Finding Your Strengths

Learning Goals

Understand what a strength is and what it can look like in practice
Identify challenges with using your strengths
Plan for how to discuss strengths and working preferences

Pre-Work

Before we dive into a discussion of strengths, we are going to start to identify what our current strengths are.

Spend 20 - 30 minutes taking the free High 5 Strengths Assessment. Take a few moments to read through the descriptions of your top 5 strengths; we will revisit these later!

Spend some time reviewing these additional lists of strengths!

Before getting in to the discussion, start with breakout rooms of 3/4 and ask students to discuss why they think it’s important to identify your strengths.

Discussing Strengths

The core of developing yourself professionally is understanding yourself and being able to speak to to that understanding. You have to understand yourself in order to know what you’re striving towards professionally as well as how to advocate for what you want.

These abilities will not only help you at Turing and serve as the foundation for your job search by helping you:

Create a concise elevator pitch
Have a compelling answer to “tell me about yourself” questions
Engage & connect with others
Create a powerful statement or summary for your resume, LinkedIn and alumni profiles

How can we activate our strengths in order to use them for these purposes? Use the 3 C’s as a framework:

Clarify: Take the time to learn what your strengths are.
Communicate: Share your strengths effectively in-person conversations, on paper, and online
Capitalize: Find opportunities that will showcase your strengths. Consider:
- What kind of role can you take on in project groups?
- How could you showcase your strengths in the Turing community?
- How will your strengths help you as a member of your cohort?

We’ll utilize this framework to build an understanding of your strengths today to serve as a foundation for all of your professional development at Turing.

It can be easier said than done to identify what our strengths are. So, to help us break them down, we can think about them about our strengths as a combination of:

Skills
Knowledge
Talents

Skills

Skills are something you have learned to do well

A way to articulate this is by using a statement starting with “I can…” Some examples: “I can help customers with their problems” or “I can operate specialized equipment” or “I can manage a team.”

Knowledge

Knowledge is something you know or have expertise in from years of study and practice

A way to articulate this is by using a statement starting with “I know…” Some examples: “I know how to speak another language” or “I know how to solve complex math equations” or “I know how to fix a car engine.”

Talent

Talent refers to something that you have a natural ability to do well. Another way to think about it is something you were born with and have a natural preference towards.

A way to articulate this is by using a statement starting with “I am…” Some examples: “I am a problem-solver” or “I am a leader” or “I am a relationship-builder.”

Example #1

You heard from our executive director, Jeff Casimir, at the State of Turing talk. Often when people hear him speak, they remark on how passionate he is. Why is that? Let’s break it down:

Here his skill relates to his public speaking abilities. Jeff has honed those over the years in conference talks, on panels, in podcasts, and in speaking with students and stakeholders throughout the years at Turing.
His knowledge can often be summed up by his “big ideas” (his words). He is a prolific reader, especially around topics of organizational leadership and best practices for schools and organizations interested in social change. He creates connections between these ideas in his blog posts and speeches.
Now that brings us to his talent, which in this context relates to his ability to engage and connect with others. He’s a connector and educator.

Combining these 3 things leads us to the strength known as Inspirational Leadership, which is defined as the ability to uplift, enliven, fill, and empower people with a compelling vision. As the founder of several programs, Jeff has cultivated and used this strength to not only further his vision but get others involved in executing it as well.

Example #2

Let’s look at another strength. A common strength that comes up for students is Persistence, which is defined as the drive to firmly continue in a course of action, despite difficulties, opposition, or warning; stubborn determination.

A skill that would contribute to this is detail-oriented planning. If you’re someone who uses a planner, likes to write to-do lists, and approaches projects from a backwards planning stance, this might describe you!
The knowledge needed here would be around knowing how to prioritize, which comes down to the ability to know which task to focus on at a time based on practice.
The natural talent that might come into play here is the ability to maintain focus during arduous tasks.

Put together, these create the strength of persistence.

Additional Strategies

Breaking down strengths in this way can be easier when we already know what the strength is, but how can you approach identifying your strengths on your own?

1. Use the SIGN method

Success: Using your strengths makes you feel successful
Instinct: Activities you are naturally drawn to
Growth: Where you learn the most, come up with new ideas, and have the best insights
Needs: Where you feel the need to spend the most time

2. Use others to find your strengths

What do others ask for your help with?
What do others want you to teach them?
What do you receive compliments for?

3. Use a Strengths Assessment

Use a tool like High 5, StrengthsFinder or Pairin as a starting point
Use your own experience to add a narrative to your identified strengths

Discussing Our Strengths

Individually

Spend a few minutes reviewing these resources that have lists of strengths. Identify 3 strengths from one or more of these lists that resonate with you. Be ready to share in small groups why or how you chose a particular strength!

drop a surprise mini-activity on them. Send out lists of groups of 3/4 and have them do a quick brainstorm of strengths for their group mates, 5 minutes total type of things. Then they jump into breakout rooms and each student has a turn where their peers write in the chat the strengths that come to mind for them. Then the student whose turn it is has a reflection question to answer “Are the strengths your peers shared similar to what you listed yourself? Were there any strengths your peers shared that surprised you?”

Discuss the results of your High 5 assessment. Use the following questions as a guide:

What strengths to do you most identify with?
Were your results suprising?
Are there any strengths that you do not really connect with? (this test is not perfect!)