Reflection & Future Casting

We have had an incredible last two weeks, learning from global leaders in the strengths revolution at CliftonStrengths Summit.#CSS2017. We then got to spend a whole day with our TeamMates strengths leaders in the strengths based mentoring revolution. Boy, are we blessed. Ally and I want to thank you all for the incredible work you are doing in your community and mentoring relationship to ensure we get all people to see each other through what is uniquely right about us.Your ideas, thoughts, and time shared with us give us so much hope. Dr. Shane Lopez taught us that hope is just the excitement and energy we have about the future. We sure are excited and we are so looking forward to travelling to your communities to assist you in your strengths implementation for the coming school year.

If you haven't yet seen the wonderful video Hannah made about our TeamMates Strengths Day at Gallup, please check it out here.

We did a Genn and Millie recap of the Clifton Strengths Summit, found here.

You can find our recap of TeamMates Strengths Day on our most recent episode of Genn and Mille found here.

To futurecast, a bit, I wanted to let you all know of the plans we have for the blog this coming year. We will continue to go through the Strengths Explorer themes in the next few weeks. Then this fall, we will be revisiting each of the 34 CliftonStrengths for Students themes, in alphabetical order. And, we are looking for guest bloggers! Guest Bloggers are individuals who love strengths- that's YOU! You do not have to be a strengths or TeamMates expert to be featured. We are just looking for people who want to share their strengths story [and really, who doesn't?]. We would love for you to share about a strength in your top 5, what it looks like for you as a person, what it looks like for you as a mentor, and maybe a story of that strength in action. If you remember earlier this year, Steph Pravecek, our events coordinator did a guest blogging piece on her Achiever. If you would like to be featured as a guest blogger, write up a bit about one of your strengths, like Steph did, and send it to Tess at tstarman@teammates.org.

Thank you for a wonderful summer full of learning! We are looking forward to lots more in the coming school year!

-Tess

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Strengths Activity: DBT House

The featured activity this week has become a recent favorite of the TeamMates Strengths Team. I learned of it by attending the Green Hills AEA Conference this past summer. The breakout presenter, Louise El Yafoori, taught on mitigating culturally sensitive trauma. This activity comes from the practice of Dialectical Behavior Therapy. While it can be used in very targeted ways for working with certain groups of kids, we found it a powerful reflective exercise that we all could benefit from. We facilitated this activity at our annual strengths day at the Gallup campus this year and the results of this learning and self reflection were highly impactful. Consider doing this activity with your mentee as a way to deepen the conversation around strengths and talent by incorporating discussions of values, role models, support systems, and more. Activity Instructions: On a blank piece of paper, sketch out a house. Your house should include: a foundation, walls, windows, a door, roof, ch

Achiever: Fulfillment from Accomplishment

People exceptionally talented in the Achiever theme work hard and possess a great deal of stamina. They take immense satisfaction in being busy and productive. Clifton StrengthsFinder We are excited to hear from Stephanie Pravecek about Achiever this week. Steph is the Events Coordinator for TeamMates and leads with Achiever, Responsibility, Discipline, Consistency, and Relator. People with high Achiever are hard workers, list makers, and doers. It is very difficult for Achievers to take a break when there is a task at hand that needs to be completed. Once one task is complete it is on to the next and then the next. Achievers set out each day to accomplish at least one task but, there is much more fulfillment when multiple things are crossed off the “to-do” list for the day. This does include weekends and vacations, as REST or RELAX are not words you often hear in the vocabulary of an Achiever. As a guest blogger this week, I am going to put more of a personal ton

Strengths Activity- Strengths Metaphors

A fun activity we have done with students is Strengths Metaphors. We often have a tendency to limit and confine our strengths to the two-sentence definition of the theme we find on the 34 list. Strengths manifest uniquely in each person based on their other 5 or 2 themes, their age, their background, their life experiences, and so much more. The Strengths Metaphors activity is a great way to break the themes of out of the boxes we put them in. Fill out the worksheet or engage in a conversation using the prompts on the sheet. Pick one of your top 5 or top 3 themes. Describe what the theme looks like, what color you would associate with it, what it smells like, what it sounds like, and any other sensory descriptors you would add to the selected theme. Share with your mentee and ask your mentee to share with you. Share with each other why you chose to assign these specific descriptors to the strength. If you have similar strengths to each other, discuss the differences between

Strength Based Mentoring

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