2016 SQ Facilitator’s Guide: Transcript of FYE Strengths Workshop

Slide 1:

Introduction to Strengths Quest UConn First Year Programs & Learning Communities and Office of Leadership and Involvement FYE Strengths Workshop Based on StrengthsQuest, Property of Edward C. Anderson and Copyright © 2004 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ. All rights reserved. StrengthsQuest™ and StrengthsFinder® are trademarks of The Gallup Organization.

Slides 2-7:

Agenda Strengths Philosophy Recap from FYE SSG Affirming Strengths Strength Development Looking Forward Learning Objective 1 You will recognize the basic theory behind StrengthsQuest. Learning Objective 2 You will recognize your top 5 strengths and reflect on how they work in your life. Learning Objective 3 You will be introduced to the strengths of your classmates. Learning Objective 4 You will begin to develop practical ways to practice your strengths as a UConn student.

Slide 8:

Background

This is a review of Chapter 2 in the UConn FYE Student Success Guidebook.

Gallup: You may recognize them form election polls. They are an internationally recognized social science research group that specializes in learning how and why people interact with their world in a wide variety of settings.

Research: 40-Year Study of Human Strengths Assessment: Talents in 34 General Areas or “Themes” Results: 33,390,720 Different Sets Application: Variety of Professions and Groups Higher Education, Business, Military Settings: More than 5.8 Million People; More than 193 Countries

Slides 9-12:

Philosophy “Gallup has discovered through more than two million in-depth interviews with people from all walks of life: Top achievers in virtually every profession, career, and field of achievement all build their lives upon their talents” (7). Self-awareness Confidence Optimism Focus Enjoyment of Personal Growth Illustration: Ask students to sign their name three times, as they normally would, in the blank space of the first page. Ask them then to switch hands and do it again. “How did that work for you?” – Debrief the idea that working on your gaps is working very hard for mediocrity, while working on your strengths can lead to excellence.

Talents

Naturally recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied One person = many different talents Specific set of talents = uniqueness = value Directly connected with achievements “Automatic,” almost like breathing

How do we develop our Strengths?

Talent + Skills and Knowledge = Strength

Slide 13:

Affirming Your Strengths

Affirming your Strengths is about getting to know yourself and those around you better.

Slide 14:

The 34 Strengths

Achiever Activator Adaptability Analytical Arranger Belief Command Communication Competition Connectedness Consistency Context

Deliberative Developer Discipline Empathy Focus Futuristic Harmony Ideation Includer Individualization Input

Learner Maximizer Positivity Relator Responsibility Restorative Self-assurance Significance Strategic Woo Intellection

These are all of the possible themes you could have received. In your assessment you indicated that the ones you do most often, “just like breathing” are the five in your list.

Slide 15:

Introductions: Strengthening Your “True” Self 1) Name 2) Talent that Best Fits You

Ask each student to select one of their themes with which they strongly resonate. They should share their name and a talent, a specific example of how this theme works in their life.

Slide 16:

Scavenger Hunt Mingling Time: The best way to learn about Strengths is to talk with people and share your strengths with each other. 1) Find 10 people with strengths (themes) that you DON’T have. 2) Learn about one benefit of having those strengths from your peers. Strengths is most valuable when put in the context of relationships. Ask your students to get to know one another using the scavenger hunt chart. Why you’re ready to move on ask them to make their current conversation the last. *Note – This is a great place to adjust pacing to account for time. You’ll want about 20 minutes left after this activity is completed.

If you have time, ask how many they completed, and have the person with the most share at least one of the strengths they thought was most interesting.

Name: Theme: Why it’s a benefit to have in their life:

Slide 17:

My Greatest Success *Note: This slide/activity can be merely mentioned if time is short. This is suggested as a cut for international sections for this reason.

Ask students to think back to a success of which they’re proud and can remember vividly. (It doesn’t have to be anything major.) Then think of how three of their five contributed to that success.

Give them a personal example from yourself to start.

Debrief: There are two reasons why we did this –

1. This is how Gallup determine the strengths 2. When you have a challenge you can reverse engineer this and use

your strengths tool kit to find a solution and/or recognize how you might ask for help.

Slide 18:

Looking Forward

These are practical things to consider as your move forward developing and using your strengths.

Slide 19:

Basements, Balconies, and Barrier Labels

The 4 B’s

1 – Balconies = the positively lived themes, aka Strengths

2 – Basements = the other side of the coin, when you’re living a theme negatively

3 – Barrier Labels – the negative terms we have for our themes, and the themes of others, when we are seeing only the basements. These limit us from reaching our full potential and valuing those around us as much as we could.

Key Point: This means you can make your greatest weaknesses your greatest strengths through self-awareness and application of skills and knowledge to talents.

Slide 20:

Blind Spots Themes we don’t yet … Understand Value Recognize

People in this room may have seen one of their five and felt like it either didn’t quite make sense or that it wasn’t really something positive. Now that you’re looking for it, you might also notice yourself putting barrier labels on others. Working past these blind spots is one of the most important challenges of Strengths development. But it’s hugely important for your development and for your success in groups.

Slide 21:

The Four Domains: Group Dynamics

An individual is NOT stronger if they are “domain heavy” (with 4 or more in one category) or relatively balanced. But groups ARE stronger when we can delegate tasks to people in their areas of relative strength. This means that we should work alongside and value people who are different form us in themes.

Executing: People who get stuff done.

Influencing: People who get others to get stuff done.

Relationship Building: People who make it so we don’t hate each other by the time we get stuff done.

Strategic Thinking: People who help us get stuff done efficiently and effectively.

Slide 22:

Class Challenge 1) Select ONE strength to develop this semester. 2) Commit to yourself and your class to be stronger in this area at the end of the semester than you are today.

Ask students to select the theme they think would be most valuable for them to develop into a greater strength this semester/year and describe three talents they have in that theme. This should have been begun as homework. If time allows (it should If students came prepared) you can ask students to share these out loud.

Slide 23:

Using Your SQ Dashboard

The code they received also gave them this e-book that’s not tailored to their top five. In the apply section of this resource they’ll find tons of practical ways they can develop these themes and talents in academics, personal growth, relationships, and career development.

Closing: Encourage students to feel confident in their tool kit, to live authentically, and to get involved on campus to find ways to apply their strengths outside of the classroom.