What are your Earliest Strengths Memories? (podcast)

Welcome to the next installment of the Leadership Vision Podcast, where we share our expertise in the discovery, practice, and implementation of StrengthsFinder.

In this episode, you’ll get to hear from our entire team as each of us reflect on our earliest memories related to Strengths. One of the questions we ask clients is, “what was happening in your life between the ages of 7 to 11 years old?” Those ages represent an arc of cognitive development called the concrete operational period. This time is characterized by the development of organized and rational thinking and marks the beginning of logical or operational thought. It’s also the time if your life when Strengths are beginning to form. When you recall what you were doing in life during those ages, it may shed light on how your Strengths have developed today.

For me, ages 7 to 11 involved hardcore baseball card collecting and LEGO building. Especially with the LEGO’s, I can see how specific behaviors in the Theme of Ideation were starting to develop. Specifically how new ideas would always deliver a jolt of energy. That is still true for me, and I saw it then as I would find new exciting ways to put the same LEGO bricks together and explain to my parents what new creation I made.

Today on the podcast, each member of our team will share some of their earliest memories. Times when they remember evidence of behaviors they can now connect back to one of their Themes of Strength.

Our Memories

Brian talked about how he has seen his Theme of Connectedness in the way he brings souvenirs back from trips. Logan shared a degenerative example of what his Themes of Command and Competition looked like when he lost at sports growing up. Our resident overachiever and perfectionist Steph, shares about how she has learned to harness what was once viewed as a negative and turn it into a great Strength. Sara shares a hilarious story about how her Themes of Positivity, Empathy, and maybe even Achiever came out through a time when she was rushed to the hospital.

We also got into a discussion about how specific behaviors in children, especially girls, get labeled in ways that aren’t positive. Aleasha reflects on what teachers would say about her. Linda shares a great story about the way her Strengths revealed themselves to her while living abroad when she was about eight years old. We’ll also get to learn when Carrie’s Theme of Responsibility first showed up through learning to play the piano and performing in recitals. And I share a story about how my Maximizer was present in the way I organized my grandmother’s kitchen pantry.

We’re excited to share this episode with you! You’ll get to hear some of our unedited team banter, and attempts at humor, and we hope it helps you think more deeply about what you were doing from the ages of 7 to 11 years old. It may cause something to stir in you and help you better understand where your Strengths originated from, which in turn, may provide new insight into who you are today.

We’d love to hear your reflection, so leave us a comment and share!