This is such a broad topic and I still have thoughts running in my head, but the writing cannot catch the speed of my thoughts. Plus, I should organize them. Anyways, it was valuable sharing thoughts with you.

P.S. Your Albanian is great! )

On your point #1) I like how you referenced self-awareness… seems like self-awareness is a required “meta-strength” if one is to do strengths-based developmental work… and true self-awareness doesn’t come from ignoring the weaknesses/critique points about ourselves.

This is not to say such critical self-awareness has to be overwhelmingly negative or demotivational. One of the things I find myself doing more and more, drawing from the field of Positive Psychology, is to uncover the “positive intent” embedded within a behavior and finding better ways to satisfy that intent. That and other nuances (such as “an overdeveloped strength can become a weakness in itself”) are some of the other things I’ve come to appreciate as I’ve continued to explore this topic in my talent development work. I’m a fan of some of Marcus Buckingham’s post-Gallup work, too.

Anyway, the saying you quoted made me smile: “Only 1 percent talent, 99 percent should be work.”

There’s a song refrain along those lines:

This is ten percent luck,
Twenty percent skill,
Fifteen percent concentrated power of will,
Five percent pleasure,
Fifty percent pain,
And a hundred percent reason to remember the name

I am from Albania, a small country in development, south east of Balkan / Europe. I will try to put my own thoughts with which I came as I wwas reading the book – before I read your article. They are:

1) The book a lot of emphasis on sb’s strengths, to the extend that sb should ignore his or her weaknesses. And I think that this is wrong. Being aware of our weaknesses – whether at the professional or behavioral level is very important. I started to think about people whom I know who think that they are perfect, when they are totally the opposite of that. Until 3 years ago, I thought I was perfect, until it came a time when I faced myself and I found out that I was not perfect at all! Also, there are people who are so proud do be very direct to people and that they are not afraid to tell people what’s on their mind, but when people are direct to them, they don’t like it at all and they overreact. So, people can learn self-awareness.
2) The book is mostly about masterminds! Nature has gifted some people with lots of talents, but not everyone is like that. In everyday lives we cannot always follow our passions. We have to take in considerations other things.
3) There are lots of people who have not been talented in an area, but due to a great zeal, people have mastered that skill and have excelled. Some cultures are like that. Also, there is a saying which says: “Only 1 percent talent, 99 percent should be work.” Actually, if you can do something that is out of your comfort zone, is more rewarding spiritually than when you are naturally talented in that area.
4) I thought that the authors are great businessmen! You had found the right words to describe the book. One of them was …brilliantly lucrative.

Ok, this is what I have for now. I thank you for reading my previous post, and for taking time reading this other one.

I particularly appreciated your statement, “assessment results in and of themselves mean very little. It’s start of a discussion.” It reminds me of something Douglas Adams once wrote in his book Mostly Harmless, “It’s just a way of thinking about a problem which lets the shape of that problem begin to emerge.” Mind you, Adams was talking about horoscopes, not psychometric instruments… but I think he would have regarded the statement as applicable to both.

I’ve had a similar experience coaching other people who have their StrengthsFinder results in their hands and who ask me the question, “Yeah, ok, so now what?”

You might enjoy this other, related post: What Kind of a Personality Test are You?