My Clinton StrengthsFinder Results
The Clifton StrengthsFinder by Gallup is an online assessment that identifies people's strengths within four general domains:
- Relating Themes (Working with Peoiple),
- Impacting Themes (Influencing People),
- Striving Themes (Working Harder), and
- Thinking Themes (Working Smarter).
The premise of the assessment is that people work best when they follow their strengths. My top five strengths are in a single domain: Thinking Themes. In reviewing my campus work, it became clear that, in all my endeavors, I was following my strengths (results listed in descending order).
- Strategic - accessing complex situations & quickly identifying relevant data or best alternatives
- Learner - learning & acquiring understanding
- Input - collecting & archiving of information
- Context - thinking about the past & its continued impact on the present
- Intellection - introspection, constantly thinking
(audio links written and narrated by Rick McGinnis)
Because all of my top strengths lie in the single domain of Thinking Themes, they complement and reinforce each other. As a result, I was often been able to develop extensive models for teaching and learning, both by analyzing my own patterns of learning and by identifying student difficulties with learning and strategies they could use to improve. The various resources I have created here in my web site illustrate my efforts.
I have joked that I am no more than a "thinking machine." My favorite Star Trek character was always Spock although there have been times when the reactions of people around me have been more like those members of Star Trek: Next Generation when relating to Data. I suffer from behavior not unlike his social awkwardness. It also explains my preference for working on tasks in isolation.
Gallup's Clifton StrengthsFinder Resources
For more information on the Clifton StrengthsFinder, visit their homepage or their blog, which lists all of the strengths with brief explanations of each. Rick McGinnis also has short audio explanations of each strength. The StrengthFinders 2.0 book with code for taking the assessment is available new from Amazon.