Personality

In order to learn more about myself and my talents, I took Gallup’s StrengthsFinder® personality test. See my full Gallup report here. For more information and to take Gallup's StrengthsFinder® (which is free to Virginia Tech students) click here. I am very glad I took this time to learn more about myself and in this space I share my test results and what they mean to me.

Discipline: According to the shared theme description provided by Gallup, those who are talented in the discipline theme enjoy routine and structure.

In my personal experience as a leader, discipline allows me to focus my energy, time, and talents in one or two areas of opportunity at a time such that those are accomplished to the best of my ability. Furthermore, I perform better in environments where I can accomplish things, where tasks can get done in an organized fashion. I don’t mind repetitive tasks and I absolutely love routine because it makes me feel as though the tasks to which I need to dedicate are accomplished with the attention, care, and dedication they require. Finally, discipline is important to me because it allows me to ensure that details are observed and requirements are met which I believe improves the overall quality of my work and my effectiveness as a leader.

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Learner: Gallup describes learners are those who have a great desire to learn and continuously improve as well as it highlights that the learning process, rather than the outcome, excites those who are talented learners.

Learning is a lifelong passion of mine. I do not, currently, envision the end of my academic career as I love learning and sharing knowledge so that others can learn. Education is one of the elements I value the most and one of the most important components of well-rounded people. Education to me opens doors and help improving the quality of life of so many communities around the world and for this reason I plan on dedicating my career to education as I am a firm believer of the transforming power of education. As a learner, I am always curious to gather more information regardless of the immediate usability of that new knowledge, the exciting part of being a learner is really mastering another topic, making myself tired but accomplished. As a leader, learning more about people and teaching others about their skills and abilities is what moves me.

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Achiever: Achievers are described by Gallup as those who take great satisfaction from being busy and productive.

In my opinion, success is 80% hard work and 20% talent and this is what I live by. I enjoy giving my work the best of me, I love nothing more than enjoying a relaxing activity after a very busy day when I checked off all the things I planned to check off my “to do” list for the day. As an achiever, working very hard and focusing for an extended period of time on the same task is common and is really what moves me, I work to accomplish things and to do them to the best of my ability. As a leader, being an achiever helps me accomplish goals. I am very driven when I set a goal and I can work tirelessly until all the work is done. Being an achiever also helps me push people to give their best which can sometimes be confused with being a control freak or an over achiever, but in reality, my goal is to motivate followers to dedicate as best as they can. I love feeling busy and accomplished and I definitely work best when I feel the most exhausted but productive, that is really when I see myself being successful.

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Deliberative: Those who take serious care in making decisions or choices are described by Gallup as deliberative.

For the longest time I thought of myself as indecisive person, I did not realize that in reality what I was doing was, in fact, being deliberative. This personality test allowed me to realize that I am very careful and thoughtful when making decisions, I never go with the first option “just because”, it is of my nature to take my time and analyze every single option from multiple perspectives until I feel ready to decide or choose. As a leader, being deliberative helps me choosing the best course of action for myself and the people I work with such that the best possible outcome is reached. As a deliberative person, I am also able to anticipate obstacles while being cheerful, optimistic about life and very private in my personal matters all of which I believe improve my performance as a leader and which motivates me to make the right, or at least more thought through, decision every time.

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Significance: Based on Gallup’s description, those who are talented with the significance theme are independent and want to be recognized.

Significance makes me foresee obstacles, real and perceived ones which can work for my advantage in working to prevent difficulties before they materialize as well as it can generate some degree of anxiety regarding what happens tomorrow or next week, for example. Significance allows me to have full control over what I do or do not engage on which benefits me as a leader in choosing causes that are important to me and in setting boundaries as far as tasks I can and cannot accomplish. Significance pushes me to surround myself with conscientious people who are driven to do important work as this motivates me to improve my outcome and do better than I have. I strive to distinguish myself from other strong performers as I enjoy being recognized for my effort and dedication. As a leader, significance also allows me to continuously improve so that I can always achieve better results.

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