Futuristic

Futuristic, Another Word for Visionary

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I saw a LinkedIn post one day that suggested nobody could be visionary. Great news if you have high Futuristic in your CliftonStrengths. Futuristic is all about being visionary. This person can envision years down the road. Futuristic is not the same as Strategic. While Futuristic is a strategic thinking trait and strategic is a strategic thinking trait, they are totally different.

Strategic people can jump from “A” to “Z” in a single blink. Futuristic kicks in just after Strategic is finished. Futuristic and Strategic are my first two strengths. I have been working on developing, polishing, and calibrating these two strengths for myself since 2012. They are both extremely powerful and generally not properly understood. Out of 34 traits for 25 million people, Futuristic comes in at number 25. There are 24 traits that show up in the CliftonStrengths top five more frequently than  Futuristic. It is quite rare.

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Is the Futuristic Talent one of your top Talents or Strengths?

Futuristic

People who are strong in the Clifton StrengthsFinder Futuristic talent are inspired by what they envision being just down the road. Futuristic people can inspire those around them when they share their visions of what could be in the future.

People who possess the Futuristic talent have the ability to see what is around the corner. They can often see what’s ahead in ways that other people cannot see. 

The Futuristic talent enables those who have it to spot trends. People who have this talent can often see what’s just beyond the horizon.

Another word for Futuristic is Visionary. Companies look for vision in candidates when they hire to fill leadership roles.

You can find out how you're uniquely wired and you can learn how to turn your unique set of talents into strengths!

 

Jeff Snyder Coaching

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The Value of Learning, Embracing and Leveraging Your Unique Personal Strengths

Futuristic

 

My top strength as defined by the Clifton StrengthsFinder is called Futuristic. 

“People exceptionally talented in the Futuristic theme are inspired by the future and what could be.  They energize others with their visions of the future”

Traits of Futuristic People

People who have this strength can see down the road. They could be accurately referred to as a Visionary.  They are able to preview, predict and forecast.

If you have this strength, may I suggest that it is super-important that you find out what you have?

Example of My Futuristic in Action

As a Futuristic person, I have always been an early adopter.  On LinkedIn for example, I didn’t wait until everyone around me created an account.  I created my LinkedIn account in 2004 and I’m now hovering around 30,000 direct connections and I've done a significant amount of business because of LinkedIn.  That’s an example of what a Futuristic person does in action.

My Latest Futuristic Project

Recently, I acquired a newly released software product that enables me to build mobile apps.  Over the weekend, I build my first Android Mobile App called Jeff Snyder Coaching.  It sits in the Google Play store.  I’ll build the IOS version of this App this weekend.

Futuristic Excitement!

Being the Futuristic person that I am, I got excited about my new creation; so excited in fact that I built a sample mobile app for a local Realtor friend. I could see down the road in the sense that I could see the competitive advantages a mobile app could bring to my friend’s real estate agency.  I sent the sample app to my friend last night and received this message this morning.

“I received your email on the app. I would really need to think about that and now is a bad time since I'm really turning off for the month of December as much as possible. I did ask my real estate friend in the springs what she thought.”

Long story short, my friend didn’t get it and my friend’s friend didn’t get it either. My first reaction was my old reaction.  The reaction I would have had in the past before I understood my Futuristic gift.  I suppressed my first reaction and turned on my reality testing to come up with a healthier reaction.

People Don't Think Alike

My reality is that I can see down the road and as a marketing educated and marketing minded person, I can see advantages for my real estate friend.  Her reality on the other hand does not include my Futuristic abilities.  Rather than asking me how a mobile app could benefit her business, she turned to a friend who didn’t have my Futuristic strength either. 

There are several lessons here:

  1. Since I know my strengths, I was quickly able to recognize what had gone wrong in this situation and I have already changed my strategy because of what I’ve recognized.
  2. I’ve know this for a while but today’s experience made it crystal clear that as human beings, we do not all think the same way.  Where I see competitive advantage, my friend sees her list of Christmas activities.  Neither one of us is wrong.  We simply aren’t seeing the same things.
  3. If you have the Futuristic strength near the top of your strengths list, you really should learn what it means.  If you don't, you'll spend your entire life living in the future when those around you are living in either the present or the past.  In other words, your audience will seldom get you.
  4. When you learn, embrace and discover how to leverage your personal strengths (yours are different than mine), you can make much more clear and powerful decisions.

Jeff Snyder Coaching

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