I recently read Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham. The book offers numerous studies revealing a drastic decline in female happiness over the last 40 years, and offers personal strategies for reversing this trend in your life (FYI, no reason men can't use this as well). As part of the book, readers are encouraged to take a free online assessment, The Strength Finder Test, that measures you against nine life roles and reveals which role is your lead role.
Always a sucker for online tests, I took the test myself, and found it amazingly accurate, in spite of the fact that I almost abandoned the test midway as I grew increasingly irritated by the seemingly ambiguous answer options.
According to the test, my greatest role is advisor with my secondary role identified as influencer. I laughed reading the description of each of these roles -- a spot-on analysis of both my strengths and my blind spots. Here is an excerpt:
"You begin by asking, 'What is the best thing to do?' and your thrill comes from knowing that you are the person others turn to for the answer. You don't neccesarily want to be the person who actually makes the changes happen. Rather, what excites you is being valued by others for your insight and judgment. Since you love to be the expert, you are constantly on the lookout for information that will help others make better decisions."
Hmmm, sound familiar? No wonder I enjoy my job so much.
Of course, the test results will make a lot more sense if used in conjunction with the book. Nonetheless, this test is fun and I think you'll learn a few choice nuggets about your strengths that can be applied as part of your overall overall career reinvention strategy.
Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Comments