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Transcript - CM301 Dimensions of Correctional Ministry © 2015 Christian University GlobalNet. All rights reserved.

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LESSON 3 of 24CM301

Strengths

Dimensions of Correctional Ministry

This course is offered through Christian University GlobalNet (CUGN). To learn more, visit us at www.cugn.org.

Dr. Karen SwansonDirector of the Institute for Prison

Ministries (IPM) at the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College.

In this lecture we will review the StrengthsFinder book and your top-five talent themes. Your strengths are a part of who God has created you to be and can be applied in careers and in ministry.

The Gallup organization determined if you want to know excellence, then research excellence. So that is how StrengthsFinder themes were created. Most people focus on their weaknesses. Only 41 percent of people in the US focus on their strengths. And only 12 percent of the US use their strengths 50 percent of the time. Only 32 percent of workers in US get to use their strengths every day. Gallup suggests that you should use your strengths 80 percent of the time in your job.

Gallup’s study of the best found that top achievers

• recognize their talents and develop them into strengths;

• apply their strengths in roles that best suit them; and

• invent ways to apply their strengths to their achievement tasks. They are strength-based—not weakness focused.

The basic philosophy behind StrengthsFinder is to capitalize on your strengths and manage around your weaknesses. It does not say ignore your weaknesses. We will talk about how to manage around your weaknesses, but first we will focus on your strengths.

Peter Drucker, management expert, supports the strengths philosophy. He states, “One should waste as little effort as possible on improving areas of low competence. It takes far more energy to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence.”

Parker Palmer in his book Let Your Life Speak states, “There are some roles and relationships in which we thrive and others in which we wither and die.” Most people can think of a job or task they were given which seemed to suck the life out of them. It was a struggle, there was no enjoyment and with mediocre results. Then there are other jobs or tasks where we get energized, enjoyment and we have superb results. Why would we choose to live in the areas that suck


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the life out of us?

To help understand this strength philosophy, here are a few terms and definitions.

A strength is the ability to provide consistent, near-perfect positive performance in a given activity. It is a combination of nature (genetic gifting) and nurture (the environment and opportunities). Strengths should be applied in a positive way. A person could use their strengths to sell drugs and be very good at it, but this is not a positive use of the strength.

Talent or Signature Themes are naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling, behavior that can be productively applied. When you completed the StrengthsFinder assessment, you were given your top-five signature themes. For the purposes of this lecture, I will use talents and strengths interchangeably.

Knowledge is what you have learned; it is a comprised of facts and experiences.

Self-awareness is a sense of what you know and don’t know, what you can and can’t do. It is transformative. It will help you to set healthy boundaries so you do not agree to do things where you will operate in your weaknesses.

A skill involves steps in an activity. Skills can be developed. For example, you may be able to develop counseling or teaching skills. But a skill is not the same thing as a talent.

How do you know if you have a certain talent or strength? Here are the clues.

You will develop a yearning toward certain activities. What kind of activities are you naturally drawn to?

There will be areas where you experience rapid learning. What kinds of activities do you seem to pick up quickly?

There will be a natural flow to it. In what activities did the “steps” just come to you automatically?

You will be given glimpses of excellence. During what activities have you had moments of subconscious excellence, when you thought, “How did I do that?”

You will feel satisfaction. What activities give you a kick, either while


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doing them or immediately after finishing them, and you think, “When can I do that again?”

A biblical view of strengths recognizes that all strengths come from God. He is our Creator. By focusing on your strengths and accepting who God has created you to be is an act of personal integrity. If you try to be someone you aren’t or try to apply strengths you don’t have, you are not fulfilling the person God created you to be and the world misses out. Even being true to who God has created is a way to seek excellence and to bring God glory. “God has given each of you some special abilities; be sure to use them to help each other, passing on to others God’s many kinds of blessing” (1 Peter 4:10 LB).

A few interesting strengths facts that remind us of our uniqueness given to us by God are . . .

• One in 34 million have the exact same top 5 in the same order.

• One in 340,000 have the same top 5 in different order.

• 85 percent of top 8-10 stay the same, bottom ones stay the same. Gallup only gives you the top 5 because that is all most people can remember, and so you don’t focus on bottom 5. For an additional fee you can obtain your order of all 34.

Let’s briefly look at the handout of 34 Signature Themes. Again, the combination of your themes are unique to you. One of the reasons I want to review all 34 strengths is that while you only know your top five, you may identify with other strengths and hopefully this will help you understand how other people are created and to value the strengths God has given them.

Achievers are people who make task lists and check off what they have completed. Some achievers add something to the list they have competed so they can check it off. They are often hard workers.

Activators don’t like to wait. They do not enjoy meetings but want to make things happen. (Activator is my top strength.)

Adaptability people are flexible and “go with the flow.”

Analytical people want proof and search for reasons and causes.

Arrangers are like conductors. They put pieces together for maximum productivity. For example, organizing a team of people and tasks. (Arranger is my second strength.)Belief. People strong in the belief theme have certain core values that are unchanging. Belief does not necessarily mean faith. Someone might have a strong belief in abortion rights.


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Command is a rare theme. It is people who have a presence about them. People look to them for leadership.

Communication. Communicators can talk easily.

Competition. People strong in the competition theme measure their progress against the performance of others. It is not a strength they can turn on and off. They are competitive in every area of life. They will not play if they can’t win.

Connectedness. This theme is common among Christians. We understand that God is in control of all of life and things happen for a reason.

Consistency. The lines for these people are their friends. Knowing and staying between the lines for everyone.

Context. These people are the historians in the group. They are interested in what the history is about a policy before making changes to it.

Deliberative. These people take their time and are careful about making decisions. Don’t try to rush them.

Developer. Developers see the potential in others and encourage them to reach it. A kind of mentor.

Discipline is the least frequent strength. These people like routine and structure. Their morning routine is often very specific and the same each day.

Empathy is just what the word means—people who can sense the feelings of other people by imagining themselves in others’ lives or others’ situations.

Focus. People with focus don’t get distracted but stay on track.

Futuristic. These are your visionaries.

Harmony. These people don’t like conflict and seek consensus.

Ideation. This is my fifth strength. I love ideas but don’t have to put them all into action. I love brainstorming sessions.


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Includer. Includers don’t like it when they sense people feeling left out. This is my third strength.

Individualization. People strong in individualization care about the unique qualities of each person. They purchase just the right card or present for a person.

Input. Input people like to collect information. They typically have piles of papers in their office.

Intellection. These people are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.

Learner. Learners are the professional student. They just like to learn.

Maximizer. Maximizers take something and make it excellent.

Positivity. These people are upbeat and encouraging to others.

Relator. Relators have a few close friends.

Responsibility. These people hate group work because they always get stuck doing the work.

Restorative. People strong in the restorative theme are adept at dealing with problems. If their other strengths are relational, they like to restore people; if their other strengths are executional or strategic, it may be a mechanical device or situation to fix.

Self-Assurance. People strong in the self-assurance theme feel confident in their ability to manage their own lives. They possess an inner compass that gives them confidence that their decisions are right.

Significance. Significance is a motivating theme pushing people to achieve.

Strategic. Strategic thinkers can identify patterns and issues and often will take shortcuts when driving.

Woo. Winning-others-over are people who never sit down at a wedding reception. They are going from one table to the next meeting people.

Using the worksheet, list your top-5 themes and define the themes in your own words. Highlight words, sentences, or phrases from your printout or in your book that best fit you. Teach your themes to others.


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Questions You May Be Asking

1. Are there any obstacles to building my strengths? The only obstacles are if you take your talents for granted and don’t focus on them. If you focus on your weaknesses or if you fear pride, holds you back.

2. Why should I focus on my signature themes? What about the other 29? This is who God created you to be, so develop yourself. Remember, you do operate in your top 10.

3. Is there any significance to the order of my signature themes? Yes, but it is not significant. We do not know the gap between themes, and it may be a very small gap.

4. Why don’t all the phrases in the theme description apply to me? Your inheritance, upbringing, and culture is unique to you and influences how you use your strengths. Also, each theme is a summary and some threads may not resonate with you as strongly.

5. Why am I so different from other people whom I share some of the same themes? Each theme is interwoven with every other one of your themes and so is modified by them. For example, combining ideation + context will be different than ideation + futuristic.

6. Are any of the themes opposites? No. The profile is not based on an either/or assumption. You might think that relator and woo are opposites, but I met a woman who had both strengths. She just had a wide range of relational strength.

7. Can I develop new themes if I don’t like the ones I have? You can develop skills and knowledge that take your themes into new arenas, but you cannot develop new strengths.

8. Will I become too narrow if I focus on my signature themes? No. You become energized by your own themes and appreciate the themes of others.

9. Can my themes reveal whether I am in the right career? Examine the field you’ve chosen: Are you passionate about it? Examine the role in that field: Are you in the right role? Gallup does not recommend taking a job and identifying which strengths are needed to fill the position. People can often fill the same position but utilize different strengths and both can be successful.

“Most Frequent to Least Frequent” handout

You will find your strengths on the “most frequent to least frequent” handout. This is based on millions of people who have taken the StrengthsFinder assessment.


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The next chart divides the strengths into four domains.

Executing is to generate and focus a person’s energy to achieve and get things done.

Influencing is to enable a person to influence or impact other people.

Relationship building is to enable a person to form bonding relationships with other people.

Strategic thinking is to involve both information processing and perception. Take a minute and circle or mark your strengths.

What if all or most of my strengths are in one category? That is okay. It is not better or worse if you have one strength from each domain or if all your strengths are in the same domain. It is important for a team to have people with strengths represented in each domain. For example, if you have a team that is high in relationship building but no strengths in execution, you will have a great time but nothing will get done. It is the influencing area where I typically see the fewest strengths represented on a team.

How can you develop and integrate your strengths? First, see a clear connection between your themes and past and present behavior. Think about a job or ministry you loved and the success you had in it. You were able to utilize your strengths. Now think of a job you hated or one you may even got fired from, and how you were required to use themes that are not your strengths. Another exercise is to describe, draw, or create a model of how your five themes weave together.

Now let’s look at how to apply your strengths. One way is to focus on one theme each week and how it is applied in your job. Identify tasks and activities you “love” in your job and match themes to those areas. Be as specific as possible. “Love it” means you are thinking: “I can’t wait to start!” “This is fun!” “I could do this forever.” “This is my calling.” “This is perfect for me.” You are feeling powerful, passionate, euphoric, enthusiastic, natural, authentic, smooth, confident, and you want to find a way to do more of it; learn more about it; find role models and people that you can learn from.

Another exercise is to identify tasks and activities in your job to increase opportunities to apply your themes. For example, in my position I have identified critical activities and themes of mine that I use to do the critical activity. Several of the activities, as I review my tasks and my job, I am able to work within my strengths 80 percent of the time. I guess this is why I still feel like I am in the “honeymoon stage” even though I am in my tenth year.


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The next area is to how your strengths affect your relationships with others. As you understand the uniqueness and strengths of others, you learn to appreciate them more for how God has made them. Also, you are able to encourage them in their strength development. One tool is to recognize the themes in others who you are working with and how they are using their strengths to accomplish the project. Another tool is to identify a complementary partner— someone who brings a different set of strengths that complements your strengths. For example, I know as an activator that it would be helpful to team up with someone who has analytical or strategic thinking.

Unfortunately, everything in this world is tainted by sin—even our strengths. The shadow side are ways strengths can be misused or work against itself and you. The shadow side occurs most often when we are under stress, pressure, deadlines, or when we focus on our self. Identify the shadow side of your strengths, such as impatience for activators, workaholic for achievers, and manipulators for developers. What kind of person could you be if you operated in the shadow side of your themes? It is not a pretty picture. Again, awareness helps us identify and prevent operating in the shadow side.

So we have looked at how to develop our strengths, and now it is time to learn how to manage around your weaknesses. Weakness can be defined as “anything that gets in the way of excellent performance.” There is a lack of success, instinct, and growth. When you experience what you think is a weakness, first you need to figure out what kind of weakness it is. Is it a skill, knowledge, or talent? If you get knowledge and/or gain skill, and it is still a no go, it is probably the absence of talent.

One way to identify your weaknesses is to write down the things you “loathe” about your job. Be specific. You may be thinking “I hate it when I have to do this.” “Will this ever end?” “This is going to take forever.” “Thank goodness this is nearly over.” “Can I sit this one out?”Or I am feeling frustrated, fragmented, disjointed, awkward, drained, despondent, bored, distracted. Or “I want to avoid having to do it again.” “Get the new guy to do it.” Shove it to the side of my desk and ignore it; do anything else instead; look for people that are really good at it.

While there are levels of loathing and some things will trigger a visceral response, it is helpful if you can be as specific as possible. For example, I hate being on a conference call with more than three people that do not require any input from me.

Some strategies for managing around your weaknesses are . . .

Stop doing the activity, and see if anyone notices or cares. For example, I stopped participating on a conference call and only one person noticed or cared.


This course is offered through Christian University GlobalNet (CUGN). To learn more, visit us at www.cugn.org.

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Team up with someone who is strengthened by the very activity that weakens you. As a relator, it is helpful to team with those who are woo’s or communicators.

Offer up one of your strengths and gradually steer your job toward this strength and away from the weakness. I can use my include strength to overcome my lack of woo.

Design a support system that can neutralize your weakness. Placing a 3 x 5 card on my bulletin board that states, “What if” to help me think strategically.

If the majority of your responsibilities are in your areas of weakness, you may want to seek a new job or ministry. I can imagine that you probably don’t find your work fulfilling and you dread it.

There are many benefits for knowing and living in your strengths. It is helpful to guide career and ministry decisions. It affirms and encourages your uniqueness and giftedness. It encourages you to give your best effort in the best job/ministry best suited to your strengths. It helps you understand and appreciate others. It makes you more effective in developing an excellent ministry team.

There are many additional books written on strengths and several are listed for you. In addition, when working with offenders and the formerly incarcerated, one of the challenges for them is to overcome their low self-image. By offering a strength-based program, it gives them value and encourages them to be who God has created them to be.

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