Tip of My Iceberg

We stared at charts and colors, pyramids and ants.

Nothing to do with designing or creating anything. Quite the opposite, in fact. More along the lines of personal discovery of who we as a team are as individuals.

I’m trained and certified in doing several assessments. I understand the value of them in helping people find better job placement, work in teams more efficiently and effectively, and create more productivity and positive attitudes toward workplaces.

I also know the ugly underbelly of assessments. Where folks use them as weapons to ward off possible job responsibilities saying, “I can’t do that.” “That’s not me at all.” “I’ll just mess it up.”

Assessments aren’t excuses to not do something. They’re to open minds about the possibilities of what can be done, thinking outside a very structured box.

Going through an assessment with my team was a fun and informational. Not just because I know these people fairly well, but because I thought I knew enough.

We all had “aha” moments as we unpacked our individual talents, seeing how we each step out and show up. We used an assessment called CoreClarity, based on Clifton’s Strength Assessment. It identifies our top five strengths, areas of natural gifting, that are the building blocks of personal success.

I didn’t recognize David had a deep desire to leave a legacy of hope for his family and those whose lives he touches. I didn’t realize how profoundly James empathized with folks who are hurting and misunderstood. I didn’t know Alex was such an incredible thinker, or that Jill was able to synthesize information so well and so quickly.

I’d seen all these people operate out of their strengths, but to put words with the profiles and draw team comparisons on how we operate was life-giving.

Not everybody acts or thinks like me.

We do have a tendency to act like we all respond the same way to life. Because we limit our thinking to our personal grid. With the influence of our own story.

How easy is it to make everything about me? Using myself as the basis for comparison or criticism, my world becomes very small and shallow. To recognize that family values and experiences, skills and talents impact how people deal with life makes it easier to embrace and receive what others do. I don’t have to take it personally.

Jesus has co-authored with us our life stories, whether we recognize it or not. His fingerprints are all over our lives, in the investment of talents He’s given each of us to the individuals who populate our stories.

Not all people or circumstances are good. Many want to blame God for pain and suffering, loss and unfairness. He alone can use those things to help us grow into stronger people able to deal with the brokenness of this life.

People are the ones who’ve broken life and let us down. People disappoint and hurt us.

We are those people.

Learning to recognize the talent and good in others gives us the capacity to believe the best.

Taking time to really see people for who they are? Who I really am?

Life changing.