My Signiture Strengths

I've been thinking about a quiz I took over a year ago.  Martin Seligman's Signiture Strengths Survey   identifies your top strengths. The idea is that you should focus on what you are good at....instead of finding the things you are worst at and pushing yourself to get better.  Pick those things you are best at and do them more..make the most of what you do well.

My strengths are  (the idea of using these more is very attractive to me!)
Curiosity and Interest in the World
Love of Learning
Zest, Enthusiasm, Energy
Leadership
Perspective (Wisdom)

I'd like to ask other Resource Center staff to take the quiz and see how knowing each other's signiture strengths helps us do our best work and form a strong team.

How we can tranform public health

In the Rise of the Teaching Organization, Bill Taylor ( Practically Radical) makes a compelling case for teaching others , even your competitors.  

If you want to be a leader in your field, you need to learn. But learning isn't enough...you need to share what you know and teach others... because it is the best way to learn...and I'd argue that you need to bring others along so you can keep moving forward.

Here is my favorite quote  "our vision is to be the quality leader in our field and to transform the field as a whole" (Dr Gary Kaplan).   Isn't that what we want to do in public health?

Read the whole blog post

Top six traits in confident leaders

In order to lead, people have to be confident of you and your abilities. What does it take for people to be confident in your leadership?  According to the Harvard Kennedy School of Public Leadership, there are six top traits.

• Trust in what you say ( no surprises)
  
• Competence to do the job (I'm good at what I do)
  
• Working for the greater good (they don't doubt your motives)
• Shared values ( we value the same things)
• Get good results ( I get things done)
• In touch with people's needs and concerns ( I listen)

These are good things to think about as we go through strategic planning...since we want our organization to be seen as a leader.

Want to learn more: check out Next Level Blog
Or read the study.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

How many fruit cakes do we have?

I'm thinking a lot about strategic planning...because we are going to be doing our's soon.

Blue Avocado Blog asks...do you have any programs that are like fruit cakes? You don't want to eat it...but you feel guilty throwing it away.

She talks about a resource center that is empty and brochures no one picks up....

A program or activity has to do one of two things ( or both)

1. "have a significant positive impact on the world" ( or the audience we serve) or
2. "Makes money for the organization."

There might be other reasons I would add, like builds relationships with key stakeholders.....but her point is a good one. What projects or activities do we maintain that aren't working any more?

I recently read that "Strategy is what you don't do." Food for thought as we get ready to plan for next year and the future.

What does a Long Tail have to do with Big Goals?

I just read Small Steps to a Big Goal...the two that jump out for me are

#2 Do things that show movement in the right directions. People need to see that they are making progress.. How can we show people that their efforts are making a difference?  Plus providing feedback uses social influence...which is a behavior change strategy.

#3 Don't create a "big support tail" for yourself. For me this means two things. Don't do things for others they can do for themselves. And don't do things that are going to create more work for yourself down the road.  So before I says yes to something.....I need to ask myself....Can this person do this themselves?  and if I do this....will this require more work or generate more individual requests, down the road?  

Read all four steps at Small Steps to a Big Goal

Cormac's Long Tail
Originally uploaded by feenylime