StrengthWhat is strength and how does one get stronger? Are we ever strongenough? We assume that because we call them ‘strengths’, they are,by definition, ‘enough’. I hardly think so, especially in leadershippositions where stasis is death. As a leader I am called to be aconstant

learner

who seeks ever more refined and potent

inputs

ideas

for my

intellection

, that I put into practice through

empathy

toward my colleagues. The bold words above are my fivestrengths according to Tom Rath’s online personality survey known asthe “StrengthsFinder”. By using these existing strength to lift heavierloads, the assumption is that I will get stronger. The essay that followoutlines how I will develop these five strengths into a pedagogy of realpower. It will also discuss briefly the value and validity of the 360degree assessment and the StrengthsFinder.According to the Rathwe benefit more from building on our strengthsthan working on our weaknesses. His online test, the Clifton Test,determinesand calculates these strengths, explains what they mean,and makes suggestions as to how to use them. What follows is mytake on how I will best use my strengths (Input, Intellection, Empathy,Learner, Ideation) to become an educational leader.1.Input : I yearn to create a satisfying and creative personallearning environment. Productivity gurus like David Allen withhis

Getting Things Done

system are my ultimate aim, but Iseek to use my dissertation as a focus forthe input. Since myinterests center on technology use it makes sense for my inputsto be gathered within a technology net. I am doing this with ablog (http://tex2all.com/EdDoc), a wiki(http://tex2all.com/wkueddoc/), a browser-based bibliographicand research tool (http://www.zotero.org/), a social bookmarkingtool (http://www.diigo.com/profile/tellio), and an informationaggregator(http://www.google.com/reader/shared/07325911530332758494).2.Intellection: I seek to establish networks of like-minded (punintended) folks to share my interests in Web tools and ideas. Ihave started to work with K-12 writing teachers (http://wku-wp.ning.com/) while at the same time reflecting on thecommunity of practice that is developing there. This is a way tocombine my desire for sharing ideas with a need to think deeplyabout them by myself. I am sponsoring within my university’sdistance learning division a series of technology presentations

thatfocus on online pedagogy(http://www.wku.edu.libsrv.wku.edu/tsonline/facultyLiaisonSeries.html)

as well

as a similar one for my doctoral cohort whose focus is on usingsocial networking tools for writing the dissertation. I need topush this strength out into the wider realm of online pedagogy bybecoming a part of the larger world of those who think about andask questions about how we can best use Web tools in highereducation. I have already started this by auditing a massivelyonline course sponsored by two leaders in the field, GeorgeSiemens and Stephen Downes(http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wiki/Connectivism). I need to do more. This includes joining a few organizations of interest including systemsthinking (http://www.solonline.org/) and communities of practice(http://cpsquare.org/) groups.3.Empathy: This strength is double edged. It tends to be a face-to-face ability. Extending that skill to peers and students onlineis my next big challenge. Success in my online work with K-12teachers involved in the WKU Writing Project’s new web presencewill depend upon me growing this skill as will work in theirLeadership Council. How do you create empathy over adistance? I am currently studying this. In fact it will probably bethe basis for much of my dissertation work—a study of effectiveonline communities of practice. It is clear that I need to partnerwith someone who has strong command skills (my programadviser, Dr. John Hagamanserves as such a one) and anotherwith activator skills (I am on a quest to find such a person now tohelp me manage the Writing Project’s website). I also need toput myself in a mentoring position to those who might beinterested in doing what I am doing in educational leadershiptechnology.4.Learner: I believe humans are defined (or at least this human is)by the desire to bring in what the poet Ezra Pound called “thenews that stays news”. This is my prime credo in the classroomright next to E.M. Forster’s command to “always connect”. I amalways trying to find better ways to bring in and redirect input. The new learner is at the center of a connected, ‘always on’universe and, most importantly learns by making moreconnections within and outside of the mind. This insight that ourbrains exist as much outside of ourselves as within is the centralof connectivismand systems thinking. I seek to be this situatedlearner, one who is more and more consciously embedded in a jungle of knowing, what Marvin Minskycalled “a society of mind”.My goal is create a system that actively charts my progress inthe areas of systems thinking and social networking systems. Ialso need to work on creating ‘islands’ of time for intellectual

work since I do best when I can both follow the breadcrumbs of others as well as blaze new trails.5.Ideation: I yearn to create new ideas or new combinations of oldideas. I need to create a personal learning environment that is aspawning ground for this action. I think that means studyingcreative people and trying out their ideas. I am reading RobertFritz and George Leonard as well as practicing mindfulnessmeditation as part of my goal of creating an environment for newideas to develop. I am also working on developing myvisualization skills through three tools: Back of the Napkin(http://www.thebackofthenapkin.com/), Toodlelist (http://todoodlist.com/), and mindmapping (http://www.mindmeister.com/13193859). The assumption behind this survey instrument and behind the 360assessment is simple: they measure something accurately. By allaccounts there are thousands of ‘personality’ tests in an industry thatgenerateshundreds of millions of dollars each year for private testingcompanies. Do they work? The best that might be said is thattheymeasure a static slice in time, but that they are rarely predictive ordeterminative.Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell, has recounteda very tellingstorythat summarizes the problems with personality assessments. Thequote is long, but worth copying in its entirety,

When Alexander (Sandy) Nininger was twenty-three, and newly commissioned asa lieutenant in the United States Army, he was sent to the South Pacific to servewith the 57th Infantry of the Philippine Scouts. It was January, 1942. TheJapanese had just seized Philippine ports at Vigan, Legazpi, Lamon Bay, andLingayen, and forced the American and Philippine forces to retreat into Bataan, arugged peninsula on the South China Sea. There, besieged and outnumbered, theAmericans set to work building a defensive line, digging foxholes andconstructing dikes and clearing underbrush to provide unobstructed sight lines for rifles and machine guns. Nininger's men were on the line's right flank. Theylabored day and night. The heat and the mosquitoes were nearly unbearable.Quiet by nature, Nininger was tall and slender, with wavy blond hair. As FranklinM. Reck recounts in "Beyond the Call of Duty," Nininger had graduated near thetop of his class at West Point, where he chaired the lecture-and-entertainmentcommittee. He had spent many hours with a friend, discussing everything fromhistory to the theory of relativity. He loved the theatre. In the evenings, he couldoften be found sitting by the fireplace in the living room of his commandingofficer, sipping tea and listening to Tchaikovsky. As a boy, he once saw his father kill a hawk and had been repulsed. When he went into active service, he wrote a