People exceptionally talented in the Input CliftonStrengths® theme have a need to collect and archive. They may accumulate information, ideas, artifacts or even relationships.
You are inquisitive. You collect things. You might collect information — words, facts, books, and quotations — or you might collect tangible objects such as butterflies, baseball cards, porcelain dolls, or sepia photographs. Whatever you collect, you collect it because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity.
If you read a great deal, it is not necessarily to refine your theories but, rather, to add more information to your archives. If you like to travel, it is because each new location offers novel artifacts and facts. These can be acquired and then stored away.
Why are they worth storing? At the time of storing it is often hard to say exactly when or why you might need them, but who knows when they might become useful? With all those possible uses in mind, you really don’t feel comfortable throwing anything away. So you keep acquiring and compiling and filing stuff away. It’s interesting. It keeps your mind fresh. And perhaps one day some of it will prove valuable.
This is a Strategic Thinking Talent Theme
Those with dominant Strategic Thinking themes are the ones who keep the team focused on what could be. They are constantly absorbing and analyzing information and helping the team make better decisions. People with strength in this domain continually stretch the team’s thinking for the future.
Input (Short Version)
Theme Thursday
Action Items for This Theme
- Look for jobs in which you are charged with acquiring new information each day, such as teaching, research, or journalism.
- Identify your areas of specialization and actively seek more information about them.
- Make time to read books and articles that stimulate you. Schedule the times.
- Deliberately increase your vocabulary. Intentionally collect new words and learn the meaning of each.
- Enjoy reading the dictionary and the encyclopedia — this might seem strange to some people, but for someone like you it is a good way to strengthen your self-concept.
- Devise a system to store and easily locate information. This can be as simple as a file for all the articles you have clipped, or as sophisticated as a computer database.
- Identify situations in which you can share the information you have collected with other people.
Be ready to:
- Accept that you will never feel that you know enough.
- Partner with someone with a strong Focus or Discipline theme. This person will help you stay on track when your inquisitiveness leads you down intriguing but distracting avenues.