An email came from the Gallup organization yesterday inviting me to buy a full ranking of my Strengthsfinder results for the bargain price of $89. It promised my 34 talent themes ranked from strongest to weakest. For those of you that have never taken it, when you buy Strengthsfinder 2.0 or Now, Discover Your Strengths from Gallup you get a code that will allow you to take an assessment that gives you your top 5 talents. It is a great assessment.
Great move by Gallup, because the popularity of this assessment has resulted in tens of millions of people taking it. If 1% get excited about this offer it will be very profitable.
I have personally helped over 500 people understand their Strengthsfinder results, and in every group there is always one person who wants more data – all 34 talent themes ranked.
My standard response has been – “What would you do with more data?” The answers I hear includes statements like Then I will really know or words like certain, exact, and total clarity.
My response – Talent themes start the conversation. The rest of the conversation is about understanding them, self-observing to see them at work, building on them, refining your understanding of them, and then repeating this process endlessly. It is not a neat and clean project that ends with a deliverable. In the end, someone tells you something like You are wise or You do a great job adapting to different situations. In that is the inherent belief that You get yourself.
Self-awareness is a journey. It is more about the work than the data. Would you respond to an ad that claimed Receive total consciousness on your death bed for $74.99? (this is for Caddy Shack fans)
Feel free to buy more data, but you don’t need more data. Do the work.