Looking Inward, Planning Forward: Self-Assessment Of My Cliftonstrengths

This brief describes my CliftonStrengths of developer, restorative, relator, harmony, and empathy by connecting them to my actions and experiences. It is divided into four sections: purpose, background, professional development plan, and conclusion. The purpose gives an introduction to what will be discussed throughout the paper. Next, the background discusses how my strengths influenced my actions and experience in a past activity. The professional development plan lists the workshops I plan to attend and the skills, insight, and information I would like to gain from them and how it relates to my future goals. Finally, the conclusion summarizes my strengths, skills I would like to gain, and goals.

All throughout middle school and high school, I volunteered as an interpreter for "La Merced”, an American non-profit organization that provides medical care in poor public clinics and in “La Chureca”, a community made from scratch in one of the poorest areas of Nicaragua. The people living in “La Chureca” built their homes and living spaces from the waste of nearby towns. During my time there, I learned to use my skills to make the patients feel comfortable and safe, ensure accurate communication, and solve any difficult or unfamiliar situations we encountered.

Listening to people’s stories and challenges widened my mindset and opened me up to a world that was previously undiscovered. I had always heard about poverty but had neither been able to put a “face” to it nor understand its effect on people. I learned about the different ways I could help patients feel healed with encouraging words, demonstrating usage of empathy. Patients should feel understood, listened to, and taken care of, so I would try to place myself in their particular situations, give them advice about their problems, and be a person they could talk to. I would listen to them talk about their lives, work, and challenges while complimenting their efforts and pointing out the positive things in their lives. Some patients would be angry or frustrated for various reasons such as fear, pain, or tiredness. I would be in charge of talking to them and calming them down; with time, I learned that the best way was to simply listen to them and try to relate to their feelings. My relator, empathy, and harmony strengths helped me to develop meaningful and friendly relationships with patients which made communication and facilitating treatment a lot easier. Good relationships with the doctors were also important in terms of helping them understand the culture and impact they were having on people’s lives. I would tell them how thankful people were and how vital their roles were in the success of the organization and our mission. I wanted everyone to feel successful in their role and realize the impact they were making on the Nicaraguan community. As a developer, I want to make sure people succeed and feel accomplished when performing well. My restorative strength was very useful when faced with challenges such as lack of space, clean rooms, and equipment at “La Chureca.” As the only translator in a small group of six, I had to think fast and find ways to organize and prioritize people. I decided that we should take care of families first since parents were getting their children sick, and then I organized people depending on the severity of their disease or injury. I had to remember the symptoms and place people with similar cases in the same part of the room and I had to do so by the time the doctors were ready for their patients. Most people had fevers, infections, injuries, and diarrhea, which was quite unsurprising given the lack of sanitary conditions in the community. Quickly, I realized that the way doctors were seeing patients was inefficient. After giving it some thought, I came up with another way to organize everything: one doctor would take care of all the infections, another doctor would take care of injuries, and so on. This not only made communication easier, but it also helped me remember the problems each person had depending on the doctor I had assigned them. It was hard to organize everything as we only had a small room to look after more than thirty people. I was the only official translator as the other lady helping me was still learning Spanish and had a hard time understanding and translating information. Overall, my restorative skills allowed me to work well with my team of doctors as well as prepare myself and others during the medical mission.

My Clifton. Strengths allowed me to be a successful translator during the medical mission as it made me valuable for solving problems, communicating effectively with patients, helping them feel cared for and comfortable as well as promoting good teamwork and a sense of motivation among hardworking doctors. It was an unforgettable and learning experience filled with success and inspiration; moving forward, I would like to learn how to maximize these strengths, improve on my weaknesses, and figure out how to apply my strengths in my academic and professional development. I would like to learn how to use my skills to their full potential, improve my networking skills, and work on resume building in the Professional development track. Professional Development Plan I would like to learn networking, creativity, public speaking, time management, and critical thinking skills from the Professional Development track. Finding mentors and partners, gaining work experience by doing internships, and studying abroad are things I would expand upon through various campus engagements. I want to get involved and have experiences out of my comfort zone in order to be ready to face new situations and challenges when I graduate and enter the workforce. Having previous work experience and knowledge on the skills and norms in a professional setting is an advantage I would like to gain to aid my future career.

From the Professional Development Buffet List, I plan to attend the CliftonStrengths Debrief, the Preparing for 4 O’Clock, the Resume Cover Letter, and the Networking Elevator Pitch Workshops as well as the 5 x 10 Handshake 101 Meeting. The CliftonStrengths debrief workshop will help me understand my strengths and how to apply them to grow as a professional and as a person. One of my weaknesses is time and stress management, so the 4 O’Clock Workshop will help me improve on them in order to better accomplish challenging tasks in a more organized matter. The Resume and Cover letter workshop will help me to identify the connections between my strengths, experiences, skills, and weaknesses. The Networking, Elevator Pitch workshop will give me insight into how networking works and what connecting with people professionally entails. I enjoy making meaningful connections with people, but I generally get nervous when talking with much more experienced and successful individuals. I want to learn how to use my strengths of harmony, empathy, relator, restorative, and developer strengths to make a good impression and place myself in a position to become a potential employee. I want to learn how to discuss my experiences and tell my strengths and their importance academically, personally, and professionally. Furthermore, the 5 x 10 Handshake workshop will give me more information about how to connect with career development sources such as for internships, which is something I would really like to be part of early on. Gaining and improving these skills while also learning about networking, resumes, and internships constitutes a key part in achieving my long-term goals of setting myself up to be a good candidate and future business professional.

Beyond business, another engagement that supports my goals and learning objectives is English 001, since it is useful in helping me improve my critical thinking and getting a deeper understanding of the formation of ideas. I believe that being able to express oneself is integral to succeeding in the business world. I am still exploring the business world and looking into all areas in order to find the one that is right for me. The answer can be found in my strengths. I will ask myself if I can further apply my strengths in my area of study to make it a more effective and enjoyable learning experience. I am thinking about double majoring in marketing and management, as marketing deals with understanding people and their ways of thinking while management involves strategies, organization, and leadership. My Clifton strength of restorative helps me in problem solving, developer in organizing teams and strategies, relator in building good relationships with others, and harmony in creating a positive and motivational working environment.

Conclusion

My CliftonStrengths have guided me through different experiences and everyday life decisions, allowing me to undergo personal growth and success in the challenges and tasks placed before me. I am able to help build people’s strengths, promote good teamwork, communicate effectively, and empower people. These strengths are meaningful in the long term as they will help me to grow as an individual, student, and professional as well as create good relationships with others. They support me in achieving my goals by giving me the skills needed to succeed at different tasks, and I will give back by trying to improve on them through programs such as the Professional Development Plan. The skills and knowledge I gained from my experience at Lehigh will make me a better professional and job candidate, and is therefore significant to my future development, career, and self. I want to graduate with work experience, good networking skills, and a strong idea on how to use my strengths in any experience I am faced with. The potential benefits of developing my strengths and working on skills such as networking would be seen in my job position, overall performance, and level of happiness. My ultimate goal is to find a position that allows me to use the strengths I developed in my everyday life so I can excel in that role and grow as a person.