People exceptionally talented in the Context theme enjoy thinking about
the past. They understand the present by researching its history.
CliftonStrengths
This week our guest blogger is Jay Wright. Jay has worn may hats
in TeamMates, including Mentor, Program Coordinator for Bishop Heelan Catholic
Schools in Sioux City, Iowa, and most recently, as Regional Coordinator for the
Eastern region. His top five strengths are Context, Achiever, Developer,
Includer, and Learner. Here’s what Context looks like for Jay:
I can still remember when I fell in love
with history. We were driving to the
1982 Peach Bowl to watch our beloved Iowa Hawkeyes take on the Tennessee
Volunteers in Atlanta. (Relive the
Hawkeye win here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujQQ96qV3U4). The Hawkeye win is not the moral of
the story however. For me, the highlight
of the trip was the stop at Chattanooga to see the Civil War battlefield which was,
for 6 year old me, life changing. I
became fascinated by what I saw as we went up Lookout Mountain and learned
about General Grant finding a hidden trail up the mountain. For the rest of our trip I had my dad (a
history teacher) regale me with stories of history and wars and Presidents and
Kings and Queens. We had these books in
elementary school (all with orange covers) that would describe the lives of
famous people in history as kids. I read
every single one of them, and several of them more than once. I was the “book nerd” as a kid who was always
reading when I finished my actual school work.
So, studying history in college and becoming a history teacher was probably
not a surprise to many. Quite honestly,
I thought it was just something I enjoyed, but I never saw this as a
“strength”.
 |
| Jay, 6 years old, at the peach Bowl Game, 1982 |
Fast forward to
a couple years ago when I took my strengths finder. I was surprised to see Context as my number
one strength. The others on my list I
would have picked out ahead of time, but not Context. As I studied it a bit, however, I realized
that Context indeed fit my personality, but I was not sure how that was
transferred into being a strength.
However, as I
look back, I can see that strength playing out in numerous ways. First off, I love that everyone and
everything has a story, and that story needs to be told. I am not really a math guy, but I love data
and statistics and what stories they can tell.
At the two schools I worked at I spent countless hours researching
school records for football and basketball (the sports I coached) and put them
on the school websites. I even wrote a
blog about the football uniforms at Heelan High School that made it on to uni-watch.com
(one of my favorite websites). I am one
of those guys who enjoys SABR metrics in baseball and all of the analytics in
basketball, etc. I find it really useful
to tell the story of a season or a team or a player. Those numbers also make it possible to
compare players from one generation to another.
We can actually have an argument, based on data, about who was better,
Babe Ruth or Barry Bonds. But that is
just it, the data and stats are there, but it takes someone to make sense of
that data and the story it tells, and that is where a strength like Context is
valuable, because I love to tell these stories.
Information is
coming at us at lightning speed these days, and so much of it is “Fake news” or
inaccurate or misleading. Again, this is
a time when we need more people with a strength of Context, as we have the
ability to see the bigger picture and decipher what is true today and how we
got to where we are at. I am fascinated
by the Confederate monument / flag controversies. Yet, it is not about what side of that debate
I lay on that I find fascinating, it is rather the history of the debate and
the historiography of the Civil War in general that I am struck by. So many people weighed in on that issue that
were simply misinformed, which caused not just bad history to be floated out
there, but actual rioting and violence.
Had more people looked to the past for the right Context about this
debate, a much more sensible answer could have been found. But, alas, many people make decisions based
on emotion in the heat of the moment, and not on actual facts based on research
(which takes time).
My strength of Context
is also a benefit in my job as Regional Coordinator for TeamMates
Mentoring. I would say I am a people
person, but it takes me a while to warm up to others and feel comfortable
around them. Why? Because my strength is
in getting to know others and what their “story” is. Where are they from? What do they enjoy? What is their sense of humor? Do they like Will Ferrell movies (and if you
don’t I am not sure we can be friends).
In this way, I like to get to know others before opening up myself. How has this helped in my job? Well, I have
spent the first couple months of the school year visiting each chapter in my
region. Each chapter has a different
story. From how and why they started, to
the different challenges they face to the different size schools and
communities they are in. By getting to
know the chapters and the people in each of those schools, I now have a way
better feel for how I can serve them in the best way.
In conclusion,
having a strength of Context has been a blessing to me and will continue to be
in my new job. For starters, I have the
ability to understand data and stats and put them into the context of a larger
story that is being told. We Context
people also have the strength to sort out the facts and real news when needed,
and trust me, the rest of you need us more than ever in today’s social media
world! Finally, I think a strength of
Context actually helps us get to know other people on a deeper level. We may not be gregarious and outgoing right
away, but we will listen and learn the stories of others, and be genuinely
interested, which in turn gives us the ability to serve others in the way they
need and develop deeper personal relationships.
Gallup says
that with Context, we “like to look back, because that is where the answers
lie.” So, I am now off to listen to a
podcast about Persian kings battling the Greeks. Thanks to Gallup Strengths, I now find being
a history nerd is really cool!
-Jay
If you are interested in guest blogging about one of your Top 5
StrengthsFinder themes this school year, please email Tess at
tstarman@teammates.org
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