Integration of Strengths and Leadership Distinctives Assignment

August 30, 2006

The following is a consideration of how I can express and utilize my strengths to advance, explore, and enhance my abilities in the leadership distinctive of "Deepening Skills".

A description of the Distinctives of Leadership can be found here: http://www.letu.edu/opencms/opencms/_Student-Life/leadership/distinctives/

My strengths will be invaluable in developing the leadership distinctive of “Deepening Skills”. StrengthsQuest emphasizes giving attention to my strengths instead of focusing on areas of lesser talent. By putting my God-given talents to work I plan to work hard at honing my skills so I will be able to complete my work with excellence.

I get along with people really well. Having the gift of “Harmony” will come in very useful when working with other people. By working with other people I can develop teamwork skills. Being ably to work as a team member is very important because all large projects require people to work together to complete the job.

Having “Responsibility” gives me a strong desire to follow through on everything I commit to do. My perfectionism will often drive me to do even more than I have committed to do. This is evidenced in this quote from my mom: “Also, whenever you have been asked to do things, like sweeping outside or even the dishes, the job you did was always extremely WELL done and there were extra special things you did, like clipping and organizing they were truly the 'frosting on the cake' of seeing the job done and done unusually well.”

Being “Deliberative” makes me carefully plan out what I need to do and before I start work on it. I use an electronic planner to keep track of class schedules and prioritize tasks that I must complete. I am also deliberative in how I act. As my sister says, “You do tend to think of all the risks and possibilities.”

“Discipline” is what keeps me going even when thing are hard. This is an area that I really want to improve. Through discipline I will be able to work through hard courses. To become really good at something requires much practice. Practice takes discipline. Practice is not usually fun

“Intellection” enables me to think through things and come up with the answer. I want to be someone who relies on God's guidance for making decisions. I am thankful to God for giving us the ability to think through things instead of just instinctively responding to everything. By giving careful thought to problem, I can come up with a better solution that just trying to answer it right away.

My hope is that I will use the abilities that God has given me to glorify Him and further His kingdom. I look forward to deepening my skills by putting my strengths to work in each area of whole-person education: intellectual/academic, personal, social/relational, and spiritual.

Elijah Lofgren