How this free StrengthsFinder test helped me gain clarity in life and work
The Excel and Numbers versions of the free StrengthsFinder test can be found here. Originally published at www.michaelshoe.com
I came across the Clifton StrengthsFinder when I was applying to MBA, and one of the Duke Fuqua School of Business admissions officers brought up this test, saying that it might help applicants in their essay writing process. While I didn’t get into Fuqua per se (bummer but more on that later), I did read StrengthsFinder 2.0 and created my own free StrengthsFinder test (I didn’t take the paid online assessment), which helped me gain quite some insight into my work and relationship styles. Not only did it help corroborate some of my prior convictions, but it also helped uncover new things about myself that only existed on a subconscious level.
What you can get from this post
If you are just here for the free StrengthsFinder test, you can download from here(Google Sheet). If you want either the numbers version or the excel version of the free StrengthsFinder test, go to the original post.
I have incuded detailed instructions in this free StrengthsFinder test so you can use it as a standalone product from this post. However, I still encourage you to come back to this post and compare your results with mine, which I will share later in this post, and read some of the tips for actions by leveraging your strong strengths. Please know that this free StrengthsFinder test is developed for personal use and if you want to have the full assessment and professional report, please go to Gallup’s official website for purchase.
Why I want to write this post
“To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.” — Socrates
In the early years of my professional life, I’ve always thought that I wanted to become a business executive. I was eager to climb the corporate ladder, and arguably got a fast start compared with my peers. After entering the business environment, I buried my head down and worked hard, only to find out that the work itself was only a small portion of the corporate world; the larger part, often more important but also more ambiguous, was dealing with people. To keep climbing up that ladder, you’d have to be on the right team, work on the right projects, and present in front of the right people. There were just too much out of your control. After a few years, I wasn’t so sure about the goal I set when I just started anymore.
The fact that some people can just figure out what they want early in life fascinates me. Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Sam Altman, all gave up their Ivy League (or Stanford) educations, the type of education that could change a regular person’s life. Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculous, at an early age rejected Sony’s job offer to lead their VR R&D initiative. These entrepreneurs, as well as other successful people, somehow have the ability to stay on their original courses amid multiple potentially successful and lucrative “distractions”.
For the rest of us normies, rejecting Sony’s job offer to lead a new division can be a challenging mission (if we receive that offer at all in the first place). However, knowing your strengths can inevitably benefit your own decision-making in the long run: as some wise men once said, there are no solutions, only trade-offs. I believe the Clifton StrengthsFinder can be a powerful tool to understand your thinking, relationship, leadership, and execution styles so that you don’t put yourself into situations where your weaknesses are exposed. Additionally, if you are struggling with what pointers you can give your recommenders for the strengths and weaknesses questions in your MBA letters of recommendations, you will find answers from the free StrengthsFinder test.
Dr. Clifton and the Clifton StrengthsFinder
Dr. Donald O. Clifton (1924–2003) was a psychology researcher and scholar, and was Chairman of the Gallup, Inc. During his tenure at Gallup, Dr. Clifton developed the CliftonStrengths Online Assessment, or the StrengthsFinder, to help people better recognize their own strengths. Dr. Clifton’s work on human development was recognized as “the father of strength-based psychology and the grandfather of positive psychology”.
The first version of the CliftonStrengths Online Assessment was published in 1999 and was later paired with the bestselling management book Now, Discover Your Strengths, which was published in 2001. In 2006, Gallup researchers completed a comprehensive review of the Clifton StrengthsFinder psychometrics, which led to a revision of the assessment. This new version, called StrengthsFinder 2.0, was accompanied by an updated edition of the original book, this time called Now, Discover Your Strengths: StrengthFinder 2.0. StrengthsFinder 2.0 is the bestselling business book ever and Amazon’s bestselling nonfiction book of all time.
Through historical data, interviews, and field tests with different types of organizations, the StrengthsFinder identifies 34 strength themes, across four domain areas:
- Strategic thinking measures your intellectual tendency and style of thinking, and it includes these themes: Analytical, context, futuristic, ideation, input, intellection, learner, strategic
- Relationship building measures your interpersonal styles and sensitivity to other people’s emotions, and it includes these themes: Adaptability, connectedness, developer, empathy, harmony, includer, individualization, positivity, relator
- Influencing measures your leadership styles, particularly how you communicate with others, including how you persuade, and it includes these themes: Activator, command, communication, competition, maximizer, self-assurance, significance, woo (win others over)
- Executing measures your execution and work styles, and it includes these themes: Achiever, arranger, belief, consistency, deliberative, discipline, focus, responsibility, restorative
My test result and how I used it to my advantage
While reading the StrengthsFinder 2.0 I started writing down some statements related to each theme. These statements became the core of the free StrengthsFinder test that helped me map out my self evaluation. For example, the Analytical theme measures your overall aptitude in working with and trusting data, so I wrote down these three statements:
- I have the ability to see patterns and structures before they exist.
- I hesitate to make a claim if I don’t have the stats and calculations to back it up.
- Data can bring me closer to truth than action.
By answering how much I agree with each statement, I have a score that measures each theme that when combined, helps illustrate my StrengthsFinder map. I only pay special attention to any theme >=6 or <=2 (on a scale of 1 to 7), as these are my super strengths and super weaknesses. Here is my StrengthsFinder map:
As you can probably see, my main strengths lie in Strategic thinking and Executing. In Strategic thinking, I’m strong (>=6) in three out of the eight themes, while in Executing five out of nine. However, I’m only strong in one theme in either Influencing or Relationship building. On the opposite, three out of the four extreme weaknesses (<=2) are in either Influencing or Relationship building.
What does this mean for me?
First, I should definitely avoid jobs where I scored a 2, i.e. Input, Connectedness, Individualization, and Woo. For example, I might be a very bad fit in:
- Librarian, or anything requiring the collection and storage of information (or things) for a living (Input)
- Counseling roles that require lots of listening and understanding (Connectedness)
- Supervisory positions that require the recognition of individual talents (Individualization)
- Any role requiring substantial human interactions on a daily basis; e.g. spokesperson, party planner, politician, etc. (Woo)
Second, I should try to find jobs that are intellctually challenging, and I should be the one actually doing the work. In other words, influencing other people to find a way to do the job doesn’t excite or satisfy me; I have to be the one solving the puzzles and seeing things through till the end. I also find myself disrespecting the types of leaders who only talk lofty goals without providing insights, while respecting those who possess expertise in their trades. By doing the free StrengthsFinder test, I realize that I’m a great fit at building a personal project such as michaelshoe.com. It requires constant learning and figuring things out (my Learner and Intellection themes), and I don’t need anybody to watch over my shoulders for doing the work (my Discipline and Focus themes). My original goal of becoming a business executive was actually a quite bad fit, as it requires getting things done through others. It just doesn’t speak to my strengths.
The 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder Themes
If you are still interested in learning about how the StrengthsFinder can help you in your life and work, go to the original post here as I’ve included detailed information on the tips and how to manage others there. You don’t need to read the whole thing, but if you have finished the free StrengthsFinder test, you can use the post as a reference to check your special powers and your extreme weaknesses.
If you have come this far in the post, I’d love to connect on Twitter, or you can write me an email at hi@michaelshoe.com. Feel free to share your finished StrengthsFinder map on Twitter with me or in your circle. Also subscribe to my newsletter (you can do it by going to michaelshoe.com) if you want to receive more information like this in the future.
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