The president of a movie studio who was not exactly noted for his knowledge of the English language received a well-written story titled "The Optimist." After reading the manuscript, he called a gathering of the most creative minds and announced, "Gentlemen, we got us a great story here, but I want all of you to think of something simpler for a title. There ain't many people will know the technical term for eye doctor."

(Thank you to Flora Krasnoshtein of AMWA for this joke.)

I have to admit that when I needed to take the Gallup Poll's StrengthsFinder 2.0 skills assessment prior to teaching a writing class for people who had been unemployed for months, I was skeptical, even cynical, about the results. I had completed many assessments in my career; what could one more assessment do for me?

Well, I was wrong about the StrengthsFinder. I took the assessment online; the code to take the test is in the back of the book, which is available from Amazon for about $13. I received a detailed explanation of my five top strengths that felt very perceptive and on-target. I had always thought my life-long desire to learn was kind of "nerdy"; after reading the analysis of the strength of "Learner,"  I discovered ways to highlight that strength in my own resume/marketing materials.

What was most interesting, though, was to compare the results of my students who had the same strengths as I did. Their detailed analysis of, say, the strength of Responsibility was totally different than mine. StrengthsFinder is clearly a sophisticated tool that captures and highlights individual differences.

The best part was to work one-on-one with my students rebuilding their resumes after receiving their assessments. One woman had been apologetic about her work history, speaking negatively about its apparent incoherence. We wrote out her five strengths on the top of her draft and quickly identified how her three separate career moves demonstrated increasing responsibility and growth within her five strengths. Her shoulders relaxed and she started to smile more in class.

The theory behind StrengthsFinder 2.0 is that most training and development focuses on improving our weaknesses. That's all well and good, but this assessment suggests that we also identify our strengths, demonstrate them to our potential employers/clients, and focus on building our careers on our strengths. That makes a lot of sense to me.

By the way, my strengths as revealed in the assessment are Learner, Input, Achiever, Intellection, and Responsibility. What are yours?