Strengthsfinder Assessment

Introduction
A plant needs water and sunshine to survive. However, each plant thrives with different amounts of water and sunshine. Like plants, one must recognize and implement his or her individual strengths to become a great leader. I want to be an extraordinary leader, so I have gone down an experiential path of what my strengths are and how to implement them to flourish. To determine my strengths, I used the Reflected Best Self Exercise created by the University of Michigan and Gallup’s StrengthsFinder assessment. These tools combined will help me determine a few of my greatest strengths. They include perspectives from my point of view and those of the closest people in my life. The Best Self Exercise forced me to collect stories from

The StrengthsFinder is a self-report assessment that determines five top strengths for each person. It is very rare that two people get the same set of five strengths, so this analysis is very reliable. My top five strengths from the StrengthsFinder assessment were restorative, empathy, input, relator, and responsibility. I think I possess a little bit of each of these traits. Restorative is when a person seeks out solutions to their problems. I always eradicate complications that arise in my life. I tend to be empathetic with people who are close to me; I can feel their pain and sadness. I find that many people come to me when they need advice, and I love making people feel better. Input refers to my curiosity. I enjoy collecting interesting items and learning about new places 0r subjects. It can be very difficult for me to part ways with objects from my childhood because I have memories around everything. Relator accounts to my close relationships with others. I like getting to know others on a closer basis. I feel very comfortable and secure in genuine relationships. Finally, I am a responsible person. I always finish my work and believe that accountability is important. I believe that the StrengthsFinder accurately names my

My best friend Hannah sent me a story of when she got her wisdom teeth removed. The surgery was during the summer, and she was bummed out that she could not enjoy the nice weekend at her cabin. Additionally, Hannah was not recovering well from the surgery and her medications. A few days after the surgery, I showed up at her house with a bag full of ice cream and a smile on my face; I wanted to cheer up my best friend and help soothe her painful mouth. I made sure to bring the varieties of ice cream that she would enjoy. I sat with my friend for several hours watching HGTV shows and chatting with her, even though I got responds of muffled words and head shakes. Hannah explained, “You really cared about how I was feeling and how I felt mattered to you. This kind gesture is one that I will never forget, and I know it had solidified our friendship”. Another story of my kindness was from my friend, Sloan. Sloan moved to my school when she was a sophomore, I was a junior, and I knew who she was because she also joined my dance team. On the first day of school, I saw her sitting alone in choir class, so I sat next to her and sparked up a conversation. It turned out that we were the same voice part, so we sat next to each other for the whole semester. Sloan recalled this day because it was her first day at a new school, and she was very nervous. She also said that my gesture made her feel welcome when I sat next to her instead