My top five StrenghtsFinder themes include Input, Context, Intellection, Empathy, and Strategy; while empathy falls in Relationship Building, majority of them fall in the Strategic Thinking category. Empathy, those it stands alone, is one of my stronger abilities out of the five. Growing up, every new shock to my relatively happy childhood came from knowing of some far-off injustice that I could not fix or sooth. Whether it be of starving children I was told about at the dinner table, or a friend’s complicated home life I felt the need to do something because I could imagine their pain. To me imagining what certain situations could feel like gave me a sense of what can be done to fix certain situations. I have not been content to merely tell the stories of others, so their experiences become lectures used by well meaning parents at the dinner table. I want what I experience and collect to be presented to the people who can create change, and if so, become such a person myself. If empathy gives me a sense of other’s experiences, then strategic thinking can give me a way to figure out how to ease another person’s pain.

As a team member and a student in the Leader-101 Course, I feel that I can use my strengths to develop meaningful connections with people, not just as a friendly person, but as a teammate willing to see their thoughts and ideas from their point of view.  My strategic thinking abilities will then allow me to reword their ideas to better communicate them to the groups and explain it in different ways, so everyone can understand. Additionally, my thinking can help the group and I to brainstorm how to implement or expand on the idea, finding a way to put it into actions after everyone has had their say.