Leadership

Strengths

Most people who know me well would describe me as passionate, innovative, creative, energetic, and deeply committed to making the world a better place. I believe in people, and in the transformative power of hope. As Barack Obama so famously defined it:

“Hope is not blind optimism. It’s not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. It’s not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it.”

These are the same values I  seek to live out in my daily practices as a leader: vision, conviction, empathy, hard work, humor, and faith. Indeed, I’ve had the opportunity to take the CliftonStrengths several times over the last few years and my results were not only very consistent–they reflect my core values.

According to Gallup, my top five strengths are:

• Strategic: (“You automatically pinpoint trends, notice problems, or identify opportunities many people overlook. Problems and possible solutions become apparent to you. Once you outline action steps, you quickly execute them one by one.”)
• Futuristic: (“Your vision opens people’s minds to new and wondrous possibilities. You challenge them to consider ideas they might not have thought of on their own.”)
• Positivity: (“You are generous with praise, quick to smile, and always on the lookout for the positive in the situation. Somehow you can’t quite escape your conviction that it is good to be alive, that work can be fun, and that no matter what the setbacks, one must never lose one’s sense of humor.”)
• Arranger: (“You are a conductor. When faced with a complex situation involving many factors, you enjoy managing all of the variables, aligning and realigning them until you are sure you have arranged them in the most productive configuration possible. In your mind, there is nothing special about what you are doing. You are simply trying to figure out the best way to get things done.”)
• Achiever: (“You have an internal fire burning inside you. It pushes you to do more, to achieve more.  It brings you the energy you need to work long hours without burning out. It is the power supply that causes you to set the pace and define the levels of productivity for your work group.”)