What is Strength? (Revised)

8/14/2019 What is Strength? (Revised)

1/5

Strength

What is strength and how does one get stronger? Are we ever strongenough? We assume that because we call them strengths, they are,by definition, enough. I hardly think so, especially in leadership

positions where stasis is death. As a leader I am called to be aconstant learner who seeks ever more refined and potent inputs,ideas for my intellection, that I put into practice throughempathytoward my colleagues. The bold words above are my fivestrengths according to Tom Raths online personality survey known asthe StrengthsFinder. By using these existing strength to lift heavierloads, the assumption is that I will get stronger. The essay that followoutlines how I will develop these five strengths into a pedagogy of realpower. It will also discuss briefly the value and validity of the 360degree assessment and the StrengthsFinder.

According to the Rathwe benefit more from building on our strengthsthan working on our weaknesses. His online test, the Clifton Test,determinesand calculates these strengths, explains what they mean,and makes suggestions as to how to use them. What follows is mytake on how I will best use my strengths (Input, Intellection, Empathy,Learner, Ideation) to become an educational leader.

1. Input : I yearn to create a satisfying and creative personallearning environment. Productivity gurus like David Allen withhis Getting Things Done system are my ultimate aim, but Iseek to use my dissertation as a focus forthe input. Since my

interests center on technology use it makes sense for my inputsto be gathered within a technology net. I am doing this with ablog (http://tex2all.com/EdDoc), a wiki(http://tex2all.com/wkueddoc/), a browser-based bibliographicand research tool (http://www.zotero.org/), a social bookmarkingtool (http://www.diigo.com/profile/tellio), and an informationaggregator(http://www.google.com/reader/shared/07325911530332758494 ).

2. Intellection: I seek to establish networks of like-minded (punintended) folks to share my interests in Web tools and ideas. I

have started to work with K-12 writing teachers (http://wku-wp.ning.com/) while at the same time reflecting on thecommunity of practice that is developing there. This is a way tocombine my desire for sharing ideas with a need to think deeplyabout them by myself. I am sponsoring within my universitysdistance learning division a series of technology presentations thatfocus on online pedagogy(http://www.wku.edu.libsrv.wku.edu/tsonline/facultyLiaisonSeries.html ) as well
http://tex2all.com/EdDochttp://tex2all.com/wkueddoc/http://www.zotero.org/http://www.diigo.com/profile/telliohttp://www.google.com/reader/shared/07325911530332758494http://wku-wp.ning.com/http://wku-wp.ning.com/http://www.wku.edu.libsrv.wku.edu/tsonline/facultyLiaisonSeries.htmlhttp://tex2all.com/EdDochttp://tex2all.com/EdDochttp://tex2all.com/wkueddoc/http://tex2all.com/wkueddoc/http://tex2all.com/wkueddoc/http://www.zotero.org/http://www.zotero.org/http://www.zotero.org/http://www.diigo.com/profile/telliohttp://www.diigo.com/profile/telliohttp://www.diigo.com/profile/telliohttp://www.google.com/reader/shared/07325911530332758494http://www.google.com/reader/shared/07325911530332758494http://www.google.com/reader/shared/07325911530332758494http://wku-wp.ning.com/http://wku-wp.ning.com/http://wku-wp.ning.com/http://wku-wp.ning.com/http://wku-wp.ning.com/http://wku-wp.ning.com/http://www.wku.edu.libsrv.wku.edu/tsonline/facultyLiaisonSeries.htmlhttp://www.wku.edu.libsrv.wku.edu/tsonline/facultyLiaisonSeries.htmlhttp://www.wku.edu.libsrv.wku.edu/tsonline/facultyLiaisonSeries.htmlhttp://tex2all.com/EdDoc


2/5

as a similar one for my doctoral cohort whose focus is on usingsocial networking tools for writing the dissertation. I need topush this strength out into the wider realm of online pedagogy bybecoming a part of the larger world of those who think about andask questions about how we can best use Web tools in higher

education. I have already started this by auditing a massivelyonline course sponsored by two leaders in the field, GeorgeSiemens and Stephen Downes(http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wiki/Connectivism). I need to do more.This includes joining a few organizations of interest including systemsthinking (http://www.solonline.org/) and communities of practice(http://cpsquare.org/) groups.

3. Empathy: This strength is double edged. It tends to be a face-to-face ability. Extending that skill to peers and students onlineis my next big challenge. Success in my online work with K-12

teachers involved in the WKU Writing Projects new web presencewill depend upon me growing this skill as will work in theirLeadership Council. How do you create empathy over adistance? I am currently studying this. In fact it will probably bethe basis for much of my dissertation worka study of effectiveonline communities of practice. It is clear that I need to partnerwith someone who has strong command skills (my programadviser, Dr. John Hagamanserves as such a one) and anotherwith activator skills (I am on a quest to find such a person now tohelp me manage the Writing Projects website). I also need toput myself in a mentoring position to those who might be

interested in doing what I am doing in educational leadershiptechnology.

4. Learner: I believe humans are defined (or at least this human is)by the desire to bring in what the poet Ezra Pound called thenews that stays news. This is my prime credo in the classroomright next to E.M. Forsters command to always connect. I amalways trying to find better ways to bring in and redirect input.The new learner is at the center of a connected, always onuniverse and, most importantly learns by making moreconnections within and outside of the mind. This insight that our

brains exist as much outside of ourselves as within is the centralof connectivismand systems thinking. I seek to be this situatedlearner, one who is more and more consciously embedded in ajungle of knowing, what Marvin Minskycalled a society of mind.My goal is create a system that actively charts my progress inthe areas of systems thinking and social networking systems. Ialso need to work on creating islands of time for intellectual
http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wiki/Connectivismhttp://www.solonline.org/http://cpsquare.org/http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wiki/Connectivismhttp://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wiki/Connectivismhttp://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wiki/Connectivismhttp://www.solonline.org/http://www.solonline.org/http://www.solonline.org/http://cpsquare.org/http://cpsquare.org/http://cpsquare.org/


3/5

work since I do best when I can both follow the breadcrumbs ofothers as well as blaze new trails.

5. Ideation: I yearn to create new ideas or new combinations of oldideas. I need to create a personal learning environment that is a

spawning ground for this action. I think that means studyingcreative people and trying out their ideas. I am reading RobertFritz and George Leonard as well as practicing mindfulnessmeditation as part of my goal of creating an environment for newideas to develop. I am also working on developing myvisualization skills through three tools: Back of the Napkin(http://www.thebackofthenapkin.com/), Toodlelist (http://todoodlist.com/),and mindmapping (http://www.mindmeister.com/13193859).

The assumption behind this survey instrument and behind the 360

assessment is simple: they measure something accurately. By allaccounts there are thousands of personality tests in an industry thatgenerateshundreds of millions of dollars each year for private testingcompanies. Do they work? The best that might be said is thattheymeasure a static slice in time, but that they are rarely predictive ordeterminative.

Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell, has recounted a very tellingstorythat summarizes the problems with personality assessments. Thequote is long, but worth copying in its entirety,

When Alexander (Sandy) Nininger was twenty-three, and newly commissioned asa lieutenant in the United States Army, he was sent to the South Pacific to servewith the 57th Infantry of the Philippine Scouts. It was January, 1942. TheJapanese had just seized Philippine ports at Vigan, Legazpi, Lamon Bay, andLingayen, and forced the American and Philippine forces to retreat into Bataan, arugged peninsula on the South China Sea. There, besieged and outnumbered, theAmericans set to work building a defensive line, digging foxholes andconstructing dikes and clearing underbrush to provide unobstructed sight lines forrifles and machine guns. Nininger's men were on the line's right flank. Theylabored day and night. The heat and the mosquitoes were nearly unbearable.

Quiet by nature, Nininger was tall and slender, with wavy blond hair. As FranklinM. Reck recounts in "Beyond the Call of Duty," Nininger had graduated near thetop of his class at West Point, where he chaired the lecture-and-entertainmentcommittee. He had spent many hours with a friend, discussing everything fromhistory to the theory of relativity. He loved the theatre. In the evenings, he couldoften be found sitting by the fireplace in the living room of his commandingofficer, sipping tea and listening to Tchaikovsky. As a boy, he once saw his fatherkill a hawk and had been repulsed. When he went into active service, he wrote a
http://www.thebackofthenapkin.com/http://todoodlist.com/http://www.mindmeister.com/13193859http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_09_20_a_personality.htmlhttp://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_09_20_a_personality.htmlhttp://www.thebackofthenapkin.com/http://www.thebackofthenapkin.com/http://www.thebackofthenapkin.com/http://todoodlist.com/http://todoodlist.com/http://todoodlist.com/http://www.mindmeister.com/13193859http://www.mindmeister.com/13193859http://www.mindmeister.com/13193859http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_09_20_a_personality.htmlhttp://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_09_20_a_personality.htmlhttp://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_09_20_a_personality.htmlhttp://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_09_20_a_personality.htmlhttp://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_09_20_a_personality.htmlhttp://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_09_20_a_personality.html


4/5

friend to say that he had no feelings of hate, and did not think he could ever killanyone out of hatred. He had none of the swagger of the natural warrior. Heworked hard and had a strong sense of duty.

In the second week of January, the Japanese attacked, slipping hundreds of snipersthrough the American lines, climbing into trees, turning the battlefield into what

Reck calls a "gigantic possum hunt." On the morning of January 12th, Niningerwent to his commanding officer. He wanted, he said, to be assigned to anothercompany, one that was in the thick of the action, so he could go hunting forJapanese snipers.

He took several grenades and ammunition belts, slung a Garand rifle over hisshoulder, and grabbed a sub machine gun. Starting at the point where the fightingwas heaviestnear the position of the battalion's K Companyhe crawledthrough the jungle and shot a Japanese soldier out of a tree. He shot and killedsnipers. He threw grenades into enemy positions. He was wounded in the leg, buthe kept going, clearing out Japanese positions for the other members of KCompany, behind him. He soon ran out of grenades and switched to his rifle, and

then, when he ran out of ammunition, used only his bayonet. He was wounded asecond time, but when a medic crawled toward him to help bring him back behindthe lines Nininger waved him off. He saw a Japanese bunker up ahead. As heleaped out of a shell hole, he was spun around by a bullet to the shoulder, but hekept charging at the bunker, where a Japanese officer and two enlisted men weredug in. He dispatched one soldier with a double thrust of his bayonet, clubbeddown the other, and bayonetted the officer. Then, with outstretched arms, hecollapsed face down. For his heroism, Nininger was posthumously awarded theMedal of Honor, the first American soldier so decorated in the Second World War.(http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_09_20_a_personality.html)

After relating this story Gladwell argues that no test could have

predicted Niningersstrengths. Consider another limitation of thesesurvey shown in the concept map below.


5/5

This map (also, available online athttp://www.mindmeister.com/13193859) shows four major ideas I aminterested in at the moment, superimposedupon the same plane. Inred we have the Clifton StrengthsFinder, in black the 360 degreeassessment categories, in green we have Peter Senges five disciplines,

and in pink critiques of StrengthsFindersand 360 degree assessments.This map is designed to show only part of the complexity we (at leastanyone entering into WKUs doctoral program) brings to the task athand in this particular moment. It is a crude and partial snapshot ofwhat Marvin Minsky called the society of mind. The reductionisttendency behind the map should at least give us pause as to thepermanent validity of their results. In other words, I dont trust em.

Even more devastating is the understanding that as much as half ofour disposition may be inherited and not readily accessible throughself-questioning surveys like the StrengthsFinder. Social psychologist

Timothy Wilsons work suggests that we are of two mindsone that isadaptive and unconscious (think Nininger in battle) and the otherconstructed (think StrengthsFinder). What I mean to say is verycommonsensical: strengths are emergent and may even come fromour so-called weaknesses,buried and genetic. The insight I draw fromthe 360 assessment and the StrengthsFinder is that I need to be awareas a leader of what emerges as I create with others. I believe thatthese emergent traits are measured in context and arise out of ourinteractions. Jung may have been only partly correct when he wrote,"Every individual is an exception to the rule To stick labels on peopleat first sight is nothing but a childish parlor game." This is far from a

childs game. We ignore at our peril the occasions for which we riseand fall for that is where we find our truest strengths.
http://www.mindmeister.com/13193859http://www.mindmeister.com/13193859http://www.mindmeister.com/13193859http://www.mindmeister.com/13193859

Documents

What is Strength? (Revised)