Thursday, September 06, 2007

About Our Strengths - Woo

Reading the September 4 edition of the Guernsey Gazette, I was intrigued by editor Vicki Hood’s column, Fishing in the Dark. In it, Vicki told a story of an email she received from her sister with five words under the signature. One of those words happened to be Woo, which Vicki proceeded to write about for several paragraphs, tongue in cheek. Wouldn’t you know, the five words were her sister’s strengths according to the StrengthsFinder survey. Thus, I have decided to begin our regular, hopefully weekly, look at individual strengths with Woo.

Woo can be considered to be the act of Winning Others Over. For me, it is a strength that is captivating, as those with Woo tend to interact with others easily and open conversations with complete strangers at the drop of a hat. Those with Woo are outgoing and friendly and know no strangers, only “friends they haven’t met yet.”

To develop this strength, it is important that a Woo person is in a position to interact with people every day. This person may be a point of contact for an organization or someone to help put others at ease in social interactions. Putting others at ease helps the individual to bring others on board and build networks. Understanding this strength in others allows us to see that networking and talking to a lot of people is just part of the strength of a Woo individual.