I hope everyone is having a great week so far! I was extremely excited to take the StrengthsFinder assessment and determine what my strengths are. I have found that my top five themes are discipline, futuristic, empathy, achiever, and harmony. I have found that I enjoy structure and having a routine. According to my results, I am most comfortable when everything is in its place and orderly. I inspire others with visions of the future. It’s easy for me to interpret others emotions and show that I believe in others. I am a hard worker and take pride in staying busy and productive. Lastly, I enjoy when things are in a general agreement and don’t like conflict (Rath, 2007). I feel as if these themes do an amazing job of describing who I am and how I function as an individual. Attached are the results from my StrengthsFinder assessment.
These results relate to my leadership traits, as I feel that I would make a well-rounded, transformational leader. A transformational leader helps others exceed expectations by showing they are valued and up-playing their positive and creative traits. I feel that my theme of being futuristic would inspire others to create new solutions to old problems. My theme of empathy would make for a good leader, as I would be able to translate non-verbal cues and tune into the feelings of the individuals that I am leading, which would encourage them to confide in me and build a trusting relationship (Broome & Marshall, 2021). Exceptional leaders display ambiguity, meaning they are open to uncertainty and able to interpret different situations with grace and understanding (Walden University, 2014).
Based on the results of this assessment, two core values I would like to strengthen would be autonomy and social justice. I feel like I am often asking the opinions and guidance of others. I need to trust myself to work independently and have faith in my experience in learned skills. In regards to social justice, I would like to work towards better serving patients who are impacted by health disparities, such as sexual identity and socioeconomic status (American Nurses Association, 2023).
Based on the results of this assessment, two strengths I would like to strengthen would be consistency and positivity. I am usually able to view things from a positive light and look at things as “the glass half full”. But, some days can be tough, for example, I may be stressed out with schoolwork or understaffed at work. My attitude may shift to being negative, and I can feel it rubbing off on others around me. I will need to try harder to be positive, or at least “fake it until I make it”, so my mood does not impact anyone else. I also want to try and be more consistent. Some days I put in 110% effort and some days I do slack a little bit. Consistency is key, and some ways to be more consistent include setting goals in advance, evaluating performance daily, celebrating small wins, and getting an accountability partner (Vaughn-Worsley, 2022).
Based on the results of this assessment, two characteristics I would like to strengthen would be attention to detail and critical thinking. In regards to attention to detail, I feel like I sometimes overlook things at work (for example, new processes that were sent to us in an email). This may be due to getting so many emails and messages that I tend to skim things, which is why I want to pay better attention to detail. I would also like to improve on my critical thinking skills and use more evidence-based practice in my daily work.
American Nurses Association. (2023). Why ethics in nursing matters. https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/nursing-excellence/ethics/why-ethics-in-nursing-matters/Links to an external site.
Broome, M., & Marshall, E. S. (2021). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.
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