For years I have heard of the Strengths Finder assessment and its value over other personality tests. Fast forward to Friday afternoon when I arrived at Bayer to meet some of the people I will be working with this summer. After being mesmerized by the beautiful facility I was handed my first gift, Strengths Based Leadership. The book included my very own code to take the assessment! I could hardly wait and took the assessment after my drive to Charlotte to visit friends for the weekend before dinner. The strengths are in and they are:

Of the four main leadership domains of executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking, two of my themes are in executing, two are in strategic thinking, and my top theme, individualization, is in relationship building. Here is the description of individualization:

“By nature, you often marvel at your ability to sense the feelings and perspectives of other people. You feel very good about yourself and life in general when you put aside your opinions, biases, or preferences. Your satisfaction probably comes from figuring out why someone behaves, feels, or thinks differently than you do. It’s very likely that you are comfortable  sharing your viewpoints with individuals who ask you to do so. Their requests are proof that they like and trust you. You are less inclined, however, to make inquiries about other people’s judgments and/or conclusions. You probably avoid doing anything that could drive a wedge between you and your friends, acquaintances, family members, coworkers, teammates, or classmates. Driven by your talents, you urge, coax, and even demand that individuals do whatever it takes to reach their goals. When you step forward and exercise your authority, most people let you push and prod them toward excellence. Chances are good that you have no difficulty completing assignments by the date they are due. Deadlines probably motivate you to pace your work. You are sure to be a good partner for people who struggle to stay on schedule. You are likely to break down their projects into a list of daily tasks. With your assistance, these individuals are apt to surprise themselves and others by finishing on time. Because of your strengths, you derive much satisfaction from doing things that benefit people. You typically work as industriously on big projects as you do on everyday chores.” 

After reading the descriptions of the other four strengths, I was not very surprised. My favorite quote came to mind:

Completing this assessment and reading the results made me wonder what the strengths of my coworkers are, specifically those on my fifth grade team. It would be interesting to take the assessment as a school and consider how are are grouped as teachers.

This gift demonstrates the commitment that Bayer has to the development of its employees. Although I will only be employed for five weeks with them this summer, I will still be taking part in their Mindful Matters professional development program.

If this first meeting was any indication of the experience I will have this summer, it is already exceeding my expectations and I can’t wait to see what’s next.