Connecting Strengths and Values
- Sarah Hodgson
- Jul 28, 2022
- 3 min read
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
This week, as I slowly start to turn on my work brain, I completed exercises that helped me to identify my strengths and values. Interesting results! I began to see connections between them and the work I do as a PYP Digital Learning Coach.
Strengths
This week, I completed the Gallup CliftonStrengths assessment. I paid for the full version. The results of the assessment identified that I lead with ‘relationship building’ themes. My top five themes and a snippet to show how Gallup explains them:
Empathy – “You can sense the emotions of those around you. You can feel what they are feeling as though their feelings are your own. Intuitively, you are able to see the world through their eyes and share their perspective.”
Responsibility – “Your Responsibility theme forces you to take psychological ownership for anything you commit to, and whether large or small, you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion.”
Restorative – “You love to solve problems. Whereas some are dismayed when they encounter yet another breakdown, you can be energized by it. You enjoy the challenge of analyzing the symptoms, identifying what is wrong, and finding the solution.”
Developer – “You see the potential in others. Very often, in fact, potential is all you see. In your view no individual is fully formed. On the contrary, each individual is a work in progress, alive with possibilities. And you are drawn toward people for this very reason. When you interact with others, your goal is to help them experience success.”
Individualization – “Your Individualization theme leads you to be intrigued by the unique qualities of each person. You are impatient with generalizations or “types” because you don’t want to obscure what is special and distinct about each person. Instead, you focus on the differences between individuals.”
Values
I completed Elena Aguilar‘s ‘Identifying Core Values‘ exercise this week too (this is the list that helps you complete it). I remember completing it a few years ago (2019) when I took one of Elena’s courses, so I was interested to see how things might have changed. Here are my top 5 values, as of now:
Growth
Honesty
Compassion
Trust
Creativity
Interestingly enough, four of the five were present three years ago… and compassion was not there (kindness was).
I just remembered that a few months ago, I took the VIA Survey of Character Strengths and it identified these as my top five:
Fascinating!!
Connections
Everything is connected, right?! Growth and love of learning seem to be prominent, both of which are essential for my work as DL coach – where would I be without them?! I can see (or rather, FEEL) connections between empathy, compassion, and kindness. I cannot imagine anyone being a successful coach without those. Imperative for building relationships and trust.
I’m making connections between restorative, creativity, and perseverance – I do love a good (or bad!) problem, and solving problems definitely takes creativity and perseverance! ‘Problems’ at work might be anything from low-impact transactions, such as helping a teacher set up their Google Drive, to high-impact transformative work, such as finding ways to increase student engagement in a writing task.
Developer, individualization, and creativity is all about working with people, I think. Working with ALL learners in the building regardless of their age, to help them get from where they are to where they want to be. Sometimes, it’s even helping them figure out where they want to be. Whatever the work, it’s about keeping student learning at the center of everything I do.
Analyzing and thinking about these results has been refreshing and affirming. It helps me to feel that I am on the right track, at least.
Moving Forward
So, next I plan to look at the results from the Gallup survey and see if I can identify one or two themes (lower down on the list) that can inform my professional learning goals for the new year. Bring on the growth and learning!