StrengthsFinder™: Good to Great Enough

When does going for Excellence become a burden?  All strengths have their dark side.  The strength of Maximizer is no exception.  I know this one from the inside, as it is my own number one StrengthsFinder™ strength.  And, of course, I have served as a great match for dozens of clients over the years with Maximizer in their top 5.

Maximizer suffers no fools.  Not even ourselves. 

Recently one of my clients with Maximizer in her top 5 dug in her heels.  For several months we had been doing strengths coaching with her leadership team of four.  When it was time to bring strengths training to the rest of the staff in her small business, she asked, “Why should we do this?  How do we know it will work with them?”

She caught me by surprise.  She loves StrengthsFinder.  It was her idea to bring it to the company.  What was going on?

When I had a one-on-one conversation with her, it became clear that her Maximizer had been triggered.  Sure we had seen greater engagement and more distribution of the workload based on strengths with the leadership team, but how did we know that would carry through to the rest of the team?

She knew that what we were doing was good, but would it continue with the team and become great?  When Maximizer goes to the dark side, the translation of “great” equals perfect.  Managing the trigger requires dialing “perfect” back to great enough.

rainbow

It would be so easy for my own Maximizer to
wish that the second rainbow were as vibrant
as the first.  Or, that I could have taken a
picture of both rainbows all the way across. 
Instead, I call upon my Connectedness and
Positivity strengths and feel happy that I am
connected to nature in this way and grateful
that I did capture the moment in a meaningful
and beautiful way!

By calling on her strengths of Responsibility (to her team and to her original commitment of becoming a strengths-based company) and her strength of Self-Assurance (confidence and trust in her original decision), we are once again moving forward – toward this amazing destination called “great enough.”

What about you?  If you know your StrengthsFinder strengths, when have you noticed one of your strengths being triggered?  How did you get back to making your contribution?

Post your comments, insights and progress below.

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If you haven’t yet taken the StrengthsFinder™ assessment, I highly recommend it!

It costs $19.99 and takes 30 – 40 minutes to complete.
They will immediately email you your top 5 strengths and a report about them. 

I would love to know your to 5 strengths, if you’d like to share them with me!

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Strong from Within . . .

If you are feeling called to go deeper with your strengths at home or at work, let’s have a conversation to explore if the one-on-one Strong from Within coaching program would be a good fit for you.

Click here to schedule your conversation.

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on Kindle at Amazon for just $3.99:
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2 thoughts on “StrengthsFinder™: Good to Great Enough”

  1. I’m so happy you’re helping people discover their natural strengths. Our culture tends to focus on what is missing. Your work helping people build from from proven data opens infinite possibilities. I’m delighted to have met you through The Women Entrepreneurs Santa Fe Network MeetUP group.

    Reply

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