#71 Mentoring with Strengthsfinder with Jim Brophy

Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day? Chances are, you don’t. All too often, our natural talents go untapped. We devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths. So, Do you play to your strengths? Do you even know what your strengths are? Or how to best use them? The good news is that Strengthsfinder 2.0 from Gallup can give you a real insight and help you leverage the talents you have. Jim Brophy has worked as a CFO and is both a mentor and a Strengthsfinder 2.0 (or CliftonStrengths) accredited coach. He joins us on the GrowCFO Show to explain how he uses Strengthsfinder as an integral part of his mentoring. On the podcast Jim tells us about his career as a CFO, how he discovered Strengthsfinder and gives us an overview of what it is and how you can use it to best advantage in your day to day. Links Buy Strengthsfinder 2.0 on Amazon UK or Amazon USA Find out more about mentoring at GrowCFO Find out more about CliftonStrengths at Gallup Jim Brophy on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn Timestamp 00:46 Jim Brophy’s career as a CFO 03:49 FD & CFO roles in Asia 05:26 Becoming a portfolio CFO 07:24 Becoming accredited by Gallup 09:31 Mentoring 11:30 The stresses of a new CFO role in a new organisation 15:25 Where does Strengthsfinder fit in? 16:55 Linking values and strengths 20:02 What exactly is Strengthsfinder 22:22 Myers Briggs and DISC 24:47 How do you take the test? 25:49 The 34 talents 28:00 Our top 5 talents 32:24 Your top 10 talents, and the extended assessment 34:27 Developing talents instead of fixing weaknesses 35:31 The “Analytical” talent in more depth 40:59 Matching your talents to the immediate situation 41:30 Talents vs skills and experience 46:11 Maximising talents across teams