Today we have four main goals:

1. To explore why we are focusing on strengths.

2. To better understand our own strengths.

3. To develop a plan to apply our strengths in our academics, work, and personal life.

4. To start thinking about how to speak with others about their strengths.

First, what comes to mind when you think of a strength?

What comes to your mind when you think of a talent?

We are reconceptualizing what a strength and talent means. We're moving away from the idea of a strength being something innate and moving towards a strength being seen like a muscle, something you need to actively exercise.

This is where the strengths-based movement was born.

A strength is formed not only from innate talents (things you naturally enjoy doing, not necessarily things you do really well) but also from the knowledge and intention with which you develop this talent (investment).

A strength is like a muscle; it develops over time with purposeful effort.

Traditionally, we have a focus as a society on remediating weaknesses or limitations. Why might this be harmful?

Imagine, if you will, that I realize I'm not great at budgeting or crunching numbers. I decide I'll dedicate hours on end to improve my ability. Even with hours of dedicated time I will probably only get marginally better at budgeting.

Maybe I'm really good at budgeting though, but it drains me. I don't look forward to it. I'm unhappy doing it. My productivity will likely be lower and I will experience dissatisfaction with my job.

What if I spent that time doing something that energizes me, that fuels me, that leaves me feeling refreshed and invigorated?

In my case, I love public speaking. Now just because I love it and it makes me feel good does not mean I need to be great at it. What it does mean, though, is that I will probably grow more quickly if I focus on something that I enjoy, that makes me feel energized.

This is the strengths philosophy.

I want you to think about a time you got to do something that you do really well and share this with a neighbor.

Now I want you to think about a time when you had to do something that has always been tough for you. Share that with a neighbor.

It's helpful to know what you look forward to doing, what fuels and energizes you. Now we want to figure out how you can do more of that in your everyday life.

Raise your hand if you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day. Only 32% of Americans respond that they are able to do this.

By the end of this training, we hope that you will have a road map to determining how you can utilize your themes in your academics, your work, and your personal life.

StrengthsFinder is one way to help you determine your strengths. The test provides you with your top 5 signature themes. So what does that mean? On all of the questions asking you about what you value, what you enjoy, what you look forward to they were able to measure five themes that are most important or most relevant for you.

There are a whopping 34 strengths that this assessment measures, and it is a great starting point to think about what you enjoy, what energizes you, and how they can be a strength for you.

You receive top 5 themes, and each theme contains a set of talents grouped together. A theme is not necessarily a strength all on its own. Remember, a strength is like a muscle, you need to actively do something with your theme, utilize it in order to develop your strengths.

You might be thinking ok, why are there 5? In testing they found that the first five themes you receive are significantly stronger for you than the other 29. You receive a score for every theme but only see your top 5 for this reason. Remember, the focus is on better understanding your strengths and focusing on those areas that fuel you.

Our goal is that you leave this presentation with a clear focus on how you will apply these themes in academics, your work, and your personal life.

The strengths are also mapped to four different domains of leadership strengths. This is a really useful tool when you analyze the strengths of a team together, and can help you in selecting others who might complement your strength areas.

Strategic thinkers help focus a team on the future. Typically they are innovative and idea driven. Strategic thinkers can sometimes be seen as visionaries. Themes include analytical, ideation, and learner.

Influencing involves guiding and inspiring others through leadership and decision-making. These individuals can help guide a team and typically have skills in selling ideas. These include themes like command, communication, and woo.

Relationship builders help establish a sense of camaraderie and are adept at building and maintaining relationships within the team. This includes themes like empathy, harmony, and positivity.

Executing involves getting things done and making things happen. In addition, some of the themes involve having core belief and value systems. This includes themes like focus, discipline, and achiever.

There is no one model or makeup of a leader and no necessary structure for a team. All of these domains are valuable for many teams.

For example, I want you to think of four positions: a CEO of a large banking company, a CEO of an education non-profit company, a CEO of a national hotel and travel company, and a CEO of a global technology company.

Each of these people has strengths primarily in one of the four domains. Who do you think is the executor? The influencer? The relationship builder? The strategic thinker?

So what is this banking CEO's primary domain?

Relationship building.

The education non-profit CEO?

Executing! This is Wendy Kopps from TFA.

The CEO of the large hotel chain?

Influencing.

And our technology company?

Strategic thinking--the former CEO of Best Buy.

So what does this tell you? In reality, anyone can be a leader and each will bring their own unique style. Your themes explain HOW you approach a challenge, not the challenge or abilities themselves.

Now we'll be breaking you into smaller groups with a board member or professional staff member to go through some activities.

Take out your personalized strengths reports and take about 5 minutes to read and highlight anything that pops out at you. Review your responses for your "My Strengths and How I Use Them" handout.

Now that you have reviewed your personalized report, I would like to introduce you to two concepts before you begin discussing your themes: balconies and basements.

What is a balcony? It is the highest, the pinnacle of achievement. In thinking of your themes, a balcony is the best possible outcome, the greatness that is inherent in that theme.

Every theme also has what we call a basement, where depending on how you live out that theme it can be less helpful. This is something we call a shadow side.

Your group members have passed out a list of common balconies and basements for each of the 34 themes. I want you to work with someone in your group to come up with your own balconies and basements for 2 of your themes.

Once you're finished discussing the balconies and basements we will have a few people share out on what they came up with.

Now you've explored each of your themes. Next, we want you to understand how your themes work together to make you who you are.

Your group member has passed out another sheet of paper. First, select two of your themes and describe their dynamic (how they work together).

For example, if I have learner and individualization as a theme, I might describe my dynamic as "I love to learn about what makes people tick"

Next find someone in your small group and see what partnership opportunities might exist with the interplay of your two different dynamics.

Now find another group that you work closely with and think about how all eight of your themes might assist you in a group collaboration.

What was that like? Do you have some new potential partnerships?

We've passed out a handout we'd like you to take some time to fill out. There are questions about how you plan to utilize one or more of your themes in academics, your career, at work, and in your personal life.

(If time permits, have discussion, otherwise encourage them to think about questions for future).

Now on page 3 fill out your plan to utilize 2 of your themes in the following areas: academics, work, and personal life.

So how do you engage in strengths-based conversations with others?

First you need to fully understand your own themes and their interplay. Once you've got that down its all about asking questions to help them see how they use their themes in their lives. That sheet of questions we've given you is a great start.

We'll be training all of the WOW leaders during the anchoring sessions and want you to help us cofacilitate the sessions.

We also want you to let us know if you want additional trainings to help you better understand your team. If you do we can set up an additional volunteer training.

All WOWies will be receiving strengths codes during SOAR and will be able to define their top five themes and will develop a plan to utilize at least two of their themes during their time at Cal Poly.

Answer burning questions. Give contact info for follow-ups.