The assessment we completed on Clifton Strengths was made up of 100 or so questions that determined our personal areas of leadership expertise. The five categories I received the most points in were Empathy, Developer, Adaptability, Learner, and Intellection.
The one I felt was most significant to me was the Empathy category. I have a tendency to come off as extremely cold and focused when I take a leadership role. While this is suitable for some situations (and necessary when trying to finish highschool projects, which I believe is where this exterior developed), I don’t want to come across as some kind of mean tyrant. Emphasizing the empathy result and trying harder to explain and understand others is one of the most important takeaways I got from this exercise.
In the future, instead of simply assigning jobs and expecting others to do it, I think I’ll try and explain why I believe people are suited for those jobs. I’ll also make an effort to include other voices when I check in with people in my groups, and emphasize flexibility and understanding of potential problems or unavoidable situations that could cause a decrease in productivity.
I believe that connecting with other people is something we’ve discussed as the leadership strategy most people in this course believe to be effective. In the future, I’ll try and lean on the people-friendly strengths this activity emphasized instead of trying to brute-force a leadership role.
