{"id":44151,"date":"2018-12-05T14:29:49","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T19:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/?p=44151"},"modified":"2018-12-05T14:29:49","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T19:29:49","slug":"play-to-your-strengths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/","title":{"rendered":"Play To Your Strengths!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Lynne Richardson, Vice President for Administration & Finance at the University of Mary Washington<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/a>I\u2019m a huge fan of the concept of doing work that encompasses things you really do well AND enjoy doing.\u00a0 In fact, I am a devotee of StrengthsFinder 2.0, by Tom Rath, a book that espouses that people should figure out what their strengths are and then find work that allows them to utilize their strengths.\u00a0 Based on years of research by Gallup, the idea is that utilizing your natural strengths (and everyone has a different set!) vs. trying to improve on areas we\u2019re not so good at is best for both you and the organization.<\/p>\n

I totally agree.\u00a0 This is why I\u2019m returning to the business dean position in January.\u00a0 You may know my story, but here\u2019s a quick recap.<\/p>\n

I became a business dean in 2001 at another institution and served there for six years before taking another dean position.\u00a0 After doing that for several years, Mary Washington recruited me to become the Founding Dean of the newly formed College of Business.\u00a0 I was plugging right along working on several items on a \u2018to do\u2019 list.\u00a0 In August 2017, I very unexpectedly was asked to serve as interim (and then permanent) Vice President of Administration and Finance and Chief Financial Officer at Mary Washington.<\/p>\n

The first 6-8 months were crazy as I had to learn about the areas I now led and managed, most of which I had little to no interaction with while dean.\u00a0 My direct reports were amazingly patient and tolerant as I climbed the steep learning curve.<\/p>\n

After about a year in the job, however, I realized that I was not playing to my strengths in this role!\u00a0 The more I thought about it, the more I knew that I wasn\u2019t, with respect to Jim Collins\u2019 GOOD TO GREAT, in the right seat on the Mary Washington bus.<\/p>\n

So I surprised many people by asking to return to the business dean position, which is the best place for Mary Washington to utilize my strengths.\u00a0 While I was a good VP (I\u2019m told), I wasn\u2019t a fulfilled one.\u00a0 Fortunately, my boss said YES and I will become Dean 2.0 in January.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not utilizing your strengths in your work, please recognize this and find a different job that allows you to contribute and shine.\u00a0 You\u2019re not a tree, so pick up and move!\u00a0 We need the best that you can be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Lynne Richardson, Vice President for Administration & Finance at the University of Mary Washington I\u2019m a huge fan of the concept of doing work that encompasses things you really do well AND enjoy doing.\u00a0 In fact, I am a devotee of StrengthsFinder 2.0, by Tom Rath, a book that espouses that people should […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":44087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"umw_cb_additional_links":[[]],"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"sidebar-content","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_advisory_expires_time":"","_advisory_meta_include":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-44151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blog","8":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPlay To Your Strengths! - Leadership Colloquium at UMW<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Play To Your Strengths!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Written by Lynne Richardson, Vice President for Administration & Finance at the University of Mary Washington I\u2019m a huge fan of the concept of doing work that encompasses things you really do well AND enjoy doing.\u00a0 In fact, I am a devotee of StrengthsFinder 2.0, by Tom Rath, a book that espouses that people should […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Leadership Colloquium at UMW\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-12-05T19:29:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2018\/07\/jugglingact.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"558\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"551\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andrea Cordray\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andrea Cordray\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Andrea Cordray\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/#\/schema\/person\/d5dd706e365b40de51655d8168964a17\"},\"headline\":\"Play To Your Strengths!\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-12-05T19:29:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/\"},\"wordCount\":421,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2018\/07\/jugglingact.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/\",\"name\":\"Play To Your Strengths! - Leadership Colloquium at UMW\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2018\/07\/jugglingact.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-12-05T19:29:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/#\/schema\/person\/d5dd706e365b40de51655d8168964a17\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2018\/07\/jugglingact.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2018\/07\/jugglingact.png\",\"width\":558,\"height\":551,\"caption\":\"Woman Juggling Many Aspects of her life: house, work, love, family\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Play To Your Strengths!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/\",\"name\":\"Leadership Colloquium at UMW\",\"description\":\"University of Mary Washington\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/#\/schema\/person\/d5dd706e365b40de51655d8168964a17\",\"name\":\"Andrea Cordray\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/86da089c8c4b72d14f12795d7eee0f34f9fee06448505d6bc1aad2a71e9a9cd0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/86da089c8c4b72d14f12795d7eee0f34f9fee06448505d6bc1aad2a71e9a9cd0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Andrea Cordray\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/author\/acordray\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Play To Your Strengths! - Leadership Colloquium at UMW","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Play To Your Strengths!","og_description":"Written by Lynne Richardson, Vice President for Administration & Finance at the University of Mary Washington I\u2019m a huge fan of the concept of doing work that encompasses things you really do well AND enjoy doing.\u00a0 In fact, I am a devotee of StrengthsFinder 2.0, by Tom Rath, a book that espouses that people should […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/","og_site_name":"Leadership Colloquium at UMW","article_published_time":"2018-12-05T19:29:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":558,"height":551,"url":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2018\/07\/jugglingact.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Andrea Cordray","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Andrea Cordray","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/"},"author":{"name":"Andrea Cordray","@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/#\/schema\/person\/d5dd706e365b40de51655d8168964a17"},"headline":"Play To Your Strengths!","datePublished":"2018-12-05T19:29:49+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/"},"wordCount":421,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2018\/07\/jugglingact.png","articleSection":["blog"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/","url":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/","name":"Play To Your Strengths! - Leadership Colloquium at UMW","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2018\/07\/jugglingact.png","datePublished":"2018-12-05T19:29:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/#\/schema\/person\/d5dd706e365b40de51655d8168964a17"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2018\/07\/jugglingact.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2018\/07\/jugglingact.png","width":558,"height":551,"caption":"Woman Juggling Many Aspects of her life: house, work, love, family"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2018\/12\/05\/play-to-your-strengths\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Play To Your Strengths!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/","name":"Leadership Colloquium at UMW","description":"University of Mary Washington","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/#\/schema\/person\/d5dd706e365b40de51655d8168964a17","name":"Andrea Cordray","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/86da089c8c4b72d14f12795d7eee0f34f9fee06448505d6bc1aad2a71e9a9cd0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/86da089c8c4b72d14f12795d7eee0f34f9fee06448505d6bc1aad2a71e9a9cd0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Andrea Cordray"},"url":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/author\/acordray\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2018\/07\/jugglingact.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}