My Profile

Haven't been here for a while, and feel quite bad about it. May be there is really someone who is checking my blogger out and there are no updates. Not a wow for anyone.

Anyway, a lot happened over the last 3 weeks, but I won't write about everything now. What I want to post is my profile, hehe. Yeah, I did a profile analysis with Strengthfinder, developed by Gallup. While I don't fully agree with their theses that it is better to develop your strength and somewhat ignor your weaknesses - as you would just waste your energy - the profile results were quite accurate.

Here they come and that is me - please be aware that my comments to the descriptors are in italic:

I N P U T
You are inquisitive. You collect things. You might collect information-words, facts, books, and quotations-or you might collect tangible objects such as butterflies, baseball cards, porcelain dolls, or sepia photographs. Whatever you collect, you collect it because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity. If you read a great deal, it is not necessarily to refine your theories but, rather, to add more information to your archives. If you like to travel, it is because each new location offers novel artifacts and facts. These can be acquired and then stored away. Why are they worth storing? At the time of storing it is often hard to say exactly when or why you might need them, but who knows when they might become useful? With all those possible uses in mind, you really don't feel comfortable throwing anything away. So you keep acquiring and compiling and filing stuff away. It's interesting. It keeps your mind fresh. And perhaps one day some of it will prove valuable. (True true true - bookstores just love me, hehe. So nice to feel a new book, open it a first time, flip through it and inhale the thoughts and knowledge).

I N T E L L E C T I O N
You like to think. You like mental activity. You like exercising the "muscles" of your brain, stretching them in multiple directions. This need for mental activity may be focused; for example, you may be trying to solve a problem or develop an idea or understand another person's feelings. The exact focus will depend on your other strengths. On the other hand, this mental activity may very well lack focus. The theme of Intellection does not dictate what you are thinking about; it simply describes that you like to think. You are the kind of person who enjoys your time alone because it is your time for musing and reflection. You are introspective. In a sense you are your own best companion, as you pose yourself questions and try out answers on yourself to see how they sound. This introspection may lead you to a slight sense of discontent as you compare what you are actually doing with all the thoughts and ideas that your mind conceives. Or this introspection may tend toward more pragmatic matters such as the events of the day or a conversation that you plan to have later. Wherever it leads you, this mental hum is one of the constants of your life. (Yeah - thinking out of the box, recognising and formulating patterns, smattering ideas around, challenging my own thoughts - just great)

W O O
Woo stands for winning others over. You enjoy the challenge of meeting new people and getting them to like you. Strangers are rarely intimidating to you. On the contrary, strangers can be energizing. You are drawn to them. You want to learn their names, ask them questions, and find some area of common interest so that you can strike up a conversation and build rapport. Some people shy away from starting up conversations because they worry about running out of things to say. You don't. Not only are you rarely at a loss for words; you actually enjoy initiating with strangers because you derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection. Once that connection is made, you are quite happy to wrap it up and move on. There are new people to meet, new rooms to work, new crowds to mingle in. In your world there are no strangers, only friends you haven't met yet-lots of them. (yes - great to meet new people. Especially the passionate once. Or to get a Wow out of those that are not passionate. Yeah - and that is why I try to reframe my own department - not often enough out on the road)

C O M M U N I C A T I O N
You like to explain, to describe, to host, to speak in public, and to write. This is your Communication theme at work. Ideas are a dry beginning. Events are static. You feel a need to bring them to life, to energize them, to make them exciting and vivid. And so you turn events into stories and practice telling them. You take the dry idea and enliven it with images and examples and metaphors. You believe that most people have a very short attention span. They are bombarded by information, but very little of it survives. You want your information-whether an idea, an event, a product's features and benefits, a discovery, or a lesson-to survive. You want to divert their attention toward you and then capture it, lock it in. This is what drives your hunt for the perfect phrase. This is what draws you toward dramatic words and powerful word combinations. This is why people like to listen to you. Your word pictures pique their interest, sharpen their world, and inspire them to act. (Sometimes not only explain, but lecture. Carried away by my own thoughts. Exciting others. Building ideas and burning the handicaps away - I get somehow lost in my own thoughts sometimes. Too much on my mind and everything wants to get out at once. Too much passion and excitement. But then, I am getting better at it - motto: think first before you speak - which I do about once or twice a year, hehe)

S I G N I F I C A N C E
You want to be very significant in the eyes of other people. In the truest sense of the word you want to be recognized. You want to be heard. You want to stand out. You want to be known. In particular, you want to be known and appreciated for the unique strengths you bring. You feel a need to be admired as credible, professional, and successful. Likewise, you want to associate with others who are credible, professional, and successful. And if they aren't, you will push them to achieve until they are. Or you will move on. An independent spirit, you want your work to be a way of life rather than a job, and in that work you want to be given free rein, the leeway to do things your way. Your yearnings feel intense to you, and you honor those yearnings. And so your life is filled with goals, achievements, or qualifications that you crave. Whatever your focus-and each person is distinct-your Significance theme will keep pulling you upward, away from the mediocre toward the exceptional. It is the theme that keeps you reaching. (Again, another strong yes. And to excite others. Constantly. Build the future. It also forces me to constantly reinvent who I am and what I do. As such, not bad. And it makes me try to stay relevant in the eyes of others. Important? I think so!!)