The Hidden Strengths to Lead

Working in groups with people is not only useful for your high school history project, but it is also a large part of the world of jobs. Many times in a career you will work with a team of people, each doing separate tasks, in order to complete the job to the highest quality. With this in mind, knowing what role you play best on a team is helpful in order to maximize your abilities.

My Experience

This past week I took an online test where I was presented with two statements that were either different or complete opposites of each other. There was a scale below the two statements that ranged from strongly agreeing on both sides digressing in agreement down to neutral in the middle. If the questions were answered honestly and usually without much thought it would give you a list of your five strengths regarding leadership and how you work with others. 

My Strengths

The strengths that the test matched me with were:

- Developer

- Adaptability

- Empathy

- Positivity

- Relator

Out of the four domains that all of the strengths are categorized in: Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking, all five of mine were in the relationship building domain. I found this pretty interesting considering I am not a huge people person.

What Do My Strengths Mean For Me?

Developer- People who have this strength are great at seeing the potential in others. Not only do they see this potential in others, but they also naturally try to bring out the best in your abilities through whatever your strength is. This strength is most likely shared with many bosses or people who are in charge of others because they know exactly where to place people in order for them to work best. I found this to be true with me because I am very forgiving due to the fact that I believe all people are a work in progress and everyone has the potential to grow. I always check up on people, even some who I am no longer friends with, to see how they are doing and if they have grown any more into the person that I can see they could be. When working in teams of people, I love to assign jobs to my other teammates because I feel like I know what will work best.

Adaptability- Those with this strength are people you would refer to as "go with the flow" type of people. They accept changes as they happen and quickly adapt themselves to the new set of circumstances. This is definitely me because I am always living in the moment, and don't actually think of the future that often. One of my mottos for life is "if it happens, it happens", and people who share this strength with me would agree with the fact that things do happen that are out of our control and we have to change things in order to keep life rolling along. This is a very useful skill for working with teams because there are always things that come up and cause disturbances and with someone who is able to adapt quickly to the problem in helpful in keeping the group on the right track.

Empathy- People who possess this strength are very good at understanding others. Although this is not sympathy, because you don't necessarily have to agree with the other persons' choices or perspective in order for you to understand them. You can also work with people to help them convey their feelings because you know where they are coming from. Having the ability to sense the emotions of others around you and understand them is important when working with teams to resolve any issues and make sure that everyone is happy with what is happening. I can always tell when people are upset, and most of the time I can relate with them based on the fact that I can understand why they feel the way they do.

Positivity- Those that have positivity are people that anyone can see as a ray of light. They always see the positive side of things, and want others to as well. Their sense of humor and optimistic way of looking at things is contagious and generally people are attracted to positivity. Having someone who possesses this trait on your team can be helpful with seeing the light in any situation. They will work to whatever the issue is, as good as it can be, or at least make others see it that way. I don't necessarily think that I match up with this trait perfectly besides the fact that I never lose my sense of humor. I don't always see the glass as half full, but I can always laugh about it.

Relator- This is a trait that describes how you relate to people. I identified with this strength the most because it is exactly how I view relationships. These people may not have fifty friends of their choosing, but the few friends that they do have they certainly know everything about. Just like me, people who share this way of thinking only see the value in a relationship if it's genuine. They are willing to take risks when reaching that intimate level of a relationship. This can be useful in team work because knowing a person intimately can help you to understand the person better in their feelings and ideas that are projected when working through things.

My Experience and Furthermore

This past Friday, a lady that works with these strengths in schools and workplaces across the board came to my school to help us better understand the results we received from the test. She did exercises with us to open our eyes to how the characteristics are personalized to each of us. My big "aha" moment was after we divided into groups based on the four domains and were told to create a business. The businesses that were the most appealing were created by people who thought strategically or were innovative in their thinking. This showed me that everyone has their strengths and something that they can bring to the table when working with others and that is exactly what makes working in a team so effective and great.