Pix 'n Prose: I'm a Connector-Pioneer. What're you?

For the past couple years, I've been attending the Global Leadership Summit simulcast in October. It's been a highlight in my journey in learning how to become a better leader to my team.

I follow some of my favorite presenters on Facebook and Instagram; and this past week, Marcus Buckingham (he of hoodie and sports coats combos) posted an assessment tool that I LOVE.

If you're wondering what your strengths are/what you bring to the table (either in your organization and/or in your home) the 14-page report you get at the end will make it clear. And it's encouraging. Inspiring.

It felt like it arrived in my inbox at exactly the perfect time. Not sure about everyone else, but I've been wondering about my purpose during these Covid-19 days. Am I wasting opportunities to do something significant? Should I be using my spare time to learn another language? Take up online yoga? Try to find joy in cooking? Do 10,000 sit ups? Engage in random acts of home maintenance?

This is what my report said about me ...

You are a CONNECTOR-PIONEER:
You paint the most vivid pictures of what is possible, inspiring us to pursue our best ideas.

CONNECTOR DEFINITION:

You see the world as a web of relationships, and you are excited by the prospect of connecting people within your web. Not because they will like each other--though they might--but rather because of what they will create together. Your mantra is "One and one makes three." Or thirty. Or three hundred. On your most optimistic days, you see almost no limit to what people with different strengths and perspectives can create together.

You are a naturally inquisitive person, always asking questions about each person's background, experience, and skills. You know instinctively that each person brings something unique and distinct to the table, something, no matter how small, that might prove to be the vital ingredient. In your head, you store a large network of people whom you've met, learned about, and positioned somewhere within this network--each person with a link to at least one other person, and each with an open port for another link to be added.

People are drawn to you because you are so obviously passionate about their particular expertise, and because you have so many practical ideas about how their expertise can be combined with others. You enliven and enlarge others' vision of who they are and what they can achieve. You are a connector, weaving people together into the fabric of something much larger and more significant than themselves.

PIONEER Strengths:

You see the world as a friendly place where good things can happen. You are not naive, but when you think of all the possible outcomes, your mind naturally goes to the best of all possibilities. Your distinctive power starts with your optimism.

You have a strong bias for action. You are excited to discover new things, to experience new things, and you know this will happen only if you take the first step.

You don't neglect the need to learn and gather information--since you are an explorer at heart, you like learning new things. It's more that you believe that action is the very best way to learn. What is around the next corner? The only way to know for sure is to walk around the next corner.

AYou are comfortable with gaps in your knowledge, with an incomplete set of facts, because, with your optimistic mindset, you tend to fill in the gaps with positives.

You love beginnings. At the start, as you imagine where events might take you, you feel the excitement ripple through you, sharp impulses, nudging, pushing, impelling you to act.

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Are you curious about YOUR STRENGTHS?

I am. (Curious about your strengths.)

After reading my report, I wondered about my kids. My family. My team at work. My friends. What do their reports say? Some people may say I'm just nosey; (and it's none of my business....) but according to this report, I AM NATURALLY INQUISITIVE.

My kids absolutely were not interested. One told me "NO" very clearly; the others didn't respond at all. Insert sad face here. I thought this would be a fun Covid activity for us. (It also should be noted that I. Am. Not. Fun. I am inquisitive and positive, but can't drum up fun if my life depended on it.)

Most of my team did it though; so that was very satisfying. They shared their results too, which was awesome.

If you do this, let me know your top two words.

Then copy n paste the paragraph on page 1 of your report, OK? Please? I really am interested.

Send it to me at ojane@shaw.ca or leave it in the comment section on this Facebook post.

Come on. Do it.

You're kinda bored anyway.

(It'll take about 30 minutes. So be prepared for that.)

THIS IS THE LINK FOR THE ASSESSMENT.

Or click here: https://mailchi.mp/marcusbuckingham.com/standout-assessment

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In case you're wondering, I also took the WHICH MUSCLE CAR SUITS YOU BEST TEST.

(Which was less time-consuming. But also less accurate.)

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Three things I'm thankful for:

1. Clint. He has spent hours and hours over the past two weekends cleaning up the yard and basement at the cabin. So very grateful for his work ethic, his commitment, his organizational skills... (he also borrowed the utility trailer from his dad in order to bring the old fridge from the house in Surrey to the lake) AND he cleaned/sorted one of the closets in the laundry room: