Page 83 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

THE WHY OF WORK

FIGURE 3.3 Buckingham’s Strengthfinder Attributes (continued)

Input Acquiring and filing away ideas, things, relationships, images
Intellection Liking to think, introspect, reflect in private
Learner Loving the process of learning and always being engaged in it
Maximizer Driving toward excellence and making something the best it
can be
Positivity Praising generously, seeing what is right, optimism
Relater Delighting in close friends and deepening relationships
Responsibility Conscientiously focusing on doing what you promise
Restorative Liking to solve problems, facilitate healing, fix things
Self-assurance Having deep confidence in your strengths, abilities, judgment
Significance Desiring recognition, admiration as a credible professional
Strategic Seeing the consequences and contingencies to chart a course
WOO “Winning Others Over” through getting others to like you

Observations

To rephrase an old axiom, “We judge ourselves by our
intentions, but others judge us by our behavior.” While tests
offer a quick way to identify how we view our strengths,
other people are often more interested in our performance
than in our intentions or dreams. When our son was in
eighth grade, he came home excited and thrilled with his
report card. We were anxious to see his grades and share
his enthusiasm. He proudly displayed the report card boast-
ing an A, B, C, D, and F. Our enthusiasm quickly waned.
He explained that he had spent the semester working hard
to “hit for the cycle” (a baseball term where a player gets a
single, double, triple, and home run in the same game). He
said that eighth grade was his last chance to do this before
grades would count for admission to college and that he had
worked hard to figure out how well to perform in each class
to get the right grades for him (not us). We didn’t much

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