africa 8

Dries and I talked for a long time today about the strength finder test he had me take. He is a coach for this leadership evaluation put together by the gallop group, and I thought it would be cool to honor him and his work by participating (plus - hey! - free coaching ).

My top 5 strengths were:
1. Input - I need mental stimulation
2. Intellection - I need to think ideas through and be critical in my evaluations
3. Learner - I need to grow in my thinking
4. Strategist - I need to find ways through problems in ways that are sustainable and practical
5. Achiever - I need to actually DO some things in order to feel like I'm making real progress in my endeavor to help the world.

A few significant observations from dries...

A. 4/5 strengths are mental/internal processes & themes, which means I live a lot of life in my head. Of particular significance here is that the things that I think through are as real to me as things that actually happen to other people; such that I may imagine myself having a conversation out loud when I'm really only thinking it, or perceive that I've communicated something to the church when I've really only mentioned it offhand.

B. My achievement theme means that I get all my internal/mental stuff pent up to such a degree that I simply must find an outlet for it or I will explode. This is why I'm attracted to the arts (design, music, theatre, teaching atlases, plays, stories, etc... )...I'm trying to find ways to get the things IN my head OUT, aka to achieve something with them.


Dries mentioned that it will be important for me to consistently over-communicate, and to manage my mental state so that I can balance my overload vs. my achievements (I.e. Make sure I achieve regularly so I don't crash my hard drive, and make sure I don't achieve too regularly or I'll never fill it up to capacity).