Today we have three main goals:

1. To explore why we are focusing on strengths.

2. To better understand our own strengths.

3. To develop a plan to apply our strengths in our academics, work, and personal life.

First, what comes to mind when you think of a strength?

What comes to your mind when you think of a talent?

We are reconceptualizing what a strength and talent means. We're moving away from the idea of a strength being something innate and moving towards a strength being seen like a muscle, something you need to actively exercise.

This is where the strengths-based movement was born.

A strength is formed not only from innate talents (things you naturally enjoy doing, not necessarily things you do really well) but also from the knowledge and intention with which you develop this talent (investment).

A strength is like a muscle; it develops over time with purposeful effort.

Beatles Example

I want you to think about a time you got to do something that you do really well.

Now I want you to think about a time when you had to do something that has always been tough for you.

It's helpful to know what you look forward to doing, what fuels and energizes you. Now we want to figure out how you can do more of that in your everyday life.

Raise your hand if you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day. Only 32% of Americans respond that they are able to do this.

We're excited so many of you feel this way, you've likely already begun leveraging your strengths. However, for the rest of us we want to figure out ways to capitalize on your strengths in your work, your academics, and your personal life.

StrengthsFinder is one way to help you determine your strengths. The test provides you with your top 5 signature themes. So what does that mean? On all of the questions asking you about what you value, what you enjoy, what you look forward to they were able to measure five themes that are most important or most relevant for you.

There are a whopping 34 strengths that this assessment measures, and it is a great starting point to think about what you enjoy, what energizes you, and how they can be a strength for you.

You receive top 5 themes, and each theme contains a set of talents grouped together. A theme is not necessarily a strength all on its own. Remember, a strength is like a muscle, you need to actively do something with your theme, utilize it in order to develop your strengths.

You receive a "strengths insight report" which is fully customized to you based on the themes in your top 5. In fact, the chance of meeting someone else who has the exact same top 5 as you in the same order is 1 in 33.5 million, so this test is very tailored toward you.

Our goal is that you leave this presentation with a clear focus on how you will apply these themes in academics, your work, and your personal life.

The strengths are also mapped to four different domains of leadership strengths. This is a really useful tool when you analyze the strengths of a team together, and can help you in selecting others who might complement your strength areas.

Strategic thinkers help focus a team on the future. Typically they are innovative and idea driven. Strategic thinkers can sometimes be seen as visionaries. Themes include analytical, ideation, and learner.

Influencing involves guiding and inspiring others through leadership and decision-making. These individuals can help guide a team and typically have skills in selling ideas. These include themes like command, communication, and woo.

Relationship builders help establish a sense of camaraderie and are adept at building and maintaining relationships within the team. This includes themes like empathy, harmony, and positivity.

Executing involves getting things done and making things happen. In addition, some of the themes involve having core belief and value systems. This includes themes like focus, discipline, and achiever.

Now we'll be breaking you into smaller groups with a board member or professional staff member to go through some activities.

Take out your personalized strengths reports and take about 8 minutes to read and highlight anything that pops out at you.

Now that you have reviewed your report, I would like to introduce you to two concepts before you begin discussing your themes: balconies and basements.

What is a balcony? It is the highest, the pinnacle of achievement. In thinking of your themes, a balcony is the best possible outcome, the greatness that is inherent in that theme.

Every theme also has what we call a basement, where depending on how you live out that theme it can be less helpful. This is something we call a shadow side.

Now we want you to come up with your own balconies and basements for 2 of your themes.

Once you're finished creating your balconies/basements pair with someone in your group (your co if applicable) to share your balconies and basements.

Now you've explored each of your themes. Next, we want you to understand how your themes work together to make you who you are.

Turn to the theme dynamics in teams worksheet. First, select two of your themes and describe their dynamic (how they work together).

For example, if I have learner and individualization as a theme, I might describe my dynamic as "I love to learn about what makes people tick"

Check out the front of the page for a sample to help guide you through.

Next work with your co and see what partnership opportunities might exist with the interplay of your two different dynamics.

Now we want you to create a plan of how you will utilize your themes in your academics, your personal life, and with your role as a leader. Turn to the "Make Your Plan" sheet and select one theme per goal.

Share out with your co (or close coworker) one of your goals.

So how do you engage in strengths-based conversations with others?

First you need to fully understand your own themes and their interplay. Once you've got that down its all about asking questions to help them see how they use their themes in their lives. That sheet of questions we've given you is a great start.

We'll be training all of the WOW leaders during the anchoring sessions and want you to help us cofacilitate the sessions.

We also want you to let us know if you want additional trainings to help you better understand your team. If you do we can set up an additional volunteer training.

All WOWies will be receiving strengths codes during SOAR and will be able to define their top five themes and will develop a plan to utilize at least two of their themes during their time at Cal Poly.

Answer burning questions. Give contact info for follow-ups.