This document summarizes a workshop on assessing and applying personal strengths toward career success. The workshop discusses defining strengths as skills paired with enjoyment. It notes most people do not accurately assess their own strengths and recommends developing metacognitive skills to improve self-awareness. The workshop introduces Myers-Briggs personality types as a tool to understand strengths and analyze a case study about communication issues between a student and advisor to show how personality types influence work preferences. Presentation materials and further career resources are available online.

1. Succeed with your strengths:
Assess and apply your unique strengths
toward your ideal career
Steve Lee, PhD
Graduate Diversity Officer
ABRCMS 2013

2. #1 Succeed with your Strengths:
Assess and apply your unique strengths
towards your ideal career
Friday 8:30 am, Lincoln C/D/E
#2 Succeed through your F ailures:
Learning to fail productively
Friday 6:45 pm, Jackson A/B
Presentation materials in Slideshare.net

3. Achieving success is like
navigating along a path
3

4. Achieving success is like
navigating along a path
But how do you navigate?
Where are you now?
4

5. What’s your ideal destination,
and your definition of success?
How will you know when you
get there?
Let’s discuss!
5

6. The “rules for success” in science …
1.)
2.)
3.)
are usually too simplistic, and
don’t consider your unique strengths.
6

7. All students at ABRCMS …
have been successful,
and want to succeed,
but not all succeed.
Why not?
7

8. Marshall Goldsmith points out …
8

9. Key Message:
To achieve success, you must:
assess your strengths accurately
apply your strengths strategically
9

10. Key questions for today:
 What exactly is a strength?
 What are your unique strengths?
 How can you apply your strengths strategically?
 What’s the current research in assessing and
applying strengths?
10

11. What exactly is a strength?
For our discussion:
strength = skill + joy
=
+
11

12. Don’t most people already know
and use their strengths?

In a Gallup
survey:


97% said their leadership skills
are at or above average (!)
Many don’t assess their strengths accurately
Survey: do you have
“the opportunity to
do what you do best
every day” at work

14% China
13% France
26% Germany
36% India
15% Japan
32% USA
Most aren’t using their strengths regularly
12

13. Most students aren’t aware of their
strengths and weaknesses
Kruger and Dunning, 1999 and 2003.
100
80
%
60
40
Actual Test Score
Perceived Test Score
20
0
Bottom
quartile
2nd
quartile
3rd
quartile
Top
quartile
13

14. Many don’t assess themselves
accurately, but there’s hope!
Kruger and Dunning, 1999 and 2003.
We can improve our metacognitive skills by:
 being aware of the context of our peers,
 and by improving our competence.
14

15. Addendum to Key Message:
Your chance for success is improved
when you accurately assess and
strategically apply your strengths …
which is not trivial, but can be developed
by sharpening your metacognitive skills.
15

16. What metacognitive skills
do I need to develop?
 Personal Competence
 self-awareness
 self-regulation
 motivation
 Social Competence
 empathy
 social skills
16

17. You can assess your strengths with
the Myers-Briggs types
How do you prefer:
● to relate to people?
○ Extroverts or E-types
○ Introverts or I-types
● to gather information?
○ Sensors or S-types
○ Intuitors or N-types
● to make decisions?
○ Thinkers or T-types
○ Feelers or F-types
● to relate to the outside
world?
○ Judgers or J-types
○ Perceivers or P-types
17

18. Let’s practice applying
strengths in a case study
Discuss the case study and
respond to the questions
with your neighbors
18

19. Suggested activities:



Take an unofficial, free Myers-Briggs test
 humanmetrics.com
Self-reflection exercises
 7 success stories and 40 year vision
 fiveoclockclub.com
Write and keep a journal
19

20. Resources

Please Understand Me II



Strengths Based Leadership



David Keirsey
Myers-Briggs test and explanation
Rath and Conchie
another assessment test
What Color is your Parachute?


Richard Bolles
“bible” of professional development
20

21. Assess and apply your strengths
to improve your chances for success.
21

22. Succeed with your Strengths:
Assess and apply your unique strengths toward your ideal career
Steve Lee, PhD
Graduate Diversity Officer at the University of California Davis (started November 12, 2013)
www.linkedin.com/pub/steve-lee/5/9a1/857
ABRCMS 2013 – Friday, Nov 15, 2013 at 8:30 am
•
Group Activity – Case Study
o To help you understand and apply the Myers-Briggs personality types, discuss this case study
within your group, and address the questions. This case study is based upon a real situation that a
student encountered. However, it was simplified to involve primarily only one of the four possible
categories of the Myers-Briggs types, since this workshop is an introduction into the Myers-Briggs
personality types.
Case 1 – John and his research advisor
o John has been having trouble understanding his research advisor’s expectations and goals for his
research. This is particularly frustrating for John, because he’s very friendly and gets along with
most people. He has weekly meetings with his advisor, where he tells her all about his ups and
downs from his research progress, along with complications and successes. John is aware that he’s
communicative and talkative, so he believes that he’s doing a good job with informing her about
his research progress. But recently his advisor has asked him questions that surprised him,
because John didn’t realize that she had wanted something else. John just wishes that she would
explain more clearly what she wants and expects, so that they can work better together. But his
advisor doesn’t seem to say much during their meetings, and seems withdrawn from John’s
perspective.
Questions:
o Which of the 4 Myers-Briggs (MB) categories might explain their different preferences?
─ Based upon this description, what do you think is John’s MB type? Explain your reasoning,
referring to details mentioned in the case study.
─ What do you think is the PI’s MB type? Explain your reasoning.
o How might John adapt to improve his understanding of her expectations for his research?
o How might John use his strengths from his MB type to help resolve his problem?
o What underdeveloped type skills (see tables below for some ideas) might John need to address
as he considers how to improve communications with his PI?
o Converse question: how might this situation become different, if both John and his PI had the
opposite types?
─ What potential problems might arise in this situation?
1

23. •
Success Types in Medical Education by John Pelley: http://www.ttuhsc.edu/SOM/success/
What the Types Can Offer Each Other
EXTRAVERTS
• Provide the outwardly directed energy needed
to move into action
• Offer responsiveness to what is going on in the
environment
• Have a natural inclination to converse and to
network
INTROVERTS
• Provide the inwardly directed energy needed for
focused reflection
• Offer stability from attending to deep ideas, and
listening to others
• Have a natural tendency to think and work alone
Well-developed type skills and
Positive Perceptions
Extraversion
Active approach
Bring breadth
Sensing
Practical
Brings data
Thinking
Analyze situations
Bring consistency
Judging
Decisive
Bring a plan
•
•
•
•
Underdeveloped type skills and
Negative Perceptions
Introversion
Reflective approach
Bring depth
Intuition
Imaginative
Brings perspective
Feeling
Affiliate people
Bring harmony
Perceiving
Inquisitive
Bring options
Extraversion
Hyperactive
Superficial
Sensing
Slow & dull
Narrow focus
Thinking
Cold & uncaring
Overly competitive
Judging
Overly opinionated
Controlling
Thanks for coming to my workshop! I hope that it was helpful.
Introversion
Withdrawn & secretive
Overly serious
Intuition
Careless
Impractical & dreamy
Feeling
Easily hurt
Overly sentimental
Perceiving
Indecisive
Procrastinating
My presentations and handouts for both workshops are available at < www.slideshare.net >.
Succeed with your Strengths : Assess and apply your unique strengths toward your ideal career
o Friday, Nov 15 at 8:30 am
Succeed with your Failures: Learning to fail productively
o Friday, Nov 15 at 6:45 pm
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