A Conversation About How Your Strengths Help You Stay Curious (Podcast)
Welcome to the next installment of the Leadership Vision Podcast where we share our expertise in the discovery, practice, and implementation of StrengthsFinder.
On this episode of the podcast, I’m having a Strengths conversation with my colleague and our Director of Business Development, Logan Joyce. More specifically, we’re having what we call a “push” conversation. These are dialogues between two people where you intentionally push Strengths to the center. You can talk about everyday things but intentionally reference your strengths and the strengths of the other person so that you’re practicing the language of strengths. Practicing seeing things from another person’s perspective and practicing using Strengths to articulate your perspective.
In this episode, you’ll hear Logan and I discuss how our Strengths help us remain curious. We both have the Strength of Ideation and agreed that it would be a minor crime not to talk about this one. Curiosity is marked by the desire to investigate and learn, and that couldn’t be truer of the way both Logan and I live our lives.
We picked this topic from a list of eight conversation starters that help you talk about your Strengths without necessarily having to talk about those Strengths. There are of course many ways to go about this, but to get your push conversation started, find a friend and ask them how they do one of the following things:
- Get work done?
- Make decisions?
- Form relationships?
- Communicate best?
- Collaborate with others?
- Learn new things?
- Adjust to change
- Handle conflict
We’ve had a few of these “push” conversations and you can check the link in the show notes to hear the others. Something I’m learning more, and more as I record and edit these podcasts, is just how much I’m learning not only about my own Strengths, but the Strengths of my colleagues. It’s been a good exercise and a practice I think all of us should do more often. There’s no end to the number of things you can learn through these intentional conversations about your Strengths.
A Conversation for Everyone
As a reminder, “Push” conversations aren’t just for Strengths professionals. They can help anyone who wants to understand themselves or those around them better. If you or the person you’re talking with isn’t familiar with Strengths, answer the prompt using generic language not referencing your Strength specifically. Instead of saying “I think through “Competition,” I could say “When I think about solving a problem, I’m always comparing things.” If you are talking with a person familiar with Strengths, they can help draw those examples back to one of your Themes.
These conversations are a way to talk about your Strengths without necessarily having to talk about your Strengths. Instead of trying to talk about one of your Strengths at random, these push conversations set up a context or a scenario that should prompt examples. For example, instead of saying, “Tell me about your Strength of” fill in the blank, you can use one of these conversation starters. So, let’s say you have Ideation like I do, you might respond with… “whenever people are trying to think of new ways to do something, I can generate ideas effortlessly that may spark something in their minds…” as just one example.
In this conversation, Logan and I reference our shared Theme of Ideation a lot, but that’s mostly because it’s what we’re most familiar with. As you listen, think about how your Strengths contribute to helping you stay curious, or learn new things. ALL of us have to do this, sometimes a lot, and knowing the way you do it best will help on so many levels.
About The Leadership Vision Podcast
The Leadership Vision Podcast is a weekly show sharing our expertise in the discovery, practice, and implementation of StrengthsFinder. Leadership Vision uses StrengthsFinder to work with People, Teams, and Culture. We believe that knowing your Top 5 Strengths is only the beginning. In fact, our highest potential exists in the ongoing exploration of our talents. Subscribe to the Leadership Vision Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.
Please contact us if you have ANY questions about anything you heard in this episode, or if you’d like to talk to us about helping your team understand the power of Strengths.
