Reflection Paper on the Results of Clifton StrengthsFinder
The Clifton StrengthsFinder is a web-based personality assessor. It consists of 177 different items, each of them presented to the tested in polar-opposite pairs. The tested has to decide how much each end of the pair fits their personality by marking it on a scale. I completed my test on January 11, 2017, and my results are the following on a scale from one to five: Input, Learner, Analytical, Futuristic, and Deliberative. These are my strongest features, and the present essay is my reflection upon them.
INPUT
Getting ‘Input’ on the first position means that I am a very diligent learner and educator. I am eager to use every newly acquired piece of information, and collection more information is much of a pleasure for me. To be honest, this is very interesting, because learning has always been my true passion. I believe that information holds the real power over the world and that it is vital to achieve a full and colorful experience in life.
This trait is very similar to the ‘Input’ – ‘Learner’ is also all about learning and acquiring new information. Its description states that people with this trait are eager to read and learn as much as they can possibly do, no matter whether the information learnt is or will become useful at all. I do personally believe that this is true, because information if the key to everything. My hobby is to study everything meticulously, and I love details in every aspect of learning. Both ‘Learner’ and ‘Input’ truly reflect on my personality and represent my passion of devouring knowledge.
ANALYTICAL
This trait is probably what best describes the right-brainers: all of those to whom mathematic formulas and statistical approaches are the best ones in the world. It is very important for them to have their time and to be able to sit down and analyze everything methodically and meticulously until every bit of information is sorted out.
I can surely find myself in this description, but rather only a half of myself. While I do indeed love to study everything methodically and to operate with facts, I can hardly be taken as an extremely levelheaded person: I believe emotions to be very important, and sometimes I allow myself to get lost in them and to act somewhere more on the irrational side of the spectrum.
FUTURISTIC
Being ‘Futuristic’ means being able to project present ideas onto the future. This accounts very much for great skills in planning, brainstorming new ideas, helping people to fix problems, to achieve their goals, and also to help do all of it to myself. This skill is probably ranked lover than the others because it is difficult for me to relate to the most of its description: while I love brainstorming ideas and helping people solve problems, I am a huge procrastinator and I have no abilities or whatsoever to plan effectively and efficiently.
DELIBERATIVE
‘Deliberative’ is a trait of people keen on analyzing everything before making decisions, and of those much appreciated for their opinions as they are usually precise and honest. I would suggest that this fits rather 50/50, as I do sometimes let emotions flow and rush the decision-making. However, and interesting fact that I never mentioned in myself is that I do in fact try to move away from people when making important decisions – and this is exactly the trait of having ‘Deliberative’ on one’s scale.
I would say that I did in fact expect to get at least a couple of traits connected to learning, because it is indeed one of my biggest passions. However, I was a bit disappointed with how cold and pragmatic this test makes me seem, as if having a curious and analytical mind automatically results in being unemotional and very boss-like. Surely, I would love to be perceived extremely seriously when it is important, but I would definitely prefer to be also seen as a cheery and happy-go-lucky person that I believe myself to be.
It would be difficult to name a separate trait that surprised me, as I did expect to get something of this kind when starting to take this test. What surprised me though, were parts of some traits. For instance, planning (‘Futuristic’) is most certainly not my strongest, same goes for having an easy short cut to achieve any goal. In addition, as it has been said previously, the unemotional part of descriptions is just not something I naturally am.
Probably, the only traits related to communicating I have are ‘Input’ and ‘Futuristic’, because the rest of them are more internal, and concentrate on the processes of learning, analyzing and making decisions. ‘Input’ is the trait of educators and ‘Futuristic’ mentioned teamwork and brainstorming, which means that they both normally belong to those who are good with people.
Out of all these strengths, I would most gladly develop the ‘Futuristic’ one, because I personally felt that I had the least match with it. Besides, having a developed ability to plan and anticipate the future seems to be incredibly useful and worthy of having.
In order to build upon this strength I would definitely have to do some research, learning about the possible ways to plan, and studying the effectiveness of each one of them. Then, after this step is complete, I would choose a few that I think fit my lifestyle the best. From that moment it is all about trial – I would try each one of them over a certain period of time, and finally choose the one that works best. Presumably, this strategy will help me understand how planning works, and learn about the best ways of integrating it into my life.
