Angel Gomez
2/23/16
Strength Finder 2.0
I. Introduction – The overall purpose of this assignment is to take the Strength Finder 2.0
assessment (by Tom Rath) to help us understand where we have the greatest potential to develop
strengths. These strengths are broken down into 34 themes. Of those 34 the assessment provides
us (the user) with 5 of our most dominant themes of talent. These themes report allows us to
review some of the knowledge and skills we acquired, and teaches us our basic sense of abilities.
Furthermore, providing us with an awareness and understanding of our natural talents, and
unveiling true insight into why we have achieved some of our successes in life. This assessment
also helps the user to focus on identifying our natural talents, and helps us build them into
strengths that allows us to become better versions of who we already are. Far too many times
people spend a lifetime heading in the wrong direction trying to achieve the pinnacle of success.
Success is defined a number of ways. Many folks go through life never uncovering their greatest
talents, and settle for something they are not. This is an example what success is to some.
According to Tom Rath through his research finds us forcing ourselves to follow a pre-
determined traditional path that eventually lands us into good paying job. Do we really belong
there? Are we utilizing our natural talents to be the best we can be? Are we afforded the
opportunity to discover, and act on our strengths? If the answer is no, then we need to re-evaluate
where we are in life, and how did we get there. Having read this book, and taking the assessment,
we are better prepared to discover our true selves, and potentially live the life we should have
been living all along.
II. Background– The philosophy behind the strength Finder 2.0 is help us (the user) understand
where we have the greatest potential to develop our strengths. “You can be anything you want to
be, just try hard enough” is a quote utilized by Tom Rath in his Strength finder book. He
challenges this theory, because that traditional life lesson is fundamentally flawed. Flawed in the
sense that it provides the person with a false sense of purpose. The saying you can be anything
you want holds true to some, but without ever truly knowing one’s own natural abilities how can
they truly become the best functioning version of themselves. This book aims to achieve a
different life lesson utilizing a strength finder assessment to allow for the user to identify the best
parts of themselves, and provides them with guidance to uncover their greatest talents and
unleashing their true potential. If someone knows better about their natural abilities, they are
likely to maintain a path of professional growth. This path allows for them to peel back some of
their developmental layers and helps them to achieve their own individual version of greatness.
These themes that are derived from the assessment help us to better understand how each of
those themes plays out in our lives. An interesting quote I took away from this project is one that
came out of the Strength Finder 2.0 book, and it essentially sums up what this book wants us to
understand. It changes the “You can be anything you want to be…” life lesson into a more
practical real life maxim that we all should take away from this assignment. It reads like this:
“You cannot be anything you want to be-but you can be a lot more of who you already are.”
Where was this when I was growing up? We should appreciate straight talk, and become inspired
to do more with our lives. Our children could benefit from lessons like these. If they do, we
should be able to help them along a path that they dig for themselves to reach their true potential
for success.
III. Results– Through the Strength Finder 2.0 assessment, I discovered 5 distinct themes that are
specific only to me. Overall, the assessment took me just under 45 minutes (which is the
recommended time allotted for the assessment). These 5 themes represent (in order) my top 5
most dominant themes of talent. Now that I have identified my talents, I can begin building them
into strengths. The following are in order they were received. This order of themes is listed out to
me from top to bottom. Top being the best, and bottom being 5th best. My top talent theme is
Individualization. The second theme is Achiever. The third theme is Responsibility. The fourth
theme is Restorative. Lastly my fifth and final top theme is Ideation. I will elaborate more into
what exactly each theme is, and why it was chosen through my assessment.
IV. Top Five Strengths–
I. Individualization
Definition – The ability to become intrigued with the unique qualities of each person.
This type of person focuses on the distinctive differences of every individual, by observing each
person’s ins and outs through their daily activities. Through these observations, this person
understands what makes each person tick, and draws out the very best in each person. This type
of person is able to instinctively build a successful, and productive team built upon using the
individual strengths each individual member brings to the team.
Reflection –My assessment results are very accurate to the type of person I am today.
Most of my greatest achievements in life is serving in the military. The Military offers me the
unique opportunity to learn from the very best this country has to offer, and grow to eventually
become the very people who mentored me throughout my career. As I read through the theme of
Individualization, I find myself underlining every sentence, because it accurately reflects what I
have successfully achieved throughout my career. Every aspect of the Individualization criteria
on what I should be able to accomplish has already been done in one way or another. For
example, I feel accomplished when I can be of service to individuals. In the book it describes
those individuals who have set clear goals for themselves are likely to get the very best
assistance out of me, as opposed to someone who does not have clear goals and lack motivation.
One of my standing rules that I expressed to my subordinates is that I will absolutely bend over
backwards, and beyond to help those individuals succeed if I see that they are motivated to
succeed. In a sense, I will help those who want to actively help better themselves. I will drop
everything I am doing, just so that I can help the individual seeking help. Another example of the
Individualization theme that pertains to me is that fact that I am always cognizant of each
person’s day to day work activities, and how they react to adversity. Through these observations,
as a Department head in charge of over 20 personnel, I strive to understand what makes each
person under my supervision the way they are. Not in a sense of personal being, but more in a
sense of professional being. I have the natural ability to “expose” their talents, and use them to
the departments advantage. On the other hand, I help them to identify areas of weakness, and
throughout the day, I may give them simple tasks that help them practice using their weakness to
make them stronger. I always used the saying “at the end of the day, I can go home and hang my
hat knowing that I did my best”. If we cannot walk away from a project with that sense of
feeling, then the project is not done. This forces us all to take ownership of our work. It forces us
to do better, and that is why I believe that the strength finder 2.0 assessment is accurate in
explaining to me my strength theme of Individualization.
Ideas for action –One thing I would like to implement from the book is to make my
colleagues and friends aware of each person’s unique needs. Soon after that people will look to
me to explain other people’s motivations and actions. This is something that I did not do well
when I was in my job. Yes, I did a lot of other good things, but professional growth through my
own experiences, was something that I did not given out freely. I chose to provide everything I
had learned to certain individuals that I saw had the potential to do something with it. I did so
under no predetermined guidelines, but more so on those who exemplified leadership traits that
others lacked. I was successful in training up these individuals, but I wish I could have given
everyone a chance to learn everything I was taught. If only I had known how much more
effective of a service, I could have provided. The second aspect of individualization I would love
to implement is from the printed material off of the assessment. One way to better understand
what makes people tick is to ask questions about their motivations, needs, interests, and
