Over the last number of weeks we have re-introduced the Strength Zone basics and have defined a process of identifying your top six values, your personality profile and your top five talents…..so, what now? How do you combine this information to define your overall Strength Zone and what does this mean once you do and how do you use this information anyway?



Well…..lets try to take these questions one at a time.



How do you combine this information to define your overall Strength Zone?



I would suggest making three lists, side by side, of your Values, Personality traits and Talents, like this.



Values - Faith, Family, Courage, Achievement, Integrity, Wisdom

Personality - Creative, Dominant, Challenge, Competitive, Problem Solver, Driver, Change Oriented, Planner, Achiever

Talents - Achiever, Ideation, Learner, Maximizer, Belief



Note that the Personality traits should come from your Personality profile. Just pick some (6 to 10) of the key words from your profile that seem to best describe you. If you haven’t taken a DISC personality profile, click on the "Store" button at the top of this screen and purchase a copy of Strength Zone as it comes complete with a DISC profile.



Once your list is complete, begin to look for an overlap between these three areas. The list shown above is my list. There are some obvious overlaps. First, Achiever or Achievement is common across Values, Personality and Talents. Secondly, Learner and Creative seem to be a second theme. This is not an exact science and sometimes you must really spend some time reviewing your Values, Personality and Talents to find the overlap.



So based on my information shown above, I would say that my Strength Zone® is Achievement and Learner/Creative.



So now what …..what does this mean and how do you use this information?



You can only answer this question through reflection and asking yourself some tough questions. Take a look at the different roles that you have in life both at work and at home and ask yourself the following questions;



1) Am I already applying my strengths in my roles?

2) How am I doing this?

3) Is it effective?

4) If I am not applying my strengths to my roles how can I start?

5) What new things do I need to learn to improve in my areas of strength?

6) What things should I stop doing because I am no good at them?

7) What activities am I involved with that energize me?

8) What activities am I involved with that seem to suck the life out of me?

9) How can I leverage my Strength Zone into each of my roles more effectively?



The following examples illustrate the some of the results of this reflection process for me and how I was able to leverage my Strength Zone to make myself more productive.



Achiever –I must have a system in place to measure my progress against preset goals. I have to make progress against these goals. My goals are balanced between personal, spiritual, relationships, health, career, fun and financial. I have to measure progress in each of these areas each week, and I review these goals daily. It is not good enough to achieve one thing per month. I have to achieve something daily. This does not have to be a major accomplishment, but it does have to be something that takes me a step closer toward a major accomplishment. Making progress yesterday is not good enough. I need to accomplish something each and every day. This energizes me to do even more and allows me to be very productive. I do need to make sure I have a balance between personal, spiritual, relationships, health, career, fun and financial or the achievement may result in negative behaviors. When I don’t structure my roles in this fashion I experience some level of frustration which then causes me to be a lot less productive than I should be.



Creative/Learner – I am always striving to learn something new. Learning energizes me and when I am able to take something that I have learned and see it productively applied in a role that I have, it is very gratifying. I love to read, take courses, attend seminars, listen to books on CD or podcasts about all kinds of topics and then “cross-pollinate” these learnings into the roles that I have. Not everything that I learn can be applied and not everything that I apply is successful although the majority of what is applied is successful. The process of learning and applying is energizing and the productivity gains can be huge.



Take the time to define your Strength Zone and then take this knowledge and reflect on how you can best apply it to maximize your effectiveness in every role you have in life