StrengthsFinder 2

A friend of mine gave me the book "StrengthsFinder 2.0." Included in the book was an envelope that contained a set of 34 stickers and a code with which I could take StrengthsFinder 2.

Since I've taken SF about 30 times previously, and have a set of top 5 strengths that I "claim" I promptly took the stickers and stuck my themes on the front of the book: Discipline, Deliberative, Analytical, Individualization, Maximizer. I put Responsibility on there too, since I know I scored 100% on that theme as well.

I then took the SF "for real" for the first time in a several years. I hear they have made some scoring changes and some item additions/removals. I was curious to see how the changes would affect my top 5.

Let me back up for a minute... I first became involved in the StrengthsFinder in 1998 when I was asked by the CIO to step in and be the liaison between Don Clifton, other executives and the programmer of the assessment. I agreed and quickly became a key piece of the SF formula. For a considerable amount of time, I created ALL the reports, set up ALL the clients and created ALL the id codes for the assessment. I was also the worldwide contact for technical and production support. I would get numerous calls daily from the US, the UK, Israel, Germany, Japan even China. Along with my production responsibilities, I was privy to the weekly meetings where the future of SF would be decided. I humbly claim that "The StrengthsFinder Family Camp" was my brainchild. Frankly, I don't know if this seminar still exists, but it was fabulous for the time I was involved in it, and Don Clifton was impressed with the work I did with it (and really, that's the only thing that mattered).

I continued my work with StrengthsFinder until 2001 when I moved to a position that promised success but delivered frustration and would eventually lead to my demise at the Gallup Organization. I swore a long time ago to have no regrets but sometimes I do regret leaving StrengthsFinder.

So, I took SF 2.0 and got a surprising result... two new themes, and two had disappeared. Now my top 5 are Deliberative, Analytical, Maximizer, Learner, Relator. What happened to Discipline and Individualization? These are two of my favorite themes! I guess that means I get to add Learner and Relator to my list of strengths.