You focus on Strengths
The maximizers of the world focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. Many of us love transforming people, things, and processes from good to great. We just can’t help ourselves; we tend to tweak things ongoingly. To me, it means that I see your potential and your greatness and can hold that space for you when you don’t.
For outsiders, it may occur as us having high standards; we do, yet it’s not about being number one (Competition®) or being a perfectionist again; for some, it does; we simply aspire to maximize our return on investment.
Imagine working on a team where everyone is playing full out, having each others’ back, and continually looking at what can be made even better. Would that be fun? Well, for many with the Maximizer® themes, it will be.
You see the gifts in people and how they can improve
With the CliftonStrengths® theme of Maximizer® as my #3 theme, this theme expresses itself in a couple of ways for me:
- I’m constantly tweaking and improving content related to anything design
- I’m constantly adding to my toolbox and evolving as a person
- I see the gifts in people and love helping people with resources that can contribute to insights
- I love to share ideas on improvements for anyone asking
- It’s never about being perfect for me (that turns me off) as I want to move on
Again, your other dominant themes influence this theme, so the theme can show up very differently for each person.
A performance focus
Where are you your best? Do you invest time to get even better? In sports, it’s easy to see how you can improve your game by practicing and, as a result of that, score better. Raising the bar, honing your craft. As a coach and healer, I practice continually by observing and coaching people and continually pursuing new levels of awareness or skills.
With our focus on making people or things even better, we’re naturally drawn to people, teams, and organizations that strive to play on a world-class level. Again, not for personal gain, but rather playing to win as a team and becoming better people in the process, whether you win or lose.
Imperfection is the new perfect
It doesn’t have to be perfect, just better. And speaking for myself, it’s about being willing to play full out, going full out, and then being happy with the outcome. Oh, and it’s also about playing in the areas where you see that you can make a difference if you don’t see that you don’t engage.
Your power is in making things better, things that others are fine with, and you take them to the next level. You will be selective, so it will not be in every area of your life. Your sweet spot is when you’re in the improvement phase. You don’t necessarily celebrate the completion as you will always find new ways to improve the areas that you are drawn to.
Your other talents will determine how long you continue to improve. For me, with Activator® for one, I need to move on by revision 6; for others, it could be revision 20 (by that time, my Activator® is jumping up and down). If I find mistakes, I quickly revise before a few even read revision 1.
Do you have Maximizer® as one of your dominant talents? How does it play out for you? What have you created? Please comment below; I’d love to know.
Are you curious about what your talents might be? CLICK HERE for more information about the CliftonStrengths® Assessment or HERE for the BP10™ Assessment.
Lastly, visit Gallup’s YouTube channel for more information on the CliftonStrengths® theme of Maximizer® HERE.
