(This article was written by Gladys, our intern at Kingmaker! Her StrengthsFinder® talent themes makes her a Hands-on, People-Centric Bicultural Practitioner who values challenges and provocative thinking. She is passionate about learning the diversity of cultures.)
Everyone wonders, are there certain talent themes that make-up a good student? If there are, what are they?
For those strong in the Gallup StrengthsFinder Language (if you are new to this, fret not! We got you covered: click HERE to read thoroughly the descriptions of all 34 StrengthsFinder Talent Themes), you might know that modern day education might favor some talent themes over the others. For example, based on a first look, you would probably think that a student with Achiever | Focus | Competition | Input | Strategic talent themes would perform much better academically than a student with Relator | Woo | Positivity | Activator | Harmony, wouldn’t you? Well, at least I would.
Here, I’m going to share about my own experience, as a student, and how my supposed “straight-A-student talent themes” helped me in my school life.
Below are my dominant StrengthsFinder talent themes:
- Restorative
- Learner
- Intellection
- Empathy
- Input
- Connectedness
- Consistency
- Includer
- Arranger
- Individualisation
- Achiever
- Responsibility
For those of you who are really “busy” and therefore unable to analyse/read through one by one, here’s a quick breakdown for you!
StrengthsFinder Themes & Campus Excellence
First, I have what many people would think of as the typical research cluster in my top 5, (Learner, Intellection, and Input). This means that I’m good at internalizing and digesting content-heavy subjects, such as General Paper, History, Geography, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Economics etc. (basically almost all the academic subjects.)
Secondly, I am talented in Achiever, Responsibility, Connectedness and Arranger, which means that I’m not only a fast, reliable and efficient worker; I can manage many things, complete a lot in one day, and just more productive in general.
Looking at my talent themes, I’m a smart student. OR AM I REALLY?
Here’s the answer – Not really. Add many big red crosses to that as well.
“But why is it so? Don’t you have many talent themes that help you study effectively?”
Look, the reality is that it plays out differently in everyone’s life, and my priorities towards campus excellence is more than just academic.
As an Achiever and a Learner, I was constantly involved in a variety of commitments. In just my college years alone, I had 3 Co-Curricular Activities: International Strategic Affairs Council, touch rugby, and Mass Communications Society. Additional to that, I also participated in many competitions, including Chinese Debate (I am bicultural!) Video Competitions, Economic Innovation Competitions, Youth-For-Causes and had piano lessons too. Oh yeah, I am also actively involved in church activities too. Additionally, I even tried to run for my CCA’s president role despite my many commitments. Basically, I wanted to be as engaged in my campus life as possible – trying to learn many things and trying to keep myself busy.
Certainly, many of my teachers were concerned with my grades and many told me to cut down on my commitments, but I felt that I was able to manage them, and with good reason. My Arranger talent theme meant that juggling several things at the same time was natural to me, I was handling things well and my life wasn’t falling apart. I was passing most of my subjects, and I was able to produce quality contributions to all of my commitments.
Eventually though, I did manage to settle down and study nearing A levels. Still, studying was not as effective as I wanted it to be. Why?
Well, my Intellection talent theme was the root cause. Imagine this: you’re studying Biology faithfully and stressing about A levels when suddenly you think:
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“What’s the reason why I’m studying this?”
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“How does knowing this affect me in my life?”
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“How does this relate to other insights that I’ve gained in this subject?”
BAM! Welcome to the intellection zone. It didn’t matter even if you adjust your environment, or change the subject you were studying, because you were pulled away by your own deep thoughts.
The StrengthsFinder Formula to Campus Success
Basically, I’m saying that having a certain combination of StrengthsFinder Talent Themes does not determine your destiny in academic excellence, it is how you actively invest and utilize your strengths that makes you a better student.
As this is the month of examinations, for all you students, don’t get discouraged or disheartened, thinking that without certain talent themes, you can’t get your As or be effective in school. Similarly, for the students who have talent themes that might effectively aid your studying process , don’t be complacent (WORKING HARD STILL PAYS OFF). Study smarter and harder!
Parents, if you’re reading this, just know that there is no one formula for straight As. Be involved in your child’s academic journey, and encourage them to constantly invest in their what they are naturally good at!
The coaching sessions were more difficult than I thought they would be. The beautiful thing about coaching is that the students learn from you, but you get to learn even more, from both the students and this whole experience. Some of the students I coached were more certain of what they wanted compared to others, but what they had in common was the desire to make use of this coaching session to gain insight regarding their choices.
The genius of your Adaptability talent begins with where you “live” in terms of your mind. You live in the present – – – even the present moment. Whereas others live their lives in their “rear-view mirror”, always looking to the past and being tied to the past, you are a right here – right now person. The genius of this perspective means that you can change and change quickly. Rather than being rigid, you are flexible; and rather than being tied to some pre-set plan, you can quickly change to meet immediate demands and circumstances that require attention. But the real genius of your adaptability is seen in circumstances that make others scramble and cower into some safety zone for security. Your genius talent of Adaptability comes to light in chaos. In fact, you not only deal with chaos, you get energized, come alive and get a thrill out of chaos as you “ride the wave” and quickly make the changes that chaos requires. This then points to another genius aspect of your Adaptability talent. You can learn and change so quickly.
The genius of your Context talent is found in the way you think about the past and use that form of thinking to learn, plan and solve problems. The present is important to you, but in your mind, the present is best understood by seeking to understand what has led up to the present. Thus, your mind often goes backwards and looks for what has caused what we are experiencing today. This look to the past gives great wisdom for understanding the present and forms a basis for making informed decisions and plans in the present and for the future. The genius of your Context way of thinking provides you with a basis for making high quality decisions and plans and for problem-solving. In addition, as you apply the genius of your Context way of thinking when you learn, you will learn with great understanding which results in high achievement.
The genius of your Focus talent begins with what you can do with your mind. You can focus your attention to an unusual level of concentration. That concentration enables you to amass facts and information, read with clarity of understanding, and solve problems with great precision. You can concentrate to the extent that people may come into a room you are in, and you may not hear or see them. While others pride themselves with their ability to multi-task, you know that for you, you are most productive when you concentrate on one thing at a time. Your focusing talent results in prolonged concentration to address and solve complex problems and planning processes. You learn in great depth, and because of your focusing, when you learn, plan and solve problems, your recall is remarkable.
The genius of your Ideation talent begins with your love of ideas and the way you so quickly learn new ideas, concepts and principles. But you are not passive. It is as if you take ideas and then begin spinning them around in your mind. With each new idea you learn, you tend to think about it over and over – – – spinning it around with the many other ideas you already have. The result of this thinking, turning, and spinning around of new ideas with what you already know does two things. First, you generate new connections and insights about ideas and their implications. Second, the spinning of your ideas often results in new ideas. Therefore, the genius of the Ideation talent is the creativity of generating new ideas and insights as a result of contemplating and reviewing the ideas you have learned.
Your genius strength of Consistency involves both the way you think and process information and the way you see what is fair and equitable. Whereas others often take a long time to determine what is fair and equitable, to you it is obvious. You can quickly determine what should be done so that problems are solved in ways that treat everyone in a just and equal manner. This process of determining what is equitable often involves processing a great deal of information. But the genius of your Consistency talent sorts through information and comes to equitable decisions so quickly that you may not see anything special about what you do because you do it with such ease. In your relationships, you strive to treat everyone equally and consistently. This helps you win the confidence of others. You are a great, fair and just thinker because of your Consistency talent.