Strength Based Mentoring

Ally and I were at Norris earlier this week for their first strength day. We were meeting with the younger Strengths Explorer students, helping to facilitate the survey and talk through their results. There was one student who had to come from another building, so he had to wait until all students were done with their surveys so that the Coordinator could walk him back to his class. He finished his survey quickly and his Top 3 were Competing, Achieving, and Confidence. While he was waiting, I saw him messing around, looking a bit bored. He started stacking markers together making a tower, like most kids (and many adults) do. So, I went over to him and asked him if he wanted to do a fun activity. I said, "I wonder if you could make a marker sculpture to depict your strengths." He quickly took on the challenge and we gathered all the markers to one table. He got to work. I didn't make one full lap around the room before he declared, "I'm done". I went over t...

You have more energy and more goals than other people. You love a sense of accomplishment. Clifton Strengths Explorer Youth with Achieving in their top 3 enjoy getting things done. They thrive on challenges and goals that allow them to accomplish tasks-big and small. Gallup writes about those with Achieving, “the more you get done, the more you feel like a successful person…An award, a good grade, or praise can mean a lot to you because it feels good when your effort and ability are noticed.” Youth with Achieving are hard workers and are always looking to go above and beyond what is required of them.   When you think about the youth in your life, can you name someone like this? I know I can. One student I interacted with at Johnson-Brock on our strengths day comes to mind. Once of the activities we love to do with youth on strengths days is ask them to depict the senses of their strengths. We give them utensils and a blank piece of card stock in order to show what the...