People exceptionally talented in the Woo theme love the challenge of
meeting new people and winning them over. They derive satisfaction from
breaking the ice and making a connection with someone.
CliftonStrengths
This week, our guest blogger is Dan
Kingkade. Dan has been a TeamMates mentor since 2006, mentoring in both the Omaha Public and the TeamMates+
programs. In addition to being an incredible strengths advocate, Dan
also is an expert trainer and has conducted mentor academies on the topics of
well-being and humor. His top 5 are Maximizer, Communication, Individualization,
Woo, and Self-Assurance. Here’s what Woo looks like for Dan:
I have a very clear
memory from when I was in 4th grade. I had written a poem about a frog that my
teacher thought was worth sharing with other classes in our school. “Would you like to go and read your poem to
the 5th and 6th grade rooms?” And I remember this part very clearly....I said, “yes,
that sounds like fun”. I had absolutely
no fear about walking into a room of classmates I didn’t know and winning them
over with my poem.
As a junior high
student, I was often invited to parties. As one classmate said to me, “Can you
bring your brother? He’s cute. But you
have a good personality and will make if fun”. And fun it was.
My 8th grade English
teacher wrote on my report card that she “moved Dan’s seat because of
wisecracks and side comments...he has a good mind but is going through a silly
period.”
As a sophomore in high
school, I boarded a bus by myself and traveled to Missouri to attend a band
camp for a week. Shortly after arriving, I had met many camp mates, found a
group to hang with and even had a girlfriend. This was easy.
I rarely got turned
down for dates because by the time I got up enough courage to ask for the date,
we were already friends and I had gotten her to like me.
So by the time I took
the StrengthFinder in 1999, shortly after beginning my employment at Gallup, I
was a bit surprised when a talent theme called Woo showed up in my Top 5. I had
been assessed, analyzed and given a ton of feedback on who I was by then. I had
even taken several talent profiles back in the late 1980’s that were developed
by SRI, prior to that organization becoming Gallup. Woo was not a theme on
those profiles.
But as I read through
the theme definition it was eerily accurate:
Strangers are rarely
intimidating to you.....Yep!
You are rarely at a
loss for words....That’s me.
You derive satisfaction
from breaking the ice and making a connection....Always!
There are new people to
meet, new rooms to work, new crowds to mingle in.....Of course!
And like so many
people, I thought that was just the way I was and had not ever considered all
my schmoozing, meeting and greeting and getting people to like me as a talent.
I was a people person and an extrovert, that was for certain, but now I knew
more about why I was a people person and more specifically, what flavor of
people person I am.
My Woo is bold,
assertive and fairly intense, no doubt colored by my Self-Assurance,
Communication and Individualization themes. I’ve known people whose Woo is
softer and less noisy than mine. But
underneath the meet and greet aspect of Woo is a genuine desire to get people
to like us. So much so that many Woo-ers will admit to working to get people to
like them. If I can get you to like me, we can work better together, or have
more fun, or solve the problem you have placed in front of me. When I worked as
a professional counselor, I was often asked to work with individuals who were
referred to counseling against their wishes and my Woo helped me get them to
trust me and give the counseling a chance. When I worked in retail, I noticed that my Woo made more effective at
working with angry or unhappy customers. Not only did they not push back, but I had a unique way of getting an angry
customer to become a happy customer, or at the least, a little more agreeable.
For the last 25 years
of my career, I walked into rooms of strangers nearly every day. There was
always something about the possibility of all those new people that made me
look forward to my work that day. The more, the better. And it didn’t matter if
I was in small town Nebraska or New York City, I loved the challenge or getting
to know a little bit about each person and building rapport.
For some people, Woo is
perceived as phony, superficial, cheesy and insincere. Sometimes they just want
us to dial it back a notch. And I can tell you that my Woo is genuine, curious,
interested, and energizing. But I’ve also learned to pay attention to who I am
wooing and how hard I can try to win someone over. I often will use my
Individualization to provide me with
cues to help me apply my Woo more strategically. And believe me, there have
been times when it told me “don’t go there”. Sometimes I’ve heeded that advice
and sometimes I just couldn’t help myself.
I’m retired now but my
life’s work was and continues to be meeting, getting to know and building
rapport with a lot of people every day.
And making life fun for them . I’ve worked as a band director, a
counselor, a coach, a public speaker and as a seminar leader. I’ve met so many
people in so many places I couldn’t possibly remember them all. And this talent
we call Woo was the first thing people experienced from me when we meet or when
I initiated the connection.
When my time in this
earth is done, I hope that people will remember me for the connections we made
and the fun we had, regardless of whether our time together was brief or long
lasting. What I know for sure is that the gift of Woo made this world we share
a very small place.
-Dan
Comments
Post a Comment