. In the end, I started reading the other strengths and found that given any other day, I might have answered in line with some of the other strengths. It makes me wonder what I am really getting from taking their assessment.
Do yourself a favor - live life, challenge yourself, step outside your comfort zone when you can. Those experiences will shine a better light on who you are as a person as opposed to a book and online assessment tool.
Do yourself a favor - live life, challenge yourself, step outside your comfort zone when you can. Those experiences will shine a better light on who you are as a person as opposed to a book and online assessment tool.