Microsoft Office 2010 blog now-i-m-discovering-my-

For the past couple decades, Josh has urged me to read Now, Learn Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton. He study this book, as well as its predecessor, First, Break All the Rules, soon after becoming an SDET Lead and felt both helped shape his management style for your better. His persistence only increased when I started writing this blog, and after he study my post on strengths and weaknesses earlier this week, he demanded I study it … now.



I have to admit I;ve never been a fan of these self-help or developmental books … partly because I;m an auditory learner and partly because I get pretty bored with the common sense oozing out of such works. But most of what I write in this blog is common sense anyhow so I figured it was time to get a dose of my own medicine.



All in all, Now, Learn Your Strengths is a quick and painless read. I was watching my previously recorded episode of Days of our Lives while reading, and since the meat of the premise is in the first 80 pages, I finished it before the last commercial break. Not too much of a commitment … so that;s always good.



Here;s what I got out of it …

To quote directly, “Talents are your naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior.” Which I found kind of humorous since if you follow the authors; definition, serial killing is a “talent,” but I think that;s their point. Talents, undeveloped, are not strengths.
A strength is defined as a combination of your talents, knowledge you have acquired through practical experience and lessons learned, and skills you have developed through your activities (like on the tactical level). That;s fair enough. No surprises, but well stated.
Instead of being developed into strengths, weaknesses should be mitigated or at least developed to a point that they are not detrimental to your overall performance. This one was actually my favorite observation.

The authors write:


"Most organizations are built on two flawed assumptions about people:

Each person can realize to be competent in almost anything.
Each person; greatest room for growth is in his or her areas of greatest weakness”

And likewise:


“These are the two assumptions that guide the world;s best managers:

Each person;s talents are enduring and unique.
Each person;s greatest room for growth is in the areas of his or her greatest strengths.

Although Josh has been preaching these points to me for the last few years, I still enjoyed reading that. I wish more companies and managers really did focus more on developing strengths and less on trying to correct an employee;s weaknesses. And I wish this book talked more about that. Actually, it may have … but I didn;t read previous page 80, so if it did, let me know.



There;s a lot to be said for this philosophy. Quick personal story:



As I;ve written before, I;m a relatively shy person. My shyness derives from having a lack of self-confidence … until I prove myself, and then I;m confident and somewhat assertive. About five months ago, my new team members (most of whom I didn;t know very well at the time) and I engaged in one of these team building sessions where we had to play silly games and debrief afterwards. Long story short, we were all trying to figure out this puzzle, and everyone was talking on top of everyone else. And I wasn;t saying anything. I was just analyzing the situation. Finally, I thought of the solution and called it out … and it worked! Everyone remarked on how it was interesting the quiet person was actually the one methodically problem solving by herself while everyone else was spinning cycles in a group. Score one for me!



Then the instructor threw in a complication to the puzzle, and we were back in problem solving mode. Again, everyone immediately started spouting out suggestions and talking over one another. And again, I stepped back and thought. This time I thought of a possible solution, but it seemed kind of far fetched, and honestly, I thought that would be really uncanny if I was right twice in a row. So I mentioned (but didn;t shout it out this time) the solution, and guess what? Everyone ignored me. Not sure if no one heard me, or they just didn;t want to listen. Heck, I ignore myself half the time. And then not two minutes later, another teammate (what have I called her in the past? Oh, strong and outspoken!) shouted out the very same solution I previously had mentioned, and everyone followed suit. And it was the right solution.



My point? Being assertive in a team setting is a major, major weakness of mine, and if you read every performance review I;ve ever had at Microsoft, manager after manager (yes, folks, I;ve had a lot of managers) dings me on my communication skills in team meeting settings. Then I get a development plan: Gretchen,Microsoft Office 2010, study this book. Gretchen, go to this class. Gretchen, set yourself small goals, etc. But no one has ever said, “Wow, Gretchen. I can tell you aren;t comfortable problem solving in a team setting, but you kick butt when I hand you a difficult problem and allow you to think quietly about it for 5 minutes. Go do that!” No, no one has ever said that, and I don;t think they ever will at this company. Microsoft (at least not my department) doesn;t seem to value my strength of “quiet problem solving” … but I guess I may need to sit in my office and quietly think about this one … maybe I;ll come up with a solution.



By the way, I;ve been at Microsoft for four a long time, and my “communication skills in a team meeting setting” have improved tremendously. It;s like night and day. But I still get trampled in team meetings, and I know being assertive in a public forum will never be a strength of mine. I sometimes have to wonder if Microsoft would have hired me if my interviewers picked up on that. (disclamer!)



Ok – one last thing. The reason I didn;t study past page 80 is because you have to take an online assessment to discover your strengths, and then you can study the rest of the book with your specific strengths in mind. Since Josh had already taken the online assessment with our copy;s code, I couldn;t take it, and the website told me the only way for me to take the assessment would be to spend $20 on another copy of the book. Um, no thanks.



Now, I know what you are thinking … “Wow, Gretchen, you are so cheap. You work for a company who rails against pirating software and you want to pirate this online assessment! Pay your $20, just like Microsoft expects us to buy a separate copy of Office for each of our PCs! Support these hungry authors.”



Alright, fair point. In fact, I think my inner voice actually said that. But truth of the matter is I don;t care that much.



Good night!



gretchen