Despite my thoughts about playing to your passions no matter what, I have found great value in the Strengthsfinder 2.0 assessment. Truth be told, I’m a big fan of assessments because of the value they add to our self-awareness even as we are self-reporting in our responses. We can gain insights on our behaviorial styles (DiSC), personality preferences ( MBTI® ), and in the case of the Strengthsfinder, our top five themes of talent.

If you have conversations with each of the experts in those respective fields about your results and then synthesize that data, it can be a really powerful tool to enhance your productivity levels not only in business or professionally but in your daily lives.

My friend and colleague, Kim Beasley and I started talking about benefits of the Strengthsfinder again last month and we were both driven to write about how it plays a role in our lives–particularly in business. After reading about my top five talents which are the Learner, Input, Activator, Ideation, Maximizer themes, I realized consciously what could benefit me even more as well as consciously thinking about my own communication and productivity styles as I live my life and run my business. My report also showed how my talents might relate to one another.

So I encourage you to buy Tom Rath’s book, and find out about your top five and see how you can also consciously benefit in your business and in life. I could end the post here. It’s certainly long enough as blog posts go but in the spirit of transparency, I thought I’d share excerpts of my own results to show the assessment’s power.

In fact, how about I break this down into parts and use myself as a Strengthsfinder case study as described in my report. The following are brief definitions and Carol-specific Personalized Strengths Insights excerpts from each of my top five themes:

Those with the Learner theme talent are on a continuous learning and improvement path and love the journey. “By nature, you have little difficulty giving intense effort to projects, problems, or opportunities that capture and keep your attention.”

People who have the Input theme love to know more and archive all kinds of information. “Driven by your talents, you can simplify the most complex, convoluted, or intricate procedure. People usually rely on you to offer clear and easy-to-comprehend explanations.”

Those with the Activator talent can make things happen by turning thoughts into action. “Your forthcoming nature might enable some people to share their thoughts and feelings with you. By nature, you are somewhat comfortable talking about yourself. You may also enjoy listening to people describe their talents, limitations, goals, worries, or successes. Perhaps these insights help you discover what someone thinks or feels. Maybe you acquire information about the individual’s style of thinking, learning, working, playing, problem solving, or studying. Because of your strengths, you periodically stir people’s emotions by motivating them to take action.”

People who have talent in the Ideation theme are able to find connections between seemingly varied phenomena. “Instinctively, you might channel some of your energy toward what you can accomplish in the coming months, years, or decades. Periodically your mind churns out new and inventive ways of reaching your desired goals… Driven by your talents, you regard yourself as logical and reasonable. You spontaneously reduce mechanisms, processes, proposals, ideas, or formulas to their basic parts. You figure out how the pieces interrelate. Your discoveries tell you why something does or does not function the way it should.”

And last but certainly not least, the Maximizer theme folks seek to transform something strong into something superb. “Instinctively, you customarily figure out what makes each person special. You talk to, observe, or study individuals who produce nothing less than excellence to identify what inspires them… You strive to honor everyone’s uniqueness and preferences. Understanding a person’s ambitions gives you insights into the type of support, training, experiences, partnerships, and nurturing he or she needs to thrive.”

So there you have it! If you have read this far, picture me cheering and thanking you profusely! I recognize that this post is longer than usual. And I hope my case study will inspire you to check out the tool for yourself so you can consciously focus on what you know makes you shine!

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rod Alan Richardson, Business Consultant and Trainer. He supported what I believe and what so many other successful entrepreneurs have proven: That the time it takes to deliver value and the amount of money received for that value don’t necessarily have a direct relationship. Expediency and quality is a powerful combination. By the way, some of Rod’s cool deliverables include the following:

• Escalated an equipment manufacturer from $5 Million to $12 Million in 9 months
• Built an Ecommerce business from idea to $30 Million in 18 months creating partnerships and leading strategies that attracted 3 million visitors per month
• Designed a marketing strategy that attracted a $20 million capitalization into an Internet Technology company

He shared some great strategies that will help you not only increase your business productivity in less time but also create more value in the process.

I was so energized and inspired by his wisdom, and I hope you will be too. Click here, and give it a listen!

I could relate so well to the personal stories of struggle that JoLynn shared but what really got me was how she has come to live the process of effortless weight loss. Now you might wonder what weight loss, health, and fitness has to do with productivity…well, that’s what our call was about! So if you’d like to learn how you can be more productive and leverage your greatest resources (time, money, and energy) better in 2009 then you can listen to the recording of my call with JoLynn Braley.

To get the details on how to listen in just register here and you’ll be on your way to getting fitter and more productive in 2009.

(Be sure to register now because she told me that the recording will only be available until Tuesday, Jan 20 at 6pm EST!)

Here’s an update! I had the opportunity to interview her again on my Productivity Talk show on the 21st, so you can listen to her strategies by clicking HERE! Enjoy!

I know so many creative people–especially entrepreneurs who sometimes get stuck in inertia at the prospect of kicking things up a notch. I certainly haven’t been immune. But there are a number of tools on my belt that I’ve accumulated over the years to help me become unstuck fairly quickly. Some days are easier than others, but without the tools, I know I’d back to square one! So let’s all amp it up a notch!

Amp it up!

Are you overwhelmed or possibly in the throes of procrastination…? Or maybe you’re an “over-achiever” accomplishing plenty by others’ standards, but it’s never enough to you. If any of that rang true for you, listen in for 45 minutes and find out how to change your relationship with time and your environment. The majority of people don’t get to live their dreams, because they don’t make things happen in a timely fashion.

Tune in now:

She was very successful in both the corporate world and in running her own business. However, like many of us, she reached a point where there just wasn’t enough of her to go around. As a result, she suffered a physical “melt-down” that required her to take a year off to heal.

During that year, she found she only had the stamina to “work” for a maximum of 15 minutes at any one time. This led to several discoveries about optimizing efforts to achieve ultimate results. As she healed her way back, she found many other people were headed in the same direction – towards burnout and frustration – and without a guidepost in sight!

Ann used her experience (and her desire to help others) to create her famous “Flip Your Time” program that allows people to create amazing results using chunks of just 15 minutes at a time. So take 30 minutes out of your day to listen in as she shares some of her strategies!

Audio Interview With Ann Rusnak

• environment,
• framework,
• experiences, and
• level of expertise with the technology out there.

I’ve always been surrounded by some sort of technology guru since the early 90s, and while I’m not an early adopter when it comes to purchasing new technology (more like early majority), I will definitely check out a new tech toy that’s recommended to me from someone I respect if it’s free to see if it would be beneficial to me and/or my business.

I’m also not afraid of technology and I love to engage all my learning styles when figuring it out–mostly visual/kinesthetic–I hate reading the manuals on- or offline!

But it has to work for me psychologically as well, I’ve found–especially with all the choices out there (more on that in a forthcoming post!). Facebook, Twitter, and podcasting do that for me.

About a month ago, I wrote about all the choices within traditional internet marketing and new media marketing and the only “comments” I got were on Twitter and they had a similar theme: “Too many choices to comment!” or “My head hurts! Let me think about that one for a while” That’s telling in and of itself!

So on the hindrance side, “overwhelmed by the choices” could fit right in. Another hindrance could be the “way too dependent on the technology” syndrome.

For example, I recently came back from a trip to the Mountains in Taos, NM and admittedly had a little anxiety about the fact that there would definitely be no cell phone service, and not knowing if I was going to have internet access nearby. I was so afraid, even with my vacation auto-responder that I’d be so overwhelmed when I got back.

I was worried about what I would miss in the social networking world since it changes so quickly. And we won’t even talk about my potential Twitter withdrawals–I tend to learn the most about the latest and greatest updates there along with satisfying my need to connect with like-minded people!

So imagine my visible relief when we discovered that there was a computer lab in walking distance from the cabin that had wi-fi and actual desktop computers…and printers! I did have to cancel a webinar since I couldn’t be on the phone (land line was in the cabin) and on the computer in the same room, but other than that, I really have to say that my anxiety levels went back down to zero when I saw what was available.

I knew intellectually that unplugging for a week wouldn’t have killed me, but emotionally I wasn’t so sure! I really do see the benefits of the technology when you have a strategy in place (which I definitely have). You’ve probably heard the old saying, “Technology is great…when it works!” I really believe that.

So what do you think?

Do we depend too much on the technology?

Are we bombarded too much by all the choices? Or

Do you have a strategy in place so that the technology works for you rather than your being a slave to the technology? Would love to read your thoughts!

–Carol Dickson-Carr

In each instance, my thought immediately went to her being overwhelmed. Even though the payoff would be an allowance, she often wanted to forgo the money to get out of doing it! That is, until I reminded her of strategies to getting it done without the task feeling as daunting, with the biggest tip being: take baby steps and prioritize by working on one area of the room or category at a time (i.e., school papers, then shoes, then stuffed animals, etc.). But truth be told, she has no real passion for cleaning her room.

When we coach our adult clients, or sometimes when we are being coached or mentored ourselves, there is also often a similar trend of resistance in some cases. This can be true whether we’re dealing with grunt work that doesn’t light us up (One word to that: Outsource!) or if we have been presented with quite a few cool tools that can help our businesses in the long run.

Let’s stay with the Web 2.0 theme: Introducing blogging, podcasting, video creation, talk radio, and social networks to people who are totally new to it in a six week period have sometimes invoked these types of interjections:

“I feel like I’ve been sprayed with a fire hose of information!”

“How can I incorporate it all?”

“I don’t have enough time.”

“I am not a techie!”

“AAAAAAHHHH!”

The baby steps and prioritizing come in handy again. And so does breathing. If rotating between using all the tools while learning them doesn’t float your boat after getting introduced to them, try this: Figure out which tool interests you the most and carve out a specified time daily or every other day to become one with it until you master it, and then move on to the next favorite and repeat the process.

And remember, you don’t have to take this journey alone. Take advantage of all the resources out there. The ones I listed in the previous blog post are just a starting point.

So tell me, if you have a favorite Web 2.0 tool, what is it and why?

If you haven’t tried out any of the tools, I’d also like to know why?

My inquiring mind wants to know!

–Carol Dickson-Carr

Once you dive into the tools (My Colleague Bea Fields & I can help you with that too!), here are a few more resources worth checking out in the Web 2.0 community–these are people I’ve built relationships with in a social networking framework and they are also excellent at what they do:

Facebook Goddess: Mari Smith

For Business Blogging Experts: Denise Wakeman & Patsi Krakoff of The Blog Squad

Twitter Experts: Deb Micek and Warren Whitlock

Video (and integrating all the tools): Sherman Hu

WordPress Expert: Kim Beasley

Folks who know me know I am the hugest advocate of storytelling. Check out Carla Young’s program for more on that!

And for more on time mastery, check out Ann Rusnak (The Time Diva!).

And the list goes on!