StrengthsFinder Result–Achiever: A breakdown

Your Achiever theme helps explain your drive. Achiever describes a constant need for achievement. You feel as if every day starts at zero. By the end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself. And by “every day” you mean every single day—workdays, weekends, vacations.

No matter how much you may feel you deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of achievement, no matter how small, you will feel dissatisfied. You have an internal fire burning inside you. It pushes you to do more, to achieve more. After each accomplishment is reached, the fire dwindles for a moment, but very soon it
rekindles itself, forcing you toward the next accomplishment.

Your relentless need for achievement might not be logical. It might not even be focused. But it will always be with you. As an Achiever you must learn to live
with this whisper of discontent. It does have its benefits. It brings you the energy you need to work long hours without burning out.

It is the jolt you can always count on to get you started on new tasks, new challenges. It is the power supply that causes you to set the pace and define the levels of productivity for your work group. It is the theme that keeps you moving.

I like how Gallup has written these themes to be positive and negative at the same time. I do feel like everyday starts at zero. I never thought about it on those terms before, but that definitely was the general feeling. I have to do something everyday, to accomplish something, even if it’s “organised this one folder on my hard drive” or “managed not to untidy my room”.

On the days when I do absolutely nothing, i.e. lie on my bed and watch stuff all day, I feel drained. When I get a new task at work, I have a burning need to focus all my energy and attention on it, and to hack away at it until I’ve achieved the desired outcome.

I also can never do something the same way twice – I’m always trying to optimise a task, or find a better way to do it. That’s why I keep revisiting my Python scripts to see if there’s another angle.

StrengthsFinder Result – Learner: A breakdown

I’ve decided to do an analysis of my results for the StrengthsFinder survey I completed about 2 and a half years ago. This is the Learner theme:

You love to learn. The subject matter that interests you most will be determined by your other themes and experiences, but whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning. The process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you. You are energized by the steady and deliberate journey from ignorance to competence. The thrill of the first few facts, the early efforts to recite or practice what you have learned, the growing confidence of a skill mastered—this is the process that entices you. Your excitement leads you to engage in adult learning experiences—yoga or piano lessons or graduate classes. It enables you to thrive in dynamic work environments where you are asked to take on short project assignments and are expected to learn a lot about the new subject matter in a short period of time and then move on to the next one. This Learner theme does not necessarily mean that you seek to become the subject matter expert, or that you are striving for the respect that accompanies a professional or academic credential. The outcome of the learning is less significant than the “getting there.”

I thrive on this. It is exactly the kind of environment that I am in. Of course, it can also be very challenging and frustrating environment, but the benefits of learning something new outweigh the challenges. The frustrating part comes more from non-GIS people assuming that they know how to do my job, or telling me how long my task for them will take. The actual work normally tends to be fine.

This also helps to explain why I always liked General Knowledge – I just love learning knowledge, in general.