Discussion 2: Your Leadership Profile

Do you believe you have the traits to be an effective leader? Perhaps you are already in a supervisory role, but as has been discussed previously, appointment does not guarantee leadership skills.

How can you evaluate your own leadership skills and behaviors? You can start by analyzing your performance in specific areas of leadership. In this Discussion, you will complete Gallup’s StrengthsFinder assessment. This assessment will identify your personal strengths, which have been shown to improve motivation, engagement, and academic self-conference. Through this assessment, you will discover your top five themes—which you can reflect upon and use to leverage your talents for optimal success and examine how the results relate to your leadership traits.

To Prepare:

Complete the StrengthsFinder assessment instrument, per the instructions found in this Module’s Learning Resources.

Once you have completed your assessment, you will receive your “Top 5 Signature Themes of Talent” on your screen.

Click the Download button below Signature Theme Report, and then print and save the report. We also encourage you to select the Apply tab to review action items.

NOTE: Please keep your report. You will need your results for future courses. Technical Issues with Gallup:

Reflect on the results of your Assessment, and consider how the results relate to your leadership traits.

Download your Signature Theme Report to submit for this Discussion.

Post a brief description of your results from the StrengthsFinder assessment. Then, briefly describe two core values, two strengths, and two characteristics that you would like to strengthen based on the results of your StrengthsFinder assessment. Be specific. Note: Be sure to attach your Signature Theme Report to your Discussion post.

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DON CLIFTON

Father of Strengths Psychology and
Inventor of CliftonStrengths

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468787 (Bonnie Bakkar)
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Bonnie Bakkar
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Many years of research conducted by The Gallup Organization suggest that the most effective people are
those who understand their strengths and behaviors. These people are best able to develop strategies to
meet and exceed the demands of their daily lives, their careers, and their families.

A review of the knowledge and skills you have acquired can provide a basic sense of your abilities, but an
awareness and understanding of your natural talents will provide true insight into the core reasons behind
your consistent successes.

Your Signature Themes report presents your five most dominant themes of talent, in the rank order
revealed by your responses to StrengthsFinder. Of the 34 themes measured, these are your “top five.”

Your Signature Themes are very important in maximizing the talents that lead to your successes. By
focusing on your Signature Themes, separately and in combination, you can identify your talents, build
them into strengths, and enjoy personal and career success through consistent, near-perfect performance.

Woo
Woo stands for winning others over. You enjoy the challenge of meeting new people and getting them to
like you. Strangers are rarely intimidating to you. On the contrary, strangers can be energizing. You are
drawn to them. You want to learn their names, ask them questions, and find some area of common interest
so that you can strike up a conversation and build rapport. Some people shy away from starting up
conversations because they worry about running out of things to say. You don’t. Not only are you rarely at
a loss for words; you actually enjoy initiating with strangers because you derive satisfaction from breaking
the ice and making a connection. Once that connection is made, you are quite happy to wrap it up and
move on. There are new people to meet, new rooms to work, new crowds to mingle in. In your world there
are no strangers, only friends you haven’t met yet—lots of them.

Adaptability
You live in the moment. You don’t see the future as a fixed destination. Instead, you see it as a place that
you create out of the choices that you make right now. And so you discover your future one choice at a
time. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have plans. You probably do. But this theme of Adaptability does
enable you to respond willingly to the demands of the moment even if they pull you away from your plans.

64468787 (Bonnie Bakkar)
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Unlike some, you don’t resent sudden requests or unforeseen detours. You expect them. They are
inevitable. Indeed, on some level you actually look forward to them. You are, at heart, a very flexible
person who can stay productive when the demands of work are pulling you in many different directions at
once.

Maximizer
Excellence, not average, is your measure. Taking something from below average to slightly above average
takes a great deal of effort and in your opinion is not very rewarding. Transforming something strong into
something superb takes just as much effort but is much more thrilling. Strengths, whether yours or
someone else’s, fascinate you. Like a diver after pearls, you search them out, watching for the telltale signs
of a strength. A glimpse of untutored excellence, rapid learning, a skill mastered without recourse to
steps—all these are clues that a strength may be in play. And having found a strength, you feel compelled
to nurture it, refine it, and stretch it toward excellence. You polish the pearl until it shines. This natural
sorting of strengths means that others see you as discriminating. You choose to spend time with people
who appreciate your particular strengths. Likewise, you are attracted to others who seem to have found
and cultivated their own strengths. You tend to avoid those who want to fix you and make you well
rounded. You don’t want to spend your life bemoaning what you lack. Rather, you want to capitalize on the
gifts with which you are blessed. It’s more fun. It’s more productive. And, counterintuitively, it is more
demanding.

Empathy
You can sense the emotions of those around you. You can feel what they are feeling as though their
feelings are your own. Intuitively, you are able to see the world through their eyes and share their
perspective. You do not necessarily agree with each person’s perspective. You do not necessarily feel pity
for each person’s predicament—this would be sympathy, not Empathy. You do not necessarily condone
the choices each person makes, but you do understand. This instinctive ability to understand is powerful.
You hear the unvoiced questions. You anticipate the need. Where others grapple for words, you seem to
find the right words and the right tone. You help people find the right phrases to express their feelings—to
themselves as well as to others. You help them give voice to their emotional life. For all these reasons
other people are drawn to you.

Deliberative
You are careful. You are vigilant. You are a private person. You know that the world is an unpredictable

64468787 (Bonnie Bakkar)
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place. Everything may seem in order, but beneath the surface you sense the many risks. Rather than
denying these risks, you draw each one out into the open. Then each risk can be identified, assessed, and
ultimately reduced. Thus, you are a fairly serious person who approaches life with a certain reserve. For
example, you like to plan ahead so as to anticipate what might go wrong. You select your friends cautiously
and keep your own counsel when the conversation turns to personal matters. You are careful not to give
too much praise and recognition, lest it be misconstrued. If some people don’t like you because you are not
as effusive as others, then so be it. For you, life is not a popularity contest. Life is something of a minefield.
Others can run through it recklessly if they so choose, but you take a different approach. You identify the
dangers, weigh their relative impact, and then place your feet deliberately. You walk with care.

64468787 (Bonnie Bakkar)
Copyright © 2000, 2006-2012 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Your Signature Theme Report
Bonnie Bakkar
Woo
Adaptability
Maximizer
Empathy
Deliberative