Since the beginning of January, I have been doing some leadership and strength building classes. These have been unbelievably helpful to me as I am leading our team of teachers. The first thing I had to do was take the Clifton Strengths Assessment so I could know my top 5 strengths. This was a bit like a personality test, but I loved that it was automatically focusing on the positives. The idea is to take these strengths and make them known in our every day lives. 

So, my top 5 are Discipline, Responsibility, Harmony, Relator, and Maximizer. What do these mean? It means that I love to be organized, and that I thrive in routine and structure. When I have everything in order, I can think more clearly. The "responsibility" in me says I am dependable and I am always wondering what I can do better. With "harmony", this strengths allows me to listen and be straightforward with my thoughts. I don't like conflict, so I'm always looking for agreement. I enjoy close relationships with others and I find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal- this is my "relator". Lastly, my "maximizer"  means I am always trying to be better in what I'm doing. I like to take something strong and turn it into something superb. I think this is especially true in picking strong teachers and putting us together to make our team superb. It may sound a little corny, but I believe whole-heartedly in this!

So, all of the teachers took the strengths assessment. Together, we are very strong in our strategic thinking and executing tasks. 5 teachers have "achiever" in their top 5! Our other strong area as a team is in relationship building. Obviously, this is pretty important as we work together with our students, parents, and teachers. As you can see below, we are not strong in "influencing", so it doesn't sound like we are going to be taking charge- maybe we let our students direct us??