Strengths Quest Assessment

Taking the Strengths Quest assessment has been enlightening for me. Because of the assessment, I now know what core traits drive me and my personality. Now that I am conscious of these strengths, I can continue to use them to become a better leader. To be a great leader, one must know their strengths and play to them. My strengths are deliberative, intellection, harmony, competition, and input. I now know that these five strengths will guide me and my leadership philosophy. These five strengths can guide my academic life and personal life. Essentially, all of the goals I have in my life will only be achieved if I play to my strengths; as a result it is extremely important that I not only identify my strengths – it is important that I plan
My top strength, harmony, is a bit of a surprise to me. I guess I never really reflected on it, but I do tend to seek harmony in my life. For the betterment of the group I would withhold my opinions if that means the group is happy and functioning well. I will defer to others when need be. Essentially, I am always looking for consensus when in a group. I like to focus on areas of agreement rather than on areas of conflict. This is an important characteristic to have as a leader because I would be great at mediating in a group. My second greatest strength is competition. This means that I measure my performance based on the performance of others, which means I will try to have an exceptional group. I expected competition to be one of my greatest strengths from the outset. I do not like to lose, and I think it is wholly useless to participate in any activity if one does not think he or she has a chance of winning. I believe wholeheartedly that competition drives oneself to become better in whatever area he or she decides to focus on. Essentially, as a leader, I will fight to make sure that my group works more efficiently than all other groups. I am also deliberative; that means I take extreme care caution before making a
My fitting in the deliberative theme surprised me as well. I never saw myself as a calculating type; in fact, I fancied myself quite spontaneous and impulsive. After actually thinking about it though, I concluded that I absolutely calculate most decisions. For example, I choose friends very carefully, in order to ensure that a friend does not compromise my life’s stability. I never make irrational decisions; I am rarely have an emotional knee-jerk reaction to an event. Simply put, I try to play out sequences in my head before acting on them. Essentially, I can be the calm, collected decision maker whenever obstacles face myself and the people I lead. Intellection, which I thought would be my first strength, is actually my fourth best strength. I enjoy the activity of thinking. I like solving problems; I like trying to remember obscure things I hear in history class. Intellection is important in leadership because a particular group needs someone at the helm to think outside the box to the group in the best direction. Finally, there is input. After reading up on input, there is no doubt that it fits me. My favorite subject is history, which is all about archiving events, people, and