Five Strong Horses

On the human side, here's something for you to check out. The Gallup International Research and Development Center published a book recently titled, Now Discover Your Strengths. The authors, Donald Clifton and Marcus Buckingham, have created true influence with this book. It's ISBN is 0-7432-0114-0. It's worth ordering if you are into changing where you are to where you want to go or be.

Gallup's premise and the subject of their book is that people who discover their strengths and who then learn to stay within them, have the greatest chances of success in the world. The chosen direction doesn't matter as much as relying on the early-in-life imprint made on you, an impression that sets up who you are and how you react or proactively take part in your society, family and work environment. The premise of the book is based on millions of surveys taken on successful people over several years. The results are indeed very interesting. Clifton and Buckingham have narrowed the usable results of those studies (which continue now at an exponential rate) into thirty-some categories of human personality strengths. Much of the corporate world, especially in America, but abroad as well, has been influenced by this analysis.

My personal strengths are Maximizer, Strategy, Empathy, Ideation and Woo, in that order: my five strong horses.

I read it, took the assessment and have learned that the results predicted for me are absolutely right on! The more I observe these characteristics at work in me, at play or not at play in my relationship to the world, the more I've come to understand their importance. To better manage my life, I now find ways to manage these traits to my advantage. Doing so has made me far more effective and productive, even in the arts.

The drawing in this picture illustrates my five strong horses (my strengths) pulling the chariot of my life into battle. If I don't have the reins of discipline on them, they go every which way and I end up losing. If I try to use somebody else's horses to perform or interact, I lose as well. But because I understand that these traits are mine, and because I continue to look for greater understanding of how to utilize them best, I succeed in areas I never thought possible.

As an example for you, my use of a drawing such this to illustrate my need to manage my strengths is the application of ideation and strategy--two of my five strong horses. I stay away, as best I can, from using other people's horses (traits).

We are all uniquely who we are, after all.

Certainly there are many aspects to defining a person's success, but this one for me, added to other things I know about myself, has become a management tool of great value.

Buy the book and you can take the assessment free. They want you to read their analysis first, and that's a good idea.