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Engaging Our Strengths to Deepen Our Work

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Objectives Basic understanding of strengths Consider investing in strengths within your organization Leave with a plan for sharing/increasing knowledge about strengths in DV work

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Introduction to Strengths What is a talent? What is Strength? Personal/individual success Organizational success

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Life Line Activity POV Volunteer 2000 2001 Hired POV APD Self Defense Instructor 2004 CALCASA Council Southern Rep 2005 Director of Intervention Services POV

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Life Line Instructions Draw a line that represents your professional life and the major events in it. Mark the line up for events that represent high points in your professional life and mark the line down for events that represent low points. Write the names of significant people or events at different stages of your life. Write a brief description of the significant events. Feel free to draw pictures or use any type of imagery.

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Life Line Sharing Speaker: For each person in your group, please take 5 min. to share you life map with peers. Share the significant points in your leadership life that most represent you. Share only what is comfortable for you, but let your peers get to know you. Listener: As you listen to your peers life map journey, listen for talents, strengths or values. Write down on a card a word or phrase that captures what you heard. (one per card)

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Managing Strengths and Weakness Understanding and managing for weaknesses Strategies for indentifying strengths in others Strategies for creating strengths based organizations Talents, knowledge and skills

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Curiosity Interview Speaker: Tell us about a peak experience you had at work-A time when you were feeling confident and challenged in a good way, may be lost track of time You felt in the zone. Listener: use the following open-ended questions to help draw the story out of the speaker. Remember to stay open and curious as you listen-the goal is to better understand the speaker and her/his story. Avoid WHY questions.

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What? What was the moment? What happened? What were you feeling? What did you discover? Who? Who inspires you to be in the flow or at your best? Who do you have for company at those times? Who do you inspire to be at their best When? When was this? When else have you experienced something like this? Where? Where is it easiest to get in the flow? Where do you want to go next in your work? How? How did this happen? How consciously did you create the event? Who did you see yourself differently afterwards? Avoid Why?

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Group Reflection Any thoughts for the group? Did anything come as a surprise? Did any feedback in particular resonate with you? How might you use what you learned from this exercise in your work? Any ideas for taking this back to a team at your organization?