Transcript Advising from a Strengths Perspective

Teaching your staff how to
implement strengths
Sondra Cave, Ed.D.
Achiever, Discipline, Focus, Significance,
Competition
Strengths Mission
discover
develop
apply
To enable students to discover,
develop, and apply strengths in
academics, career, and beyond
career
academics
2
beyond
Copyright © 2004 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ. All rights reserved.
Strengths Philosophy
“Individuals gain more when they build
on their talents, than when they make
comparable efforts to improve their
areas of weakness.”
--Clifton & Harter, 2003, p. 112
Objectives:
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Encourage awareness in personal
strengths.
approach all aspects of achievement
from strengths-based approach.
Affirm innate strengths
Increase engagement
create actionable strategic plans
building on/using their strengths.
YOU “at your best”
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Share one accomplishment within the
last six months…
Share about a time in your life when
you were “in the zone” or performing
at your best – what were you doing?
How did it feel?…
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What if every student could experience
that same feeling on your campus?
What if students experienced that same
fulfillment of being at their best while
learning?
What if higher education enabled
students to become the persons they
were created to be?
“The Writing Challenge”
Take out a blank piece of paper and
divide it into two columns.
– Part One:
 Write the numbers 1-5 down
1.
1. My name
the left side of your paper.
2.
2. My name
 Write your full name on each
3.
3. My name
line as quickly as you can.
4.
4. My name
5.
5. My name
– Part Two
 Now write the numbers 1-5 down
the right side of their paper.
 Your mentor will tell you what to do next.
Concept of Strengths
The basic concept of strengths is this:
1. You have a group of talents within you.
2. Your greatest talents hold the key to
your achievement, success, and progress
to levels of personal excellence.
3. Becoming aware of your talents builds confidence
and provides a basis for achievement.
4. Learning how to develop and apply strengths
will improve your levels of achievement.
5. Each of your talents can be applied in many areas
including relationships, learning, academics,
leadership, service, and careers.
6. As you develop and apply strengths, your achievements will
increase and you will experience greater and more frequent
successes.
What Are Strengths?
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Talent + Knowledge + Skills = Strength
Talents are naturally recurring patterns of
thought, feeling, or behavior that can be
productively applied
By refining our dominant talents with skill
and knowledge, we can create strength: the
ability to provide consistent, near-perfect
performance in a given activity.
--Clifton & Harter, 2003
Talent, Knowledge, Skills, and
Strength
Talent: A naturally recurring pattern
of thought, feeling, or behavior that
can be productively applied.
A talent is a potential
strength.
Talent, Knowledge, Skills, and
Strength
Knowledge: What you are aware of. It may be purely
factual knowledge. Or, it may be how you make sense
of what you know — your understanding.
Skills: The capacity to perform the fundamental steps
of an activity. Skills deal with the “how-to” areas of
your job. Once you have acquired the skill for
something, you know how to do it.
Talent, Knowledge, Skills, and
Strength
Strength: The ability to provide consistent, nearperfect performance in a given activity. To build
your strengths, identify your talents, and add
knowledge and skills.
Strength = Talent + Knowledge + Skills
Building Strengths: A Basketball Example
Strength
Consistently hits the three-point
shots that win
the basketball game
Skills
• Basics of dribbling
• Basics of rebounding
• Basics of shooting
Knowledge
Factual/
Understanding
• Know the rules
• Understand the rules
• Learn the plays
(Awareness)
• A lot of running
• Competing to win
• Big time commitment
Copyright © 2005 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ. All rights reserved.
Strengths
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Behaviors
Thought patterns
Beliefs
Attitudes
Motivations
Habits
Impulses
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Ways of:
– Perceiving the world
– Processing
information
– Relating to people
– Working with material
Excellence:
A Central Value and Goal
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Excellence: academic achievement,
persistence, and maximum
development of students
Excellence occurs only when
individuals capitalize on their strengths
and talents, and invest the time and
energy needed to excel
The Heart of It All:
Student Motivation
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Student motivation is the best predictor of
persistence
Motivation generates and directs energy and
effort
Student persistence and college outcomes
are determined by quality of effort
The best approaches to helping students
persist and succeed thus focus on
motivation
Why A Strengths-Based
Approach Promotes Student
Achievement
Strengths Awareness  Confidence  SelfEfficacy  Motivation to excel 
Engagement
Engagement  Invest time and energy 
Achievement
Apply strengths to areas needing
improvement  Greater likelihood of
success
Outcomes of the StrengthsBased Approach
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Awareness of strengths
Personal confidence
Academic confidence
(students)
Motivation to achieve
Sense of direction and
purpose
Optimism
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Tolerance
Intent to use and
develop strengths
Improved interpersonal
relationships
See people differently
Career self-efficacy
The Focus Changes
FROM:
 Problems
 Attendance
 Preparation
 Putting into the
student
 Average
TO:
 Possibilities
 Engagement
 Motivation
 Drawing out from
the student
 Excellence
Affirming a Strength:
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You agree that you have the strengths
Ability to see how that strength
enables you to do certain things well.
May seem easy, most experience
difficulty.
Difficulties in affirming:
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Strengths come easily/automatically we assume everyone can do what we
naturally do.
Strengths threaten others - result in
thinking our strengths are weaknesses
End up in positions/roles that don’t fit
our strengths conflicting w/role and
expectations of position…mismatch
Difficulties in affirming:
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Fear becoming proud/arrogant
Don’t see how strengths will help
achieve goals
Fear not having any strengths or have
the wrong kind of strengths
People Differ in Five
Dimensions of Strengths
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Their particular strengths
The relative intensity of their strengths
Their unique combination of strengths
The extent to which they have
developed their strengths
The extent to which they are applying
their strengths in a given situation
Dimensions of a College Student’s
Experience and Life
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Course selection
Classroom/prof
interactions
Studying/learning
involvement in
extra-curricular
employment and
logistical
responsibilities
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Social/interpersonal
& romantic r/ships
Family r/ships and
responsibilities
Values-driven
commitments
Career planning
and preparation
Three Programming Approaches to
“Help” College Students
 Survival
of the fittest
 Deficit-based remediation
 Strengths-based
development and application
Taking Strengths Finder
Part One:
 You will receive a StrengthsQuest
Instruction sheet with your I.D.
Code.
 The instructions are on the back!
 Go to the StrengthsQuest website:
www.strengthsquest.com
Taking CSF Assignment
Click the Sign In
link in the top,
right corner
 Click the New
User link and
a new window
will open.
 Fill in your
Access Code and

Verification Code.
Taking CSF Assignment
Things to remember:
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– You’ll need 30-45 minutes
45
of uninterrupted time.
– Choose the item that is most like you.
– Don’t debate too long. The survey will only give you
15-20 seconds per question before it automatically
marks it as neutral and move you on.
– If you choose the middle option too many times, you
may not get a report due to insufficient data.
CSF Assignment
Part Two:
 After finishing the StrengthsFinder,
print out your top five strength
 As a backup plan, email it to yourself so
you can print it later.
 Read over your strengths and descriptions,
then highlight or underline any particular
words or phrases that stand out.
Wednesday’s Assignment
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Contact 2 or 3 people that know you well
and read these “descriptions” to them.
Ask them, “Does this sound like me?”
Ask them to give you an example or two.
Write down the examples.
Bring all print outs to the next class
session.
Finally, read chapters 1 and 2 from the SQ
website. Your prof will put the link on
Blackboard.
Begin Learning
Activities
Fill-in Your Placard
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Write each of
your top five
strengths on a
separate line.
Dangle the
placard
around your
neck.
Hello!
My Name is:
_____________________
Francis Freshman
My top 5 strengths are:
1. _________________
Achiever
2. _________________
Discipleship
3. _________________
Focus
4. _________________
Significance
5. _________________
Competition
In groups of 3 or 4:
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How well did your report fit you?
What was your reaction to your top 5
strengths?
Were you surprised by results? Discuss.
5 strengths true/descriptive? Discuss.
Anything difficult to accept at first? If
so, what/why?
Still in groups of 3 or 4:
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Identify and name one of your top 5
strengths that best describes you.
Give your own definition of the strength.
Give one example of how you recently
used that strength effectively.
What strength/theme do you think you
get to use every day in your work?
Choices Activity
Imagine that the width of the room is a continuum.
Stand along it’s width to show your choice:
Party with People You Don’t Know
Oh Boy!
Oh No!
Participate in a Competition
Let’s Start Now
Do We Have To?
Work on a Complex Project
Details…Yes!
Ideas…Yes!
Similar/Dissimilar
Activity
Session Background
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You will have Signature Themes in common with
other people, such as Activator. However, their
Achiever theme and your Includer theme will
interact differently with the shared Activator theme.
The point is that talents do not act in isolation.
The talents in each of our themes influence and
interact with our talents in all other themes.
Our family, culture, society and the church may
influence how we experience our talents and the
extent to which we feel free to express them.
Session Background
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For example, some families may consider
Competitiveness to not be appropriate for
women.
Or Empathy might be viewed as appropriate
for women only.
What other examples can you think of that
may be influenced by ethnic, cultural or
religious groups?
Some religious groups may frown on anyone
who does not exhibit Harmony.
HIDDEN SLIDE
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Note to mentor: Have the students
work in pairs for 5-6 minutes and then
have them locate a new partner.
After 2 or 3 rotations, have the
student return to the group
Session Activity
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Distribute the handout Signature Themes
in Common… Similar and Dissimilar
Experiences.
Grab your placard & find someone
who shares one of your themes.
Note on your handout similar
experiences you two share with this theme.
Answer the questions in the other two
columns of the handout.
Session Activity
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Group Feedback:
– What did you learn about how you and
others experience or express your
talents?
– Remember that we must encourage those
who have had their talents put down,
devalued or made to feel that their talent
is a weakness.
Understanding and
Respecting Differences
Session Background
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Sometimes we fail to understand people
because their talents are quite different
from ours.
Sometimes one person negatively judges
another person and may consider the
person weird, defective or abnormal
because that individual has talents that are
very different from their own.
Session Background
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For many reasons, not the least of which is our
ability to provide leadership and assume future
professional roles dealing with people much
different from ourselves, we must learn to see
each other more clearly.
Part of seeing each other more clearly involves
understanding talents within other people that
are very different from our own.
HIDDEN SLIDE
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Note to mentor: Give enough time for each
person in the dyad to explain about one of
their Signature Themes that they do not
share.
Have the students rotate and form new
dyads.
Provide enough time for each person to talk
to at least five people who do have
Signature Themes different from their own.
Session Activity
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Distribute the handout Understanding and
Respecting Strengths Differences.
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Grab your placard & find someone
who has a different theme from your set.
Answer these two questions on the
handout:
– What is the greatest challenge you
face in using this (different) talent?
– What is the greatest benefit?
Session Activity
 Group
Feedback:
– What did you discover about
other people’s Signature Themes?
– What new understandings are you gaining
about people as you learn about talents different
from your own?
– In what ways are you coming to respect others as
you see them through “strengths-colored glasses?”
– In what ways are you seeing yourself more clearly as
you understand the talents & strengths of others?
Using Strengths in
Academics
• What motivates you to learn?
• How do you learn best?
• What type of professors
bring out your best work?
• What type of classroom
situations bring out your best work?
48
Using Strengths in
Academics
• What type of study strategies
works best for you?
• How can or do you use
your talents for studying?
• What is your greatest struggle
academically?
• How can you apply your strengths/talents
to succeed in areas where you struggle?
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Using Strengths in
Academics
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Note:
– The goal of this activity is to help students see
which of their Signature Themes are at work in the
academic tasks they do with ease.
– Also help them focus on talents in their Signature
Themes to invent strategies for addressing areas
where the students may struggle.
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Using Strengths in
Academics
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Note:
– Most students find it empowering to be reminded
that they already have within them all of the talents
necessary for them to achieve.
– All they need to do is to invent ways of taking their
talents into areas where they want and need to
improve.
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Using Strengths in
Academics
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An Academic Task could be:
– A subject you learn with ease (e.g. history,
psychology, math, chemistry, anthropology, etc.)
– An activity you do with ease (e.g. library research,
studying for exams, taking objective exams,
conducting scientific investigations, working with
peers in study groups or on group projects, making
oral presentations, etc.)
Handout Activity
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On the left of the
center line write 3
tasks you do best.
On the right of
the center line
write the theme
that helps you be
able to do that
academic task.
53
Strengths in
Combination
HIDDEN SLIDE
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Note to mentor: Use the Uniqueness Facts
slides (Slides 5-8) while the students are
brainstorming their creative expressions.
Suggestion – have the students draw their
picture, poem etc. on the back of their
folder.
– It would be great if you could/would collect their
drawing, poem, etc. and make copies – of the
diagram and the description
– Send a copy to Sondra and return the original to
the student at the next class period.
Session Activity
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Your challenge is to find a creative way to express
how you Signature Talents work together.
It may be represented as an acrostic, a diagram, a
drawing, a figure, a formula, a poem, a scrabble
diagram, a song, or some other creative expression.
Write a description for your creative representation
of your Signature Themes.
Note: this is not an Art Competition, but a
Uniqueness Exhibit. So don’t work comparatively!
The point of this activity is to see how you
and your peers are uniquely talented.
Uniqueness Facts
 Consider
the incredible number of combinations
of talents found in each person.
 If you take the 34 themes and factor in the
total number of orders they can occur in, you
wind up with the number: 33,700,000
 Each individual is unique!
You are unique!
 Of the first 800,000 people who took
StrengthsFinder, less than 20 shared the same
top five talents (order was not considered)!
Uniqueness Facts
 The
Gallup Organization interviewed more than
2,000,000 individuals.
 The interviews helped them identify more than
420 themes.
 They then reduced these themes to 34 themes
that were the most prevalent among successful
people (“the best of the best”).
 The 386 “minor” themes also contain valuable
talents that make each of us incredibly unique.
 And note that StrengthsFinder does not
measure the many themes of musical, athletic,
artistic and other talents which also contribute
to our uniqueness.
Uniqueness Facts
 Don
Clifton, one of the authors of
StrengthsQuest, used to say that one of
the surest ways to talk about a person’s
individual uniqueness and identity is to
talk about that person’s talents.
– From 50+ years of research Clifton came to
believe that each and every individual can
do something better than the next ten
thousand consecutive individuals.
Uniqueness Facts
 This
means that each and every student in this
 Now
the question becomes:
class can do something better than the next ten
thousand consecutive individuals.
– Do you know what it is that you can do better than
the next 10,000 individuals?
– One thing is for sure: The answer to what you
can do better than the next 10,000 people is found
in your talents and the development of your
strengths.
Information and learning is most important to me and I
use all of my “I” themes to gather and process information
and data then I use Learner and Achiever to make
things happen with that information. I have to get things
done and all that information helps me to do great things.
I am writing the story of my life. My pen is input, guided by my
restorative hand and arm. The ink for my pen is context, and the light
by which I write is Intellection. My reinforcing books of the
encyclopedia, dictionary, and most importantly, the Bible, are stacked
on my learner strength. All of them work together so I can write my life.
A
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V
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SIGNIFICANCE
F
M
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N
COMPETITION
T
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S
DISCIPLINE
Relating to my closer friends
Including everyone
Loving to collect some things
Eternally thinking outside the box
Y not be happy?
(Relator)
(Includer)
(Input)
(Ideation)
(Positivity)
Note: Acrostics work best for people with 5 letter names.
Strengths and
Calling/Career
The difference:
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Job – no long term commitment,
provides a means to an end
(paycheck)
Career – lifestyle, long-term
commitment; provides path to new
work.
Calling (vocation) – sense of destiny;
provides meaning and purpose.
Sync Career & Calling
With Values and Beliefs
In thinking about career and calling – and how to
apply your strengths – it is important to
recognize that our careers should be consistent
with our values and beliefs.
 Our values and our beliefs give us focus and
direction.
 When we work in jobs and settings that are
consistent with our values and beliefs,
we become more motivated.
 And when our careers provide opportunities to
express or advance our most deeply held values
and beliefs, we become motivated to give our
very best and to perform at optimal levels.
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Our Values and Beliefs
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Our beliefs and values
– are those things which we hold most dear
– are those things to which we are willing to give
our time, our energy, and our resources.
– represent judgments we make about how
important different things are to us as
individuals.
– may include family, God, community, freedom,
and various personal qualities such as honesty
and integrity, love, compassion, education,
church, helping the poor, standing for justice,
etc., etc.
Calling…what is it?
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Journey that has already begun
Unfolds as we go through life
It is multiple
Transcends beyond major/career
God-given purpose to use time, energy,
abilities to serve God in the world.
To understand – takes time, patience,
reflection, introspection, help of others...
“We discover our calling, not by trying to plan
our life out ten years in advance, but by
being attentive to what God is doing
through immediate circumstances, and in
the present moment. Over time our sense
of calling unfolds simply and naturally, as
scenery unfolds to backpackers hiking their
way through the mountains. Rarely will we
be able to see the whole pathway stretched
before us at any one time. Sometimes we
will only be able to see far enough ahead to
keep on going.”
Gerald Sittser, God’s Will as a Way of Life
6 Signs
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Motivation
Talent
Life Experiences
Open and closed doors
The voice of people
Joyful Service
Vocation does not mean
a goal that I pursue.
It means a calling that I hear.
Before I can tell my life what I
intend to do with it, I must listen for
what it intends to do with me.
– Parker Palmer Let your Life Speak
Vocation does not come from
a voice “out there” calling me
to become something I am not.
It comes from a voice “in here”
calling me to be the person
I was born to be,
the original selfhood given
to me at birth by God.
– Parker Palmer, Let your Life Speak
Vocation is where
my deep gladness
meets the
world’s
deep needs
Frederick Buechner
Wrap-up
What have you learned?
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What new ideas have been generated
in your brain today?
What has been the most helpful thing
you have learned today that you think
you can use right away?
How do you intend to use the
strengths-based approach in the work
that you do on campus?
Freshmen seminar and
our freshmen students
The first year
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Students experience great transitions
between leaving home and arriving on
campus.
Experience – critical to persistence
Shift – most stressful transition
The first year
Helping the new student survive
is a necessary responsibility of
every college and university.
Priority
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Helping students understand
importance of focusing on
academics/balancing social life
Helping student with personal
adjustment, developmental issues,
living with roommates/other
relationships, personal responsibility…
Change – external/situational
Transition – internal/psychological
Marginal vs. Mattering
Schlossberg’s Transition theory
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Marginal – on the outside, don’t
really belong, insignificant,
unimportant.
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Mattering – beliefs people have that
they matter to someone else and
are the objects of someone else’s
attention, care, and appreciation.
Involvement
Astin’s Theory of involvement

Amount of physical and psychological
energy that the student devotes to the
academic experience.
First year programs
Ideally, freshmen seminars create an
environment in which students face
challenges of:
--forming identity
--becoming socially/academically
involved
--learning to think critically
First year programs
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Most are intended to help freshmen
deal with:
– Being homesick
– Provide support
– Learn way around campus
– Develop study skills to keep GPA from ↓
First year programs
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Strengths can add component of
forming identity:
 Calling
 Career
 Major
 Profession
First year programs
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Freshmen seminar instructors cannot
prepare freshmen student with
knowledge base they will need for
each discipline – they provide them
with strategies.
– Strategies already exist – talents and
abilities (plus knowledge/skills =
strengths).
First year programs
“It is up to us to find a formula that will
attract and retain students and help
them succeed, not only in college, but
in life.”
Henscheid, 2000
Any questions??
Feel free to contact me:
Sondra Cave, Ed.D.
[email protected]
913-971-3612