The Strengths Finder report assesses peoples preference on 34 themes that classify perception of their strengths. In his book Strengths Finder 2.0 Tim Rath describes a “strength” as an innate ability or talent that you possess and invest significant time and energy in developing. My top strengths in the strengths finder were communication, arranger, harmony, context and woo.
When I initially went through my strengths finder report, I wasn’t too surprised at the results that I saw there. This is in line with many of the other psychometric tests that I have done in the past such as the DISC profiling. My love for speaking with people and interacting with them, keeping the peace and being able to convince people to my point of view have been borne out by the scores. The profile has validated my preferences for being a people’s person and as an internal consultant in HR I am glad that these skills have a direct bearing on my job role and it means that I will be able to truly leverage these strengths in my work. I was disappointed to see that many of the analytical, problem solving and more organisational and conceptual aspects of leadership behaviour didn’t feature in my top 5 and I will need to work significantly in these areas to compensate for their absence. What I liked about the Strengths Finder as an assessment tool is that it gives you a number of suggestions on how to maximise the impact of your strengths and compensate for your weaknesses. I will be able to use this as a basis for my action planning and development.
The skills needed by an internal consultant are very diverse. They involve a combination of the social and people skills to build strong networks and relations and the analytical skills to build the credibility necessary to be taken seriously as a consultant. My strength as an arranger and in communication will support me ably in the first aspect of building relationships and networks. My area of development – analytical and strategic skills - will need to be managed around if I am to be able to sustain these initial relationships with credibility as a consultant.
My natural behaviour is one that gravitates towards helping people. It rests on an inherent need to be liked and respected by others. My basis of influence on peoples is from my social base of power rather than an authority base and I prefer to work with a supervisor and an environment that supports this desire for harmony. My ability to speak to people easily (Communication) and to listen effectively to people will stand me in good stead in my role as an internal consultant. Since an additional strength lies in the context theme, I will be able to put in significant time researching my internal customer’s business and ensure that I approach the consulting process with insight and understanding. Since I am able to win the trust of my stakeholders and internal customers and seek harmony in my interactions I will be able to further leverage the relationships that I have built in order to be an effective internal consultant. My arranger talent further allow me to work very effectively in unstructured environments and work towards creating structures and procedures that others can follow. This is an invaluable strength for an internal consultant.
My desire for harmony ensures that I keep conflicts to a minimum and when they arise I work to resolve conflicts in a collaborative manner using my ability to communicate effectively and put forth different perspectives to situations in order to arrive at collaborative solutions. The areas where I will need to compensate for based on an absence in my top 5 report are analytical and strategic skills. Additionally the absence of command may hamper my work as an internal consultant. My report suggests that although I am able to focus on analytical details when they relate specifically to people, I may have trouble focusing on intricate and complex analytical details in isolation. This can pose as a drawback in my role as an internal consultant especially since I work in the HR department. Coupled with the absence of strategic skills this could be a serious limitation.
In compensating for these areas my plan is to leverage my strengths in communication, context and woo. I will need to ensure that I work with people who have a high analytical opposing strengths and use their in depth research and strategic observations. Coupling these with my preference for contextualising I will be able to interpret their information and insight in reference to my needs as a consultant. Ensuring that I work with subject matter experts and bring together groups with diverse talents will ensure that I deliver projects on time with the required level of quality.
The absence of command in my profile can be compensated by my strength of harmony. This will ensure that I work with people in a collaborative fashion including everyone and listening to them carefully. My strength as an arranger will ensure that I drive discussions and deliberations towards a logical conclusion. Since I am aware of the tendency to step aside for a more commanding personality, I will need to be consciously aware of when I am giving up authority and hold my ground when I would rather step aside.
Works Cited
Rath, T. (2007). Strengths Finder 2.0. New York: Gallup Press.
