I'm Louise Fletcher. As President of 
I'm Chandlee Bryan. As a career coach and resume writer with experience from Manhattan to Main Street, I help job seekers connect with opportunity by sharing news, trends and best practices. I'm the Managing Editor of Career Hub and run 
When I first read Now, Discover Your Strengths (The Free Press 2001) co-authored by Marcus Buckingham I realized it was revolutionary. Instead of promoting the notion of trying to fix weaknesses as a means to career success, it simply said find out your strengths and run with them. As a career counselor, that concept aligned with my strategies for helping clients explore career options that actually match with their skills, strengths, interests, passions, personality type, values, and personal brand.
Marcus Buckingham’s new book Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently (to be released on Sept. 29) promises to be another salvo in advancing self-esteem and career success. By saying “yes” to your strengths, Mr. Buckingham asserts “women can tap into their best selves and find their strongest lives”.
A key component of the book is The Strong Life Test for Women. Only 23 questions long, this online quiz immediately reveals your Lead Role and your Supporting Role. I struggled with some of the questions, where 2 out of the 4 possible answers seemed like reasonable responses I would make. So I decided to take the quiz twice, once answering with my top-level responses and another time with responses that were almost a tie with my first choices. This is the resulting order of roles revealed for me:
- Advisor – Asks “What is the best thing to do?” Valued for your insight and judgment and helping others to find answers.
- CareTaker – Asks “Is everyone OK?” Instinctively inclusive, looking for ways to draw others into the circle and make them feel wanted, heard, and appreciated.
- Teacher – Asks “What can be learned from this?” You have faith in others’ potential and enable others’ learning about themselves, their performance, and their skills.
- Pioneer – Asks “What’s new?” Willing to take risks and explore; intrigued by the unfamiliar, whether people or experiences.
Interestingly, these roles coincide with my personal branding attributes and strengths from my 360Reach personal branding assessment, a confidential online feedback tool. The 360Reach allowed me to ask those who knew me well what they honestly thought about me (respondents are guaranteed anonymity so they can be absolutely truthful). The attributes from my 360Reach results included strategic, caring, connecting, genuine, creative, insightful, and forward-thinking.
My recommendation: take The Strong Life Test for Women (a self-assessment) and the 360Reach (feedback from others) to uncover your key strengths, skills, and attributes. With that knowledge as a base, you can learn to recognize and say “yes” to life’s opportunities that draw you like a magnet, because they are natural gateways for growth, fulfillment, and happiness.
Cross-posted at Career Goddess Blog
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