The second of my dominant talent themes is Ideation®. Innovation is my jam. I chose the popcorn machine metaphor because, when I am in the zone, ideas stream out like the popcorn comes out of the cooker. I am very comfortable with new ideas and ambiguity, and I have to remind myself that most people are not. In fact, I can swamp a meeting with so many ideas that people feel confused about what direction to take.
I support all those ideas with my Strategic® talent theme, and a strong sense of design discipline I learned in my professional career as an Enterprise Architect. I endeavor to ground myself in the situation at hand first, and then bring out ideas that are in context. I keep to a few ideas at a time, and bring people along with me by mapping out the journey of getting to the new idea. I can intuitively make leaps to the solution and I try to show how I get there.
I also need the support of people who can take my ideas and make them real. My top 10 talent themes are about ideas and people, and I struggle with taking action. To get moving I rely on Connectedness and Strategic to help me understand the urgency of making things real. I’m happy to hand off my work to other people whose best work is taking ideas across the finish line.
What you learn very quickly is that leadership is a team sport. Contrary to what we learn in school the first 20 years of life about keeping our work to ourselves, in my experience, you get nowhere without the help of others. In leading teams with each member’s strengths in mind, you understand the role of each member by using the best each person has to give.
I chose to write about how I experience each of my dominant talent themes. Each of these talents I fit together for effectiveness of what I do. This integration has taken me a while to accomplish, so if you are starting your strengths journey give yourself some time to do your own integration. I became a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach to guide people along the journey of discovering their talents, creating their strengths, and integrating their strengths into a more engaging and effective daily life.
Note: The 34 CliftonStrengths® Theme names are Trademarks of Gallup, Inc.
The non-Gallup information you are receiving has not been approved and is not sanctioned or endorsed by Gallup in any way. Opinions, views and interpretations of CliftonStrengths® or BP10® results are solely the beliefs of David Jackson.