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Harmony |
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| You
look for areas of agreement. In your view there is little to be gained from
conflict and friction, so you seek to hold them to a minimum. When you know
that the people around you hold differing views, you try to find the common
ground. You try to steer them away from confrontation and toward harmony. In
fact, harmony is one of your guiding values. You can't quite believe how much
time is wasted by people trying to impose their views on others. Wouldn't we
all be more productive if we kept our opinions in check and instead looked for
consensus and support? You believe we would, and you live by that belief. When
others are sounding off about their goals, their claims, and their fervently
held opinions, you hold your peace. When others strike out in a direction, you
will willingly, in the service of harmony, modify your own objectives to merge
with theirs (as long as their basic values do not clash with yours). When
others start to argue about their pet theory or concept, you steer clear of the
debate, preferring to talk about practical, down-to-earth matters on which you
can all agree. In your view we are all in the same boat, and we need this boat
to get where we are going. It is a good boat. There is no need to rock it just
to show thatyou can. |
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Restorative |
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| You
love to solve problems. Whereas some are dismayed when they encounter yet
another breakdown, you can be energized by it. You enjoy the challenge of
analyzing the symptoms, identifying what is wrong, and finding the solution.
You may prefer practical problems or conceptual ones or personal ones. You may
seek out specific kinds of problems that you have met many times before and
that you are confident you can fix. Or you may feel the greatest push when
faced with complex and unfamiliar problems. Your exact preferences are
determined by your other themes and experiences. But what is certain is that
you enjoy bringing things back to life. It is a wonderful feeling to identify
the undermining factor(s), eradicate them, and restore something to its true
glory. Intuitively, you know that without your intervention, this thing-this
machine, this technique, this person, this company-might have ceased to
function. You fixed it, resuscitated it, rekindled its vitality. Phrasing it
the way you might, you saved it. |
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Developer |
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| You
see the potential in others. Very often, in fact, potential is all you see. In
your view no individual is fully formed. On the contrary, each individual is a
work in progress, alive with possibilities. And you are drawn toward people for
this very reason. When you interact with others, your goal is to help them
experience success. You look for ways to challenge them. You devise interesting
experiences that can stretch them and help them grow. And all the while you are
on the lookout for the signs of growth-a new behavior learned or modified, a
slight improvement in a skill, a glimpse of excellence or of "flow" where
previously there were only halting steps. For you these small
increments-invisible to some-are clear signs of potential being realized. These
signs of growth in others are your fuel. They bring you strength and
satisfaction. Over time many will seek you out for help and encouragement
because on some level they know that your helpfulness is both genuine and
fulfilling to you. |
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Communication |
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| You
like to explain, to describe, to host, to speak in public, and to write. This
is your Communication theme at work. Ideas are a dry beginning. Events are
static. You feel a need to bring them to life, to energize them, to make them
exciting and vivid. And so you turn events into stories and practice telling
them. You take the dry idea and enliven it with images and examples and
metaphors. You believe that most people have a very short attention span. They
are bombarded by information, but very little of it survives. You want your
information-whether an idea, an event, a product's features and benefits, a
discovery, or a lesson-to survive. You want to divert their attention toward
you and then capture it, lock it in. This is what drives your hunt for the
perfect phrase. This is what draws you toward dramatic words and powerful word
combinations. This is why people like to listen to you. Your word pictures
pique their interest, sharpen their world, and inspire them to act. |
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Individualization |
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| Your
Individualization theme leads you to be intrigued by the unique qualities of
each person. You are impatient with generalizations or "types" because you
don't want to obscure what is special and distinct about each person. Instead,
you focus on the differences between individuals. You instinctively observe
each person's style, each person's motivation, how each thinks, and how each
builds relationships. You hear the one-of-a-kind stories in each person's life.
This theme explains why you pick your friends just the right birthday gift, why
you know that one person prefers praise in public and another detests it, and
why you tailor your teaching style to accommodate one person's need to be shown
and another's desire to "figure it out as I go." Because you are such a keen
observer of other people's strengths, you can draw out the best in each person.
This Individualization theme also helps you build productive teams. While some
search around for the perfect team "structure" or "process," you know
instinctively that the secret to great teams is casting by individual strengths
so that everyone can do a lot of what they do well. |
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StrengthsFinder is a trademark of The Gallup Organization.
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