Strengths, Weaknesses & Fatal Flaws

There are a lot of talk and articles on a development and focus on strengths.

The strengths-based development approach focuses on developing strengths and mitigating weaknesses.

However, without clearly defining what we mean by strengths and weakness, it leaves many things ambiguous and may case some confusion.

Here is the dictionary definition of strengths and weakness:

(source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/strength)

strength
: the quality or state of being physically strong
: the ability to resist being moved or broken by a force
: the quality that allows someone to deal with problems in a determined and effective way 

Weakness
: the quality or state of being weak
: a quality or feature that prevents someone or something from being effective or useful
: something that you like so much that you are often unable to resist it  

I've come across some articles that says we should focus on strengths rather than weaknesses unless there are some fatal flaws which needs to be addressed first.  And some might adopt the George Constanza approach of fixing fatal flaws by simply doing the opposite.

But often times, trying to do the opposite of what you have always done is like trying to make a u-turn on the highway without first exiting and re-entering on the other side - you find everything else coming against you.  And that's assuming that you can in fact make that u-turn!

In the Strengths-Based approach, Strengths is defined as the ability to have consistent near-perfect performance at a particular task. This is achieved by developing our talents - our natural recurring way of thinking, feeling or behaving - and applying it to the task at hand.

When we understand what our talents are, what these talents contribute and need, we are then able to better identify the path-of-least-resistance in meeting our goals and objectives.  The first step is then to identify what our natural strengths are.  One way is to take the Clifton StrengthsFinder Assessment which will give you your top 5 Talent Themes, the other is reflect on what you are passionate about, pick up easily, do well naturally, and get lost in when engaged in that activity.

Once we identify how we are naturally wired, we can then decide the best way to mitigate any weakness - strategic partnerships, systems & processes, and leveraging on your other strengths.

“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” ― Carl R. Rogers

Updates

It seems that I'm updating this blog about once a year previously, and now even longer.  I really haven't had much motivation to blog constantly with so many things to do.  But reading the previous posts I think this makes a good way to track back on the past.  :)

So.... What has transpired since my Jan 2011 post?? (That was 3 years ago!!)

Career

Well, for one, I have changed roles in Aug 2011, and I am now in a different industry!  One would think that a jump from Public Sector to Hospitality to Facilities Management would seem rather haphazard.   I guess looking at the profile it does seem that way, but the job switch was due to my experience in Hospitality, and the company (or account actually) wanted to look at improving their soft-services.  Honestly, I believed that God created this role specially for me so that I could make the switch and also get back to serving Him.

The role gave me lots of time flexibility, and stretched me in terms of being able to handing people more senior and experienced than myself.  A regional role does look better on my resume.  I had exploited my talents in terms of coming up with ideas for doing things (how does an excel sheet programmed with VB  interfaced with a barcode scanner to track out-going mails sound?),  standardising a regional operating document, and coming up with ways to analyse data to leverage on the pareto principle.


Church and Ministry

Since returning to church in 2011, there had been several changes.  The cell group that I returned with Daniel as the cell leader then merged with the cluster, and I then changed cluster in Apr 2013 and eventually took up leading a wonderful group of youths in Aug 2013 after we multiplied.  I named the cell group "Living Stones" based on a vision that God gave me from 1 Peter 2:4-10.

It is really difficult to put all my feelings and emotions towards the cell group into words, but here's an attempt to do so.

It started with fear and a wonder if I would be able to lead the cell.  I've seen these people when they first joined us from YouthNet, and these were brilliant people!  At some level, I felt quite inadequate to lead them.  But I know God doesn't always call the qualified, but He always qualifies those He called!

It took some time to know the people, and I guess being about 10 years older does put some generational gap between us.  And I needed to learn about what the concerns were for this generation.  I'm still learning, but I'm confident that God has a wonderful plan for the cell group, and will lead it from glory to glory.

We have already seen several salvations, and also God moving powerfully in the families.  I believe He will strength the lives of the members and cause them to ARISE and SHINE (The motto for our church this year).

Ministry wise, I had joined Gkidz when I was still in Daniel's cell group, after about 3 years, I've decided it is the season to step down and focus on my cell group.  I don't say this from a position of pride, or self-glorification, but I just feel it needs to be done so that I am more available to them.  I love my Gkidz team, and there is a team-bonding that is both rare and very precious.  I do hope that relationships do not fade over time.  And I also hope that I have the opportunity to see some of the children that I am closer to grow-up even though I'm no longer in the Ministry.

StrengthsFinder 2.0

In my Oct 2010 post, I wrote that I took the StrengthsFinder 2.0 Assessment.

In 2012, our church cluster started looking at using StrengthsFinder as a developmental tool for our people.  We bought a huge amount of books when Borders closed down, and had our leaders and interns take the assessment.  At that point of time, our understanding of the tool and ability to leverage on it was still rather raw. But it had potential in helping each person maximise their God-given talents in the areas of service.

In 2013, Gallup started their first ever accelerated coaching course in Asia, and it is conducted here in Singapore!  After consulting some friends and trainers, I decided to go for the course to be certified.  I've found that there is so much that the tool offers in terms of understanding a person and also developing a person based on their strengths.  It gives the freedom to be who you are (which includes an acceptance of who you are not), and to develop yourself based on that understanding and self-awareness.

After taking the course, I'd been coaching a number of people as part of the course requirements.  In order to do it justice, I made sure that I had at least 3 sessions of 1 hour each with each person!  With a total of more than 8 people on my list, I clock easily over 24hrs of coaching just to build on my coaching skills using this tool.  I've completed coaching of 4 people thus far, and require 6 in total for completing my certification.  It's been an interesting and insightful journey so far!

To build on my coaching skills, I'm working on starting a peer-coaching relationship with some friends who have taken the course as well, and also signed up for a monthly coaching session with a coach (that's all I can afford at this point).

Rather than create another blog on StrengthsFinder, I've decided to just blog them here and label the posts accordingly.  Look out for them!

Small steps to being a trainer

I had always had some interest in doing some training.  Once upon a time, I was dreaming of doing stand-up training in a classroom or auditorium doing some training or motivational talk where everyone paid hundreds to listen.  heh heh.

Anyway, reality isn’t so accommodating.  The closest I had to training experience was training BMT recruits during army days, and training colleagues on how to use SharePoint (our company intranet) properly and how to write proper SOPs.

Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to work with our Housekeeping department on role plays to improve service Training.  And I’m glad to become one of the certified course leaders for the “Achieving Superior Service” program by Ron Kaufman.

And because the training would be aligned with the WSQ, I’m currently undergoing the “Advanced Certificate In Training and Assessment” at the Institute for Adult Learning.

Small steps…. and I’m quite glad for these opportunities.  It’s going to be time consuming, stressful even perhaps…. but at least… its a small step in the right direction.

(Yes, I’m still thinking of doing full time trading if I can! But being well paid to talk is enticing too!)

Updates

Currently on 4 day medical leave (Mon-Thu), so finally managed to settle down alittle and decided to write some updates. And I realised the most amazing thing... my last update was EXACTLY one year ago!

Chow - So now you know how long it takes in between updates.

I re-read my update one year ago and realised, with great regret, that I hadn't really made much progress. No CFA, no GMAT, no progress on the front of my studies what-so-ever. Heck... I think I'm even moving backwards right now.

Looking back one year, I'm wondering what I've learnt in my current job. I've since changed teams, but largely, the work still seems less than fulfilling. Let me do a review of what I had been doing for the past 1+ year:
a) Developing templates for SOPs, Guidelines and Manuals
b) Developing Corporate Intranet (running on SharePoint) for the purpose of information sharing
c) Managing content and information flow on the Corporate Intranet
d) Managing user access for the Corporate Intranet (Sounding like an IT or HR job yet)
e) Developing the Guest Feedback Management System on the Corporate Intranet.
f) Assist with development and conversion of SOPs (Couldn't do much content development because I'm not a subject matter expert)
g) Training Employees on the usage of the Corporate Intranet (information management)
h) Training Employees on corporate writing standards for SOPs, Guidelines, and Policies
i) Handle Guest Complaints (while I was with my previous team)
j) Work with 3rd Party (Overseas) Vendors to develop and implement Surveys
k) Develop report templates, generate reports, update reports... did I mention reports?
l) Work with (the same) 3rd Party vendor to develop the new Guest Feedback Management system.
m) Ad-hoc projects, ad-hoc reports, ad-hoc projects.....
n) Assist other departments with process improvements

Things above were written in pretty much chronological order.... many things like training are on-going, and others like working with vendors are long-drawn and still in progress.

Seems like a large portion of my life over the past year was focused very much on my work. And honestly, I've thought that doing process management (now in my new team) would be pretty interesting. There were (supposed to be) things like taking measurements, analysis, implementing new measures, and measuring outcomes. Sounds very exciting, and very much what a consultant would be doing. Alas... expectations are often raised too high with new bosses (or perhaps its a culture in my company), and things were not to be. Projects were to be done immediately within a few days, if not within the same day, analysis and recommendations were immediate (wow, I think we are even better than some well known consultants... immediate results!), and never to be mentioned again.

Yes, some improvements were seen in terms of job scope, but initial excitement does not persist very long if promises are constantly not being met.

What, I often ask myself, do I really want in the job?
The "Strengths Finder" assessment I took gave me the following results (by the way, I do recommend that book, it comes with an online assessment with an interesting report):
- Empathy
- Individualization
- Developer
- Strategic
- Learner

Though not a personality test (but I think there's some element of it included), it sheds some light on things that are aligned with the job that I want - a job that deals with people (perhaps kids or youths preferrably), one where I can develop people (I suppose that's why I don't really mind the training part of my job), one that allows me to strategize (that's why the role of process improvement appealed to me), and one that allows me to learn.

The above speaks nothing of salary though, and I realised that. I'm sure that compensation is big part of any job, but I still hold the (perhaps idealistic) notion that a job has to be more than just its remuneration.

I was intending give the job a try for one year..... In Aug this year, I planned to give it another 6 months (i.e. Feb 2011) given the change in structure and having a new boss, with the promise of more strategic work in the process management side of things.

Feb 2011 is in another 3 months.... I see myself flipping the Saturday Papers soon....


Enough with work.... there are some other good things as I look back the past year.

I've finally taken up Salsa Classes. It was really fun while it lasted. At later stages, the moves got too complex, and I couldn't invest the time to practice... so I've stopped salsa for now. Not sure if or when I will pick it up again.... but I'm sure that when I do.... I'll be pretty rusty.... haha!

I've finally been exercising more..... and yes... proud to say, I've lost some weight from my peak-weight days..... (and abit more now after 1 full week of diarrhea!)

I've finally started going back to Church and Cell Group. This time more seriously. God has been doing some amazing things. One of my best friends has been saved, my brother's GF just got baptized last Friday (that's within 2 months of becoming saved). One of my Salsa friend is coming to Christ as well! Very exciting times!

I've gotten the opportunity to (try) help a young Sec 1 friend with his studies. I say try because he's very intelligent himself, and I was hardly a help after being out of touch for so long! I think that's why after 2 attempts, his dad wanted him to self-study instead. :P But it was a good opportunity to hang out and interact with the family. We play badminton and basketball after studying, and after that had a tea-drinking session. Yeah... his dad has Pu-er tea... and I brought my Long-jin the second time around.

I've also done my LASIK recently. Having perfect vision is really cool! Just that night vision still needs improving.... driving at night is tedious with all the glaring lights..... Glare, be gone!

And finally, I know I've been saying this forever, but I wanna start climbing again! I've found that the best time slot is Sunday after church service. For a period (actually 2 weekends) I'd been helping my young friend with his studies, but since it has stopped..... I think I'll start that routine again.... climbing anyone? Sunday afternoons!

I think I've written a whole lot.... so till the next update!

Updates

It has been a long time since I updated my blog. So what has transpired so far?
In a nutshell:

a) New Job
I've been in my new job for about 2+ months now. Still adapting somewhat, but things are stablising and I'm looking into how I can start doing other stuff. I hadn't been trading since the new job, so its about time to start picking it up again. Skills do get rusty without use. At the same time, I'm also considering taking up a Masters program, or to make another attempt at CFA Level 1. Haven't quite decided what to do yet, but it has to be soon. Because if I decide to take a Masters, I will need to sit for my GMAT. Argh! Exams again after having worked for so long.

b) New Computer
My old computer died on me, so I decided to use the opportunity to get a new computer. Kenneth was generous enough to supply me with an AMD chip, and help me put the PC together. The entire process itself was quite fun. Despite being computer engineering trained, that was the first time I had put a computer together from scratch.

I also bought Vista Home Edition with the option to upgrade to Windows 7. What can I say? I needed an OS for the computer. I've since order the upgrade, and its supposed to be shipped to me on 30 Oct 09. Hope it comes soon.

c) New Phone
I've gotten myself an iPhone! Yup, I've gone over to the white side! Hahaha. I must say the iPhone is an amazing phone! The applications are brilliant, and I'm checking my mails rather regularly on my phone too. Not sure if the novelty will wear off (it almost certainly will), but even when it does, I'm sure its still a brilliant phone with lots of features and functions.

That's all for the short update! Hopefully, the next update will be, I've become a millionaire through trading. :P

Testing iPhone app

Testing iPhone app. Expect more posts if it works!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Work-Life Balance

There's always been alot of talk in about work-life balance. And in some organisations, it is even one of the coporate values. As one of my direct would (joking) put it "There is a reason why its called Work-Life balance and not Life-Work Balance - Work comes first."

But I doubt that dispite all these talk about balance, few people ever find it.

I'm reading a book called "Success Built to Last", and there's an interesting segment that is food for thought. It describes how Kieth Ferrazzi said "Balance is Bullshit!" and goes on to say

"...If you're feeling a twinge of guilt about balance, there is a probability
that you don't want more balance, exactly, but need more of something that you
can't admit you want. The balance that you're seeking is a meaningful
portfolio, not a balanced one.... Your fixation on balance may actually mean you
need your work 80%, or kids 80%, or fishing 80%, but rarely in "comfortable"
proportions." - Success Built to Last, pg 44.

If we think about it, most people who make a career out of what's truly meaningful for them seldom clamber for balance, even if most of their time is devoted to their carrer. That's because there is meaning in it for them. So for the rest of us who are yearning for "balance"..... what is it that we really want? Is it really balance? So to fullfill some portion of meaning in our lives?