Utilizing My Strengths

My top strengths found from the Strengths test were Competition, Woo, Adaptability, Positivity, and Context. I was very surprised to see Woo as one of my strengths, but was even more surprised that it was my number two strength. Woo, which means winning others over, is described as a person who is rarely intimidated by strangers and enjoys the challenge of meeting new people and getting them to like them. Contrarily, I do not enjoy going out and trying to meet new people. I will say that I recognize that I do have the tendency to do this, but only when absolutely necessary. Being an only child has forced me to figure out how to make new friends in situations in order to make myself more comfortable. My mother agreed, stating that I am an “undercover introvert”.

The Competition strength was my top strength and is described as a person who is instinctively aware of other people’s performances and compares his or her performance against the competition all the time. The idea is that if they can compare, they can compete and if they can compete they can win, which is the most satisfying feeling. I believe that this sounds very narcissistic, but I can relate to a lot of the description. As an athlete, I can relate with the description entirely. In track and field, an athlete's success is based on out performing their opponent. I played five sports in high school and have been heavily involved in sports since I was five years old. Competing and comparing myself with those around me is like second nature. In academics, I often find myself exhibiting these same behaviors. I compare my success and grades with my classmates and strive to be better than all of them. I would say this strength describes me the best and is used most frequently.

My third strength was Adaptability which is described as a person who is flexible and lives in the moment. A person with this strength does not see the future as a fixed destination, instead it is a place that is created out of the choices made today. As I delve more into my senior year and try to figure out my postgraduate plans I have realized why it is so hard for me to settle on short term tasks. I’m more of a crunch-time player, I am used to picking up things on the fly and quickly solving problems. So, instead of applying for graduate school, finding an internship or an entry-level position I have been waiting for an ‘opportunity’ to present itself to me. That being said, I believe that having the Adaptability strength is two-fold.

My fourth strength was Positivity, which describes a person who is generous with praise, lighthearted, and always looks for the positive in every situation. A person with this strength believes that what setbacks may occur, one must never lose their sense of humor. In my experience, being able to find humor in any situation has had its pros and cons. While I can always find a way to change any negative situation into a positive one, there have been times where that sense of optimism has made a bad situation worse. For example, earlier I stated that my competition strength makes me compare my success and grades with my classmates and strive to be better than all of them. However, when I fail to outperform others this strong positivity trait leads me to not dwell on my shortcomings.

My fifth strength was Context, which describes a person who looks back into the past to make sense of the present. Often times, I find myself going back and reflecting on past decisions that I’ve made or lessons I’ve learned and using what I gained from those experiences to dictate my actions in the present. My mother stated that the Context strength is actually more of a weakness in her opinion. She said that always needing to look back into the past to make current decisions tends to create conflict when decisions need to be made quickly.

My SLE revealed that I hold a multitude of additional strengths including patience and assertiveness, of which I had to use on a daily basis. I was one out of two females that worked in the press box and the only African American. There were many instances where my coworkers would make inappropriate remarks about women or remarks that were racially insensitive. Coming from Berry where everyone is polite and problematic rhetoric is rare, especially in a work environment, this new environment was shocking to say the least. There were times where an offensive comment would be made and my initial reaction would be one of anger and annoyance, but I defended myself every chance I could and was patient with people who were intent on displaying their ignorance. A weakness that my SLE revealed would be how I express my frustration with under performing coworkers. There were two production assistants that did not share the same work ethic as me. Our supervisor always had to tell them to do things more than once and they never took any initiative to learn more or get better at their jobs. Often times, this meant that everyone else had to pick up their slack, which was very frustrating. I believe that in an effort to avoid confrontation, I kept my complaints very minimal but I wish I had been more vocal. In addition, this fueled my competition strength. I did not have to worry about the other assistants out performing me because they never really did their job.

I utilized most of my signature themes throughout my internship. The themes that I used more often were the Positivity and Adaptability themes. From standing in the summer heat for hours on end to being surrounded by old white men, I was able to not lot outside factors affect my attitude or work ethic. I searched desperately for a silver lining in every situation and most of the time it came from the actual game itself. The nature of sports requires adaptability. At any moment something can break or change or something awesome could happen. Being ready and adaptable to any situation was instrumental during my SLE.

Analyzing strengths and weaknesses allows a person to know themselves and their capacities. Strengths are things you can depend on and if used effectively, can put a person into positions to discover more strengths. Weaknesses are more than just shortcomings, they show where improvement is needed and encourages growth and development. Building upon one’s strengths can help them be more effective in the workplace. Going forward I will pay more attention to how I use my strengths in situations. I want to become more secure in knowing just how effective I can be using my strengths.

I can use pictures and other content I have access to from this past season to showcase what I have done and the environment I worked in. I have several pictures of me manning cameras where you can clearly see me utilizing that Positivity strength to get through the game. One common theme that I recognized from my SLE is dedication. I could showcase how I utilized my strengths to get tasks done with pictures of me doing work, and video samples of the footage I captured.