Strengths

When I started looking at research to decide what interested me, I came upon the subject of Positive Organizational Studies (POS). Building on the work coming from Positive Psychology, this area of research focused on looking at what good companies did well instead of diagnosing where poor or ailing companies were suffering (just as positive psychology focuses on wellness and strength instead of illness and weakness). I loved it, but in the end, I moved away from the subject simply because, as one professor, organizational behavior research often seems like too much "navel gazing" (meaning looking too much at minute details instead of the bigger picture). Still I find the mindset very invigorating.

This past week, I came across a book my mother-in-law had called StrengthsFinder 2.0. I knew it must have come from that school of positive psychology, and after reading it I saw that the author was a graduate of Michigan, which is one of the major players in that area of research. Since I love reading about self improvement and ways to help people accomplish it, I picked up a copy of that book as well as Strengths Based Leadership which focuses on using a strength set understand what sort of leadership style a person has. Each book comes with an access code to the StrengthsFinder 2.0 test, which takes about 35 minutes to answer before it gives the five strengths. My five were Maximizer, Individualization, Strategic, Context, and Futuristic. The leadership book breaks those into four areas: Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking. None of my five fell into Executing, Maximizer (my strongest) falls under influencing, Individualization falls under Relationship Building, and the rest fall under Strategic Thinking.

I loved that I wrote a post about potential days before taking the test, and so much of my result focused on my desire to maximize my own and others' potential. Maximizer itself focuses on maximizing strengths. I felt sure I would have other strengths, but the ones I thought fit me correlate very nicely into the five I have, especially when the five are put together.

If I had to boil the five strengths down into who I am, I would say it something like this: I like to help people improve themselves and their lot in life by getting to know them, seeing where they excel or have potential to do so, and encouraging them to focus in those areas. Basically, the goal of the book is very much the goal of my life, to help people focus on the positive and the good in themselves and make the most of it. Their research fits very well with my own experience: people find greater happiness and fulfillment when they work on improving strengths and doing what they love than if they focus on their weaknesses and getting rid of their problems. Focusing on strength often has a way of overshadowing or eradicating those very weaknesses. It might not make them go away, but it might help a person realize a better way to move past them.

One great piece of advice I got from a speaker about nine years ago was, "Sinatra never set up his piano." What he meant was that Frank Sinatra knew his talent - to sing and play music - and he only focused on those talents. If Sinatra had spent more time learning to get his piano ready, he might never have become Ole Blue Eyes to the world. As StrengthsFinder 2.0 states and I have seen, being well-rounded sounds great, but in the end, it is those who are truly exceptional at a particular skill or set of skills that we remember, and that we follow. People look up to and admire those who have maximized their talents much more so than those who have spent a lot of time becoming a jack-of-all-trades. Surgeons don't sterilize instruments and operating rooms (nor would we want them to) - they focus on knowing how to use those instruments in that operating room to remedy some internal problem.

Ours is a world of specialists, probably more so than ever before. I do believe in knowing a little about a lot of things, but I have learned more and more the value of knowing a lot about a few things. As I begin my career in research, I will hopefully become a master of my area. I might even become a name known for a given area of study. One thing is sure, though: I will never accomplish that feat if spend my time on too many different subjects instead of focusing.

-- Robert

Almost Home

This afternoon or evening, we should get back to our little rental house, having been on a long odyssey. We've met wonderful people, gotten to know some better who I'd already met, and hopefully began some friendships. We each had our own highlights from this trip, of course, but all in all, it has been wonderful for the whole family. My wife loved seeing her folks, getting to know some new people, and seeing a new place she'd never been before. The kids loved seeing their grandparents, going to museums and parks, and the musical number played by one of the professors we visited.

That song was definitely one for me, especially since it was the same professor about whom I wrote not long ago. He is truly a gifted, amazing man. I look forward to getting to know him better. I think I will have a great chance to do that in the coming months and years, since I have unofficially accepted the unofficial offer as I await the official offer information next week some time. I know there are more schools to hear from, but I know in my heart I have found a place that can become our new home, at least for a time. I never dreamed I would have the opportunity they are offering me. The professors want to send me things to work on before I even get there so I can (quoting the professor) "get to where most students are after their first year before [I] start." I am still humbled to get such an offer. I know living up to his expectations and hopes for me will spur me to greater heights than simply working with just anyone might. I have had many wonderful mentors throughout my life that have helped me stay motivated to work hard because I respected them so much. It will be great to have the mentors and hopefully friends at this school.

I will write the name of the school on this blog when I get the official offer and accept it. I am just very excited to find out more about it and get to work. For now, I have about ten books to read along with several academic research papers. My future professor is sending me a book written by another future professor so I can learn and understand his mind better. He also suggested some great novels, and I thought I would at least give them a try, if for no other reason than to see what he enjoys. I've got three books I'm sending him that I know he will enjoy based on the collection of novels I saw on his bookshelf. On top of the novels, I'm reading StrengthFinder 2.0 and Strengths Based Leadership at the suggestion of my mother-in-law. They are short books with a large compendium of strengths in the back, or in the case of the Leadership book a compendium of how to lead from a perspective of a given strength and how to lead someone with that strength. It seems like something I could use in a future class, possibly. I love books that encourage people to get to know themselves better. Since both books come with an online code for a web-based test to help the reader find out his top five strengths, they really are a great resource for anyone who could use a little introspective examination.

I might list my top five, if anyone has any interest. For now, I need to rest up a bit more before driving the last leg of this journey.

-- Robert

Opportunity

What better topic for this blog than opportunity? But what is opportunity? Perhaps more appropriately, how do opportunities happen? Researchers observe that they come in three main forms: recognition, discovery, or creation. I thought I would define those in simple terms for the fun of it.

Recognition: If a supply (i.e., a product or service) exists and there is a demand (i.e., a market, people want it) that has not been tapped into yet, then that is opportunity recognition. If someone starts a business to sell bread in a town where people already buy bread, then that might be a recoginition opportunity.

Discovery: If a supply exists that has not found a demand, or a demand is looking for something to satisfy it, then an opportunity might be discovered. An example might be a new cleaning product that replaces something most people already use, then the demand for the new cleaning product is not clear and needs to be discovered through attempts to sell it. Alternately, if people are looking for such a cleaning product but it does not exist, then the opportunity exists to create it to meet that demand.

Creation: If neither the supply of a product nor the demand for it is known, then a creation opportunity exists. One idea might be the first cell phone invented, or the personal computer when it first came on the market. The products did not exist, and no one knew whether anyone wanted them. Their designers created an entirely new market when they made the product and got people to buy it.

Entrepreneurs look for any or all of these opportunities. Like the definition from yesterday, whenever the market is not bringing a transaction into existence that should happen, entrepreneurship happens. People who are looking for the chance to make those things happen are therefore entrepreneurs by definition.

-- Robert

Potential

Looking back at my life, at what first made me want to become a professor, and at what I want to do now that I am going to, I realize one word best describes what I see as my focus: potential. I want to help people, groups, and organizations find their fullest, best potential. The courses I first wanted to teach were about helping students see the value of service, but also in seeing the value of knowing what they wanted for themselves. Courses that help students consider their strengths, seeing what those strengths suggest they might pursue as a career, and then using their college courses as a means to get to that career as they build a skillset rather than pass a list of required courses.

That is what I want to do with my life and career. If I can find a way to research it and improve my teaching, so much the better. To me, finding the focus that comes from having a path has a way of energizing people, and afterwards their lives are so much more fulfilling as a result of that direction. To me, that is what my faith has always taught me as well. Finding our full potential is why we are all here. So here's hoping I can make this happen. I know the professors I plan to work with want to help me do just that. What more could I hope for?

-- Robert

Acceptance

Yesterday I received my first unofficial acceptance letter, with the real offer to follow soon. I am excited to know at least one place - and in this case, one place I would love to go - wants me. I am looking forward to hearing the deal, but I am glad to know there is one. I would like to know what some of the other schools are thinking now, but one is enough.

-- Robert

Another Definition of Entrepreneurship

In that conversation from Monday I mentioned, I heard one of the best definitions of entrepreneurship yet. The professor said, "When transactions that should occur are not occurring in the market, that is where entrepreneurship happens." What a perfect way to describe something. Often people see a need unserviced and think, "I can start a business and make money to serve that need." Some businesses (like the one I presently work in) are formed out of the need for middle men in a marketplace - brokers, as they are most often termed. Brokers facilitate the meeting of two sides of a transaction - a buyer and a seller of real estate, a truck needing a load and a shipper needing freight moved, or simply a consumer wanting a product and a producer needing a way to get it to them. Retailers are brokers in that way. They stock goods for producers so that consumers can purchase them. Most (if not all businesses) grew out of an observation that transactions were being missed, for lack of a better term.

One of the most enjoyable class discussions I've heard on this subject was with the man who created the Multi List Service (MLS) for realtors. He had a friend in real estate, and he noticed the box of listings that seemed extremely unwieldy when it became necessary to find a type of home in a given area. He asked his friend, "Do you think people would be interested in a catalog of those listings?" His friend knew they would be, and so MLS was born. He knew nothing about printing at all, nor was he much of a photographer (the idea was to take a picture of a home and put it in a book with its relevant information on location, size, and numbers of bedrooms and bathrooms). He had a friend who took the pictures for him, and he went to work learning how to run a printing press, mostly on a trial and error basis. When he was just about to sign a one-year contract with the realtors board in his area, they asked very casually in a meeting, "Can you make it in color?" He agreed, but in his own words, "If printing in black and white is like walking across this room, printing in color was like flying to the moon." Still, he learned how and he produced his catalog in color. One lesson he said he learned was to get a contract whenever possible. That gave him the chance to screw up a few times without losing the business altogether. Some years later, he sold MLS for an undisclosed sum (most likely tens of millions). He kept the amount unpublished so his children would never know how much he had and therefore they would not lose their drive to make something of themselves.

I am now reading an article by the professor who gave me that wonderful definition. I look forward to finding more of his work, and perhaps to getting the chance to work with him soon.

-- Robert

Personality Types

Melissa had a post a few days ago about personality types. More specifically, she shared an interesting tool called the typealyzer which analyzes the writing on a blog and suggests what personality type the author might be. For me, it said I was an INTP - a thinker (also labelled a wizard by other sources). For anyone unfamiliar with Myers-Briggs, they create tests to help people determine things about themselves. The 16 personality types come from the combinations of the four areas which each have two possibilities:
1) Introvert / Extrovert
2) iNtuitive / Sensor
3) Thinker / Feeler
4) Perceiver / Judger

Each set of paired elements represents two different ways people deal with situations, people, data... life. I love these tests, and I find the characterizations of types are sometimes spot on for people, but anyone that scores close to the middle on one area might find himself somewhat poorly described. For example, almost every time I have taken a Myers-Briggs test (two officially, several simplified versions), I tend to score exactly equal (or within a point or two) on introvert and extrovert. As a result, the part of an introverted type that suggests a disconnection with people does not fit me very well. As I said to my wife, I don't look at people as something in my way - I am much more likely to treat a new person as a problem to solve or understand, just like any other part of life. Once I have understood a person, then I can deal with them more appropriately. That's perhaps where my extrovert side kicks in - I love to be in a group of people, sharing stories and anecdotes. Once I warm up, I have a lot of fun with people, and I rarely get so introverted that I get completely distant in a group setting. That's probably why I think the ENTP type fits me better - the Innovator. I find it even a little funny that I make this connection - the type description points out the tendency to see connections in almost anything - but I notice that ENTP would make a great abbreviation for entrepreneur and innovator would be a great description for one. So my personality type might well describe the very thing I hope to research for the rest of my life.

How do I explain the INTP side showing up on my blog? Simple: my writing here is very personal and focused on my interests. Of course it comes off like an introvert, especially since my recent posts are about career pursuits and research I'm reading. I leave a lot of the writing about my family to my wife. That's why her blog shows her extroversion more clearly. She writes about things outside of herself quite often. What type did it say she was? ESFP - the performer. That's definitely something that fits what she writes about, but in reading the ENTP personality type, she and I both agree, it describes her almost to a fault. In short, I don't assume that a test can tell me who I am, at least not entirely. It just might shed some light on my mindset as I approach life and help me consider if I am not considering how another person might see it differently. I know one thing: I look forward to teaching students about the importance of self awareness, which Myers-Briggs does a lot to strengthen.

-- Robert