Discussing strengths

You recently completed an online strengths analysis to help identify five top talents that you could develop into strengths.  You'll work with these five strengths in class today

You should bring a list of your top five strengths, plus your copy of the CliftonStrengths for Students textbook (if you have it), to discussion section this week.  (Refer to this quick reference card to all of the CliftonStrengths Download quick reference card to all of the CliftonStrengths

as a reminder.)

Here are some activities your TA may organize during section:

• Your TA may ask each student to identify their top talent/strength and write these on the board, to get a sense of the range of different strengths represented by the group.  Or your TA may ask students to stand up and cluster according to the four different areas of strength that the CliftonStrengths assessment uses, based on your top strength.  
   
  
  How does the description of your top strength or your top strengths area map onto patterns you’ve noticed in your work experiences? Do you feel like you've used this top strength in the workplace?  In school?  What is the result when you use this strength?  If you were an employer, would you want a team of employees who all shared the same strengths, or who each brought different strengths to the organization?  Which strengths do you think would work well to reinforce or complement each other?  
• Your top five strengths really start out as latent "talents Download talents
  " until you take time and effort to build them.  Your TA may call up the UW student jobs site (https://studentjobs.wisc.edu) and use some real employment opportunities to inspire a discussion about which strengths might best apply to these various positions -- or, in other words, which positions might offer a chance for a student to practice and grow a particular strength.
• Some strengths don't always have positive connotations, and in some cases our greatest strengths are also areas of weakness for us.  Your TA might ask you to think through the "balcony/basement" exercise using the diagram below.  First, choose one of your top five strengths or talents.  In the "balcony" box, write down descriptions of that strength that sound like compliments.  In the "basement" box, write down negative descriptions of that same strength, or descriptions that make the strength sound like a barrier.  Can you think of situations when you have been frustrated at work or in school in a way related to one of your strengths?  How might you deal with this by focusing on another of your strengths in a more positive way instead?
  
  
• Your TA has also taken this strengths analysis quiz, and may choose to offer their own reflections on whether they think the quiz accurately reflects their own strengths -- and if so, how they talk about and practice those strengths as part of their own academic and career development.
• Your TA may ask you to think about situations at work or school where conflict arose or where a group had to collaborate on a large project.  How might an understanding of different people's strengths help address conflict or improve the results of the collaboration?
• Advisers at the UW-Madison Career Exploration Center sometimes ask students to reflect not only on their strengths, but also on their values.  Take a look at this handout on values Download handout on values
  and think about which ones you'd identify as closest to your own.  If you had to choose five most important values related to a future career from this list, which would they be?  Do these five values relate to the five strengths you've identified?

Here are some questions your TA may ask you to consider during section:

• Do you believe the tool has accurately pointed to your top five strengths?  Are any of these five strengths surprising to you?  Are there other strengths that you believe you posses which the tool did not identify?  
• Are any of your identified strengths something that you might otherwise have considered a weakness? Is it useful casting that characteristic as a strength instead?
• How might you articulate these identified strengths on your LinkedIn page or in a resume?
• What other kinds of reflective assessments besides "CliftonStrengths" might be useful to explore?  Have you performed any assessments like this?