Trombone Player Wanted #6: Why Can't This Last Forever?
Video #6 Trombone Player Wanted
Why Can't This Last Forever? (Running Time = 11:05 min)
If you uncover your strengths, can you keep them in focus and can you ensure that you live a life that plays to your strengths?
This is the last video of the 6 part series being reviewed.
The video opens with the familiar background music and lyrics proclaiming, "we are different kinds of people...I'm waiting for you..." The young girl gets ready to play the trombone. The scene changes to a tight shot of Marcus Buckingham declaring that he is one of the 2 out to 10 who plays to his strengths.
He states how fortunate he feels. He also acknowledge the contributions of Don Clifton (a central contributor to the strengths movement). The strengthsfinder used by Gallup is often referred to as the Clifton StrengthsFinder because of Don. Marcus had the opportunity to work with and learn from Don Clifton while he was at Gallup.
Marcus confesses that he fell off his strengths path a few years ago but he managed to get back on track --- to leave his weaknesses behind and reunite with what strengthened him.
He encourages us to always remember these 3 strong certainties:
- We have wonderful and powerful strengths.
- No one else has the identical configuration of strengths that we do.
- We'll make our biggest contribution to our organization and ourself when we play to our strengths most of the time.
Marcus has an awesome sense of belief and conviction that you can bring your strengths to the foreground of your life. Yet he also prepares you for possible "strength relapse" when you veer off of your path. Use the tools of the video and the book to get back on track and live your strengths
The risks of not using your strengths are greater than using them and Marcus Buckingham states it is our responsibility to use our strengths. He is very vocal about his belief yet states that it is what we believe that really matters.
The video ends with a smiling band leader leading the band through a piece of music with our former trombone player now experiencing and living his strengths by playing percussion.
I was disappointed that we never actually got to hear the music of the children in the video. The video is very well crafted and produced yet for someone who believes so strongly in the strength movement it was an oversight not to let us hear the voices and the music of the children --- the strength of our future!
Will you compose your own symphony of strengths? Will you let others hear the music?
Don't let your strengths be silenced, thwarted, or ignored by yourself or others. Get the video, watch the video, and live your strengths. I will be thrilled when instead of the 2 out of 10 using their strengths we flip this around and have 8 out of 10 playing to their strengths.
On a personal note, one of my core strengths is humor and playfulness. While writing these 6 reviews I challenged myself to live more of this strength. The results of this challenge is a new humor/spoof leadership blog: Dr. Z's Leadership Institute. I ask for your support of my strength by reading the blog and encouraging others to read as I live my strength of humor. If we can laugh, we can last.
I would be very remiss without a very special bow of gratitude to Rosa Say for working so hard to make Joyful Jubilant Learning a successful resource for us all, to giving so much of her time and energy to strengthening all people she comes into contact with, and for gifting me with the name Ikaika (strength). Me ka aloha
Picture Credit: 2 ton by http://flickr.com/photos/kazatzka/194099479/
David Zinger has been writing on strength based leadership since November 11th of 2005. He plans to keep writing and working in this field until we move from 2 out or 10 using their strengths to 8 out of 10 being strong and vibrant in their life and their work.
Ikaika, I love your new blog! I will admit (tho I must say I loathe to do so) that humor and playfulness are not my strong suits and I will be reading Dr. Z's Leadership Institute for a fresh fix of inspiration as soon as my RSS feed lights up that you've posted there again!
What a magnificent way to celebrate a strength you have fortified within our project here!
Take the link in my name to see Dr. Z's on the newly updated blogroll of the Ho'ohana Community.
Posted by:Rosa Say | June 01, 2007 at 12:03 PM
On behalf of Dr. Z. I thank you once again Rosa. I am working at putting the 6 Trombone posts into 1 PDF Free E-book. I will let you know when this is done.
David
Posted by:David Zinger | June 01, 2007 at 01:57 PM