Be More of Who You Are with the StrengthsFinder | Episode 116

Welcome to Seasoned Women, Serious Business, the podcast for entrepreneurs

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Hello, all you spicy and seasoned women and serious business owners.

Another great week here in the podcast world, and an opportunity for me to

share one of my favorites with you.

For those of you that follow me on social media, every week, I

share a recommendation based on my favorite books, podcasts, or movies.

And this week I shared a favorite book, and that is the Strengths Finder 2.0.

Trying to zoom in here.

For those of you that are listening to this on audio, you won't see

that I am holding up the book.

I've had many copies of this book because I have written in them,

given them away, loaned them out, and then couldn't get them back

from the person I've given them to.

Because once you get hooked on this concept of looking at the world through

the lens of strengths as opposed to weaknesses, you'll understand why.

On Amazon, for those who are listening on audio, the book is white with

red lettering and embellishment, and it is in the business category.

It's also one of the top selling books in the business category of all time.

Why is this my favorite?

And one of my absolute, sincerely, all time, not only business,

but personal favorite books?

Well it goes back to when I was in public school.

Now, even though I graduated from high school more than 50 years ago, I have some

very vivid memories of, occasions during my education where I was, disapproved

of, not good enough by somebody else's standards, and sometimes even

punished for doing things differently.

Back in that day, that was okay.

Education's a little different now.

But I still think today there is a lot more focus on weaknesses of

individuals as opposed to strengths.

and that's why sharing my passion and appreciation for this psychology, this

way of thinking based on strengths.

So let me explain, the origin of this concept of StrengthsFinder.

It goes back to the founder, Donald O.

Clifton, or Dr.

Clifton, who did research for 40 years.

it really was his life's work on what are the characteristics, what are the

attributes of very successful people and through researching millions of successful

people around the globe in different professions and locations, he came up with

his list of 34 signature strengths that you could attribute to these individuals.

And then he created an assessment for individuals like me, and perhaps

you also to determine The order of your strengths and how they showed

up in your most confident, most comfortable areas of strength.

I was introduced to the Strengths Finder when I was in an executive

coaching program back, in the very, very early 2000s.

So, it must have been 2001 or 2 because, and I'll introduce him, Tom Rath, started

writing the StrengthsFinder books, making this more available to the mainstream.

The first one, I believe, was published in 2001,

and I took the assessment as part of An executive coaching program

at The Strategic Coach, which was founded by Dan Sullivan in Toronto.

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I was very fortunate to be on the ground floor of Strategic Coach clients.

I attribute that experience, not only of being in the coaching program at The

Strategic Coach, but being introduced to the StrengthsFinder to my going on

and having an eight figure business.

Honestly, I'm not sure that I would have attained that level of success if I hadn't

become educated on what my strengths were.

To continue setting this up and how this all evolved, Tom Rath, I recently

discovered, was a grandson of Dr.

Clifton, and he so admired his grandfather's work that he wanted

to take this more mainstream, and he created this series of books.

And of course, there was the first Strength Finder and then

the next iteration and the 2.

0 and they've gone on to create additional materials.

Anchored very much in my thinking is a quote that Donald Clifton made that

said "The key to human development is building on who you already are."

And considering that I am the author of the book, "Who Am I Now?", there

certainly is an intersection of being aware of our identity and loving

who we are and building on that.

My public school memories and my high school memories of teachers saying " No!

That's wrong.

That's stupid.

That's not the right way to do that" there was no latitude at all for, being

original or approaching a question and a problem from a different perspective.

It was all very rote, and this is the way it must be done.

Another memory that's very vibrant for me still to this day was, I

think I was a very good student.

academically, not only did I love school and the opportunity to be exposed to

a lot more than my simple farm life, small community, experience allowed,

but to be in a school system, which opened me up to literature and theater

and sciences, et cetera, was so great.

Even though I was a really good student.

I recall going home with my report card.

I don't know what grade, maybe three or four, and I was pretty excited

with the caliber of my report card.

the teachers seemed pleased with me, but when I presented it to my parents at

the dinner table, hoping for approval, being absolutely devastated by the

reaction of my father, who skimmed the report card and then zeroed in on the

lowest grade and severely admonished me for not having done better.

He didn't comment on the A grades, the A plus grades, he looked for something that

was the lowest denominator on the report card and insisted that I should try harder

and do better, that I should pay more attention to that grade and improve it.

Now, as much as I am being very stern about my father's parenting skills,

I wasn't alone and neither was he, because in many cases, that's still the case.

Depending on what your ethnicity is and your parents heritage, the point is

often to focus on what the weakness is, or what is perceived as a weakness, as

opposed to focusing on what are the best grades, the strengths of the individual.

That's the whole point of this thinking, this methodology or psychology that we

as individuals all have different areas of strength, skill, the best of our

abilities, and we are wasting so much time and energy if we're ignoring those, and

we are focused on what our weaknesses are.

Certainly I went through a lot of my life that way.

I confess as a parent, I'm also guilty of having done that.

Boy, did my attitude change when I became acquainted with the StrengthsFinder and

took the assessment and realized, wow!

What a difference that made to my confidence, my perspective, my abilities,

not only as a business owner and as a leader, but as a parent, as a community

leader, as a friend, when I stayed in my lane, focusing on who I am at my

best and not wasting energy and time trying to figure out how to be better

at algebra than I am as a communicator.

I do remember the day getting the assessment back.

It's one of those moments in your lifetime, that is so significant.

When I got my results back, and saw clearly, Oh my God, that is me!

That explains why I feel joyous, at my best, most confident, most

resilient, when I'm applying those strengths to whatever I'm doing.

My signature five top strengths out of the 34, according to my assessment,

and these are lifetime, they have not changed, are Communication, Duh,

how did I end up as a podcaster?

Now you know!

Woo wins others over.

There isn't a stranger in the world to me.

They're just friends I have not yet met.

Activator, when I've got an idea, when somebody comes up

with an idea, I'm all right.

Okay, great.

Now let's go.

Let's activate it.

Let's act on it.

And Positivity.

I think everybody who knows me would agree that is one of the most evident

of my strengths A friend of mine used to say, Isabel, you will always

find the pony in the pile of horseshit.

Number five for me is Maximizer.

I have a unique ability.

I have a strength at looking at something.

and seeing how to make it better, which is.

Ideally suited to my work in helping women entrepreneurs

transform their businesses and their relationships with their businesses.

That's why I feel so energized when I'm working with other women entrepreneurs,

I have strengths that enable me to see things differently, and communicate how

that might work into their life's plan.

So as you can see, I get pretty pumped up just talking about strengths

because why wouldn't we, right?

Why be talking about what you don't do well according to societal standards?

Instead, shift the focus to what is known to be true by you by just how you feel

about what's happening, what your success is, how easy it is for you when you're

operating within your own strengths.

I wanted to bring this back for conversation.

This isn't the first time I've talked about the StrengthsFinder, but now I'm,

coming up on 20 plus years of seeing different ways it supports the best

possible outcomes in my life and business.

But in particular, I wanted to talk about how this applies to you as a seasoned

woman, and as a seasoned woman with a serious business, we know this time

of our life is constantly presenting us with challenges to our confidence,

our clarity, our sense of who we are because everything is changing around us.

The world is changing, our bodies are changing, our markets are changing,

business models, competition, technology, even our desires and priorities.

And that is why I say we are wise enough to want more and even

wiser, if we recognize, Hell Yes!

We deserve more!

Figuring out what we want that to be is sometimes a little bit more complicated.

But that is another thing that I've found, I developed models for that

myself because I didn't easily find them when I retired, the first time, when I

sold my first big business, it was, how do you reinvent, in your fifties and

sixties and figure out who are you now?

That was the birth of the Encore Catalyst and the Encore Methodology,

anchored firmly in my strengths, that allowed me to figure that out, know

that I wanted to change, what the options were for what was perceived as

retirement time and retirement options and how to create something new and

communicate that with other people.

At any stage or age of our life or business, I always say, go back to

your Strength Finder and look at the situation through those lenses.

Knowing your strengths immediately, it's like an inoculation to your confidence.

Really a boost to confidence and self awareness.

If things aren't feeling "right", if you're just in a bit of a funk or a

fog, then it's probably because what you are doing is not aligned with

your highest and best self; that certainly includes your strengths.

When you are operating in your strengths it's like an energy creation machine.

You've got increased productivity, increased fulfillment, which means

probability of success just shot way up, which is a renewable resource.

When you are operating from your strengths, not scrambling to catch

up from behind in an area that someone might describe as a weakness,

I'd just say it is an area that is not my skill set, nor my interest.

But the good news is there are other people out there in the world that

possess those skills and strengths, and I can attract them to me.

The other reason I strongly recommend that all seasoned women know their strengths

is that it makes us better at making decisions and it makes us better leaders.

Leading ourself, of course, but leading our organization, because we're

operating from our highest and best self and strengths, and then we look

to build our teams, attract to us the people that have the other strengths

and skills that can fulfill the vision that we have for our business.

A key part of what I do when I'm working with a client is to shift her vision of

leadership from hands on, controlling manager, to stepping back and operating

from the viewpoint of chief investor, chief shareholder of the organization

and cultivating the strengths of other people around her, whether they're

staff, whether they are contractors.

And guess what?

This also works for clients.

and suppliers.

And I'd love to talk to you more about how I employed that with my

clients and suppliers another time.

Can you start to sense now why knowing your strengths, embracing them and

loving those strengths, also helps you build better relationships and increase

your opportunities and effectiveness as a collaborator with others.

Collaboration comes from these opportunities to find your match,

the magnet to your strengths, to build something together.

Which is then, as they say, the sum of the parts is greater.

That's why a catalyst is the perfect definition for me, because adding me to

something else creates a bigger effect.

It doesn't diminish me, doesn't change me, and that's why I've found this great

combination of my strengths really helped me to be aware my best role in life is

a catalyst, a transformation catalyst.

I would love for you to identify that moniker, label, brand, put

it on your t shirt of what your strengths make you perfectly.

The other aspect that I think is perfect for us as seasoned women with the

Strengths Finder as our fuel, is that it gives us resilience and adaptability.

I can bounce back very quickly from a " Damn!

It didn't work out the way I wanted it to.", if I step back from a moment and

go oh yeah because there I was trying to jam that square peg into the round

hole because it's not my strength.

It is not my right area of approach and therefore the outcome was frustrating,

and then at the same time, I can go, "All right, Isabel, you've proved

yet again that you should stay in primarily your area of strengths!"

I've also found throughout my life that understanding and implementing the

psychology of strengths versus weaknesses has really improved my relationships.

I have bought probably a hundred copies of this book.

I not only give these to my clients or require that they buy them, read

them, and then encourage them to buy them and circulate them to their staff.

I also share my success as a small business owner who struggled to hire

the right people, and had to let go people that were not a right fit.

I required every potential candidate to do a strength finder.

I had an opportunity to look at maybe some aspect of their strengths

that I hadn't even considered as a bonus, a benefit to our team, but

also to be able to coach them and develop them based on those strengths.

It's not that I would not hire somebody, a candidate for whatever their strength

finder said, providing they had the other characteristics, attributes,

and skills that I was looking for, but when I knew their strengths

and I had those affirmed by their assessment, then I was a better manager.

I was a better leader in developing them to be part of the team.

I also use this in my personal relationships.

Understanding the people that you are with and being aware of a strength that you

didn't immediately see because you were up too close or you had developed, some

familiarity, over time is another aspect.

And I have used that in many personal relationships and friendships, to great

joy and mutual benefit for both of us.

One other way that I have found the Strength Finder is so great, as a

grandmother, to be able to sit with my grandchild, who perhaps was struggling a

bit through, a growth stage of their life, challenges in their own relationships and

figuring out their identity, to be able to have them have the Strength Finder.

I still feel the joy of, as a grandmother, witnessing them stand

a little taller, smile a little wider, feel a lot more confident

in who they are and their value in their relationships, in their life.

The Strength Finder, I could go on much longer, but for now, I'm guessing

that you probably already got the link up on Amazon, or you're going to

rush out to your favorite bookstore, but let me just recap very quickly.

I I have lots of evidence in my own life, in my businesses, in my

personal relationships, in my clients businesses, that knowing the strength

finder of each individual and valuing them from that criteria just leads

to exponential growth and joy.

That includes confidence and self awareness.

It includes productivity, fulfillment, sense of purpose.

It includes definitely better decision making because it's based in a place

of strength and better leadership, stronger relationships and collaboration

because you can see the opportunities for you to be united as a greater

result than the sum of the parts.

A closing quote for you, and this comes from Tom Rath, the grandfather of Donald

Clifton, who I thank for this every day;

"You cannot be anything you want to be, but you can be a lot

more of who you already are."

Saying goodbye for now, letting you know the Strength Finder is one

of my favorite books and sharing these Pearls of Wisdom, these life

experiences with you on this podcast is one of my favorite things to do!

Have a great week.

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Until next time, keep thriving, keep vibing, and keep living your legacy.