Written by: gfesadmin on May 18, 2013

One of my favorite TV shows growing up was Star Trek. I loved it when captain Kirk would open up the show by narrating the mission of the Enterprise, “Space the final frontier… to boldly go where no man has gone before, these are the voyages of space ship Enterprise.” Today, I feel like I have entered into a new frontier. Last night, I just got back from China for the third trip in the last three months. I have been asked by the CEO of ABHOW to begin to negotiate Joint Ventures with two different organizations and yesterday I was meeting with one organization hammering out a few remaining issues to resolve before we sign a joint venture contract. China is a new frontier for me as my first trip to China was last August when I was asked to consult for an Insurance company who is getting into building and managing retirement communities.

I recently read Standout by Marcus Buckingham which is a new assessment to help leaders identify and use their strengths. I discovered that my strengths match working cross culturally to help build Joint Ventures to help the Chinese develop Retirement Communities to help solve their aging wave problem. According to the assessment, my top five strengths in order are provider, stimulator, connector, teacher and pioneer. These strengths uniquely equip me to easily make new friendships, to connect the dots and to teach to help others to understand new concepts.

The provider strength enables me to sense other people’s feelings (Buckingham 2011). The Stimulator enables me to encourage through enthusiasm to bring passion and energy to clients. The connector helps me to put concepts together to make something bigger. In this case, it would be partnering our company with other international companies to help them achieve their goals. Teaching helps to explain how the concepts will help the partnership achieve their goals and finally, the pioneer sees the world as a friendly place where good things happen. After understanding the strengths I have from the assessment, I believe God has opened a new door to enable me to help others in a new culture and where the need is great. This assessment has encouraged me and has strengthened my resolve to use the skills and talents God gave me to help others.

Even though I am tired and experiencing jet lag, this new frontier gives me a new place to use and grow my strengths.

Buckingham, Marcus. Standout: The Groundbreaking New Strengths Assessment from the Leader of the Strengths Revolution. Nashville, Tenn: Thomas Nelson, 2011.

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