Paul Worthington

This is part two in a six-part series on my StrengthsFinder 2.0 results. In part one, I introduced the whole strengths and talents idea from Tom Rath’s book. The basic premise is that one develops strengths by investing study and practice into areas where one already has a natural talent. The book and associated materials help you identify your talents and actions you can take to build on top of those talents.

The StrengthsFinder online assessment reports my Top 5 Talent Themes as:

• Intellection
• Adaptability
• Learner
• Analytical
• Connectedness

When I read the book, I made it a point not to read any of the talent theme descriptions. I read their one-word titles, but none of the accompanying detail. Similar quizzes and tests have reported similar things—thinking, analysis, learning. I expected to see things like that in my SF2 results. From the names of the talent themes, I kind of expected to have on my list things like “Context” and maybe “Input”. But I got a slightly different Top 5 than I thought I would.

The first time I read the talent theme descriptions behind my Top 5, I felt a mixture of recognition of familiar concepts and a fairly strong reaction that something was wrong. At first look, I thought the assessment results were way off when it came to Adaptability and Connectedness. I will write about each talent theme in depth, each in its own post, but I can tell you now that I quickly discovered all five talent themes on my list are correct. It was a matter of reading all of the description material with an open mind, re-reading it, and realizing what parts applied to me the most. I think this is the right way anyone taking the SF2 test should approach the results.

The description of Intellection, from the StrengthsFinder Full Theme Descriptions, says that I like to think, I like mental activity and introspection, and that “this mental hum is one of the constants of your life.”

Photo by Corey / Ten0fnine

This is the part that jumped out at me: “You are the kind of person who enjoys your time alone because it is your time for musing and reflection.” Boy, is that true. It’s no surprise to me that Intellection was my #1 talent theme. Interesting that it’s called a “talent” theme. It seems to me that this one, more than the others in my Top 5, is mostly about what I like or need versus what I may be good at or what may come naturally easy to me. But I can extrapolate from “you like to think” to “a need for mental activity”.

I’ve read others’ reactions to their own StrengthsFinder results where Intellection was one of their top 5. Almost to a person, their first reaction is, “doesn’t everyone like to think?”. Those people must be missing the point. It’s more than “everyone thinks”, for sure. But it’s not true to say “everyone likes to think”.

In my particular combination of talents in my Top 5—the talent themes, their order, and how I scored in each theme—the StrengthsFinder site gave me a personalized guide. This goes beyond the standard full theme description and tells me a “what makes you stand out” description that’s tailored especially for me. In My Personalized Guide, the StrengthsFinder description of Intellection as it applies to me specifically gets a lot more precise and applicable to me, personally. In particular, it says I appreciate intellectual discussions, I like to expand my knowledge by reading a lot, I examine ideas, theories, etc., from a variety of angles, and I desire to seek the truth. All true.

Photo by Gisela Giardino

This is where the Intellection description got most interesting for me. Different than the more general stock description, this personalized description zeroes in a lot closer to me. First, it indicates I like to periodically expand my knowledge by reading. That’s very true, and I’d go further—I love to read and I am reading all the time, all kinds of materials, in all kinds of media. I don’t do it only to be entertained or simply to pass the time, I do it to know more.

Second, they used language that gives me better insight about how Intellection applies to me. The full description has language such as “you like to…”. This personalized description has language such as “driven by your talents, you periodically…” That’s a significant choice of wording, because now I can see what “you like to think” means in the context of a talent as opposed to a mere preference.

Thinking is not merely daydreaming or fantasizing, although it is a superset of those two along with many other intellectual activities. The full description says this mental activity may be about solving a problem, or developing an idea. I’ve always done a lot of “what if” thinking. Like the fun old question that keeps getting asked of every new generation: If you had a super power what would it be and why? Except I think it through and try not to miss any constraints or implications.

How does one say “I like to think” or “one of my top talents is thinking” without sounding superior and pretentious? Go back and read your personalized guide again, that’s how. As the full theme description says, “The exact focus [of my mental activity] will depend on your other strengths.” I found that to be true as I read and thought about the descriptions of the other talent themes in my Top 5. I will go into the details of these interactions in the upcoming posts remaining in this series.

If you’ve taken the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment and want to share your results or discuss anything I’ve written here, leave a comment or contact me via email. If you’ve just got questions about any of this, feel free to contact me, too—I love to hear from readers and I love to share thoughts about this topic.