Taking The Clifton Strengths Test
A few months ago, I took the CliftonStrengths assessment as part of a course at WGU. I’ll be honest — I went into it thinking it would be another generic personality test that would tell me things I already knew about myself.
I was wrong.
The results hit differently. Not because they revealed some hidden truth, but because they gave me language for patterns I’d felt my whole life but couldn’t quite articulate. My top five strengths came back as Learner, Futuristic, Strategic, Input, and Ideation — all clustered in what they call “Strategic Thinking.”
Reading that report was like having someone hold up a mirror and say:
“This is why you think the way you think.”
Why I’ve Always Wanted to Be a Student
My number one strength? Learner.
The description talked about people who have “a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve” and find the process of learning just as important as the knowledge they gain.
That landed hard.
I’ve been saying “I would be a professional student if I could” since my Delgado days fifteen years ago. Back then, I thought it was just a throwaway line. Turns out, it was describing my core operating system.
That realization was huge because it explained why I struggled for so many years to find my place professionally. I was trying to fit into roles that didn’t feed my need to learn and grow. It wasn’t until I discovered IT — a field where yesterday’s cutting-edge becomes today’s legacy — that everything clicked.
When Curiosity Sounds Like Criticism
Take my Input and Ideation strengths. They make me naturally curious about how things work and why decisions are made. When I encounter a process, my instinct is to ask questions.
“Why do we handle it this way instead of that way?”
“What led to this decision originally?”
“Have we considered this alternative?”
To me, those questions come from genuine curiosity. But I learned the hard way that not everyone hears it that way.
During my warehouse years, I once asked a manager why we were logging errors manually instead of updating the scanner system directly. His response was sharp: “Because that’s the way it is, Jeff — just do it.”
What I meant was, “Help me understand the reasoning so I can work more effectively.” What he heard was, “You’re wrong.”
That disconnect followed me for years. I wasn’t trying to be difficult — I was trying to understand. But without considering how my approach landed with others, my curiosity looked like criticism.
Stephen Covey’s advice — “Seek first to understand, then to be understood” — finally clicked. I realized I needed to frame my questions differently, not to hide my curiosity, but to make sure it served collaboration instead of creating friction.
Strategic Thinking: Gift and Challenge
My Strategic strength helps me see patterns and generate multiple options quickly. That’s useful when solving complex problems, but it can create challenges in collaborative settings.
I tend to jump straight to solutions before the group has fully explored the problem. While my teammates are working through the fundamentals, I’m already three steps ahead, comparing different paths.
It’s not about being “faster” — it’s about skipping steps in the collaborative process. Once I understood this, I learned to pause and start with context:
- “What are we really trying to solve here?”
- “What constraints are we working within?”
- “What does success look like?”
It’s not about changing how I think. It’s about making sure my strengths fit into the team’s rhythm instead of pulling ahead of it.
Working With My Strengths, Not Against Them
For years, I fought against my natural tendencies. I tried to suppress my curiosity so I wouldn’t look difficult. I slowed down my problem-solving to “match” others. I focused on immediate tasks instead of thinking about what might come next.
None of that worked. It just made me frustrated and less effective.
Now I approach things differently:
- I channel curiosity productively. Instead of firing off blunt questions, I frame them around collaboration: “I want to understand the context so I can contribute more effectively. Can you walk me through how we got here?”
- I use strategic thinking as a service. I’ll say: “I’m seeing a few different ways we could tackle this. Would it be useful if I walked through them?”
- I embrace being a learner. Instead of feeling guilty about always wanting to learn, I’ve made it central to my career. Every project is a chance to deepen a skill.
- I accept that Input isn’t a distraction. Collecting information — articles, courses, ideas — isn’t scatterbrained. It’s a resource I can pull from when solving problems.
The Real Value of Understanding Your Operating System
Here’s what I wish someone had told me years ago:
“There’s nothing wrong with how your brain naturally works. The problems come when you don’t understand it — or when you try to fight against it.”
Understanding your strengths isn’t about putting yourself in a box. It’s about:
- Choosing environments where you can thrive
- Communicating more effectively with people who think differently
- Recognizing when your strengths might be creating blind spots
- Framing your contributions in ways that energize instead of alienate
The most effective teams aren’t made up of people who all think the same way. They’re made up of people who know how they think, and can work productively with others who think differently.
Questions Worth Asking Yourself
You don’t need a formal assessment to start this kind of reflection. Try asking yourself:
- What kinds of tasks naturally energize you? What drains you?
- How do you process new information — big picture first, or details step by step?
- What feedback do you get most often? Are there patterns in how people respond to your style?
- When you’re at your best, what conditions bring that out?
The goal isn’t to excuse shortcomings. It’s to understand your starting point so you can grow authentically, rather than trying to become someone you’re not.
Understanding yourself isn’t just about personal development — it’s about becoming someone others actually want to work with.
For me, that’s part of my larger Odyssey: learning, adapting, and seeking new horizons.
What patterns have you noticed in how you naturally approach problems or process information?