Naptime beckoned, and as we were getting ready to head home, Alex came over to me and beamed. “That kid’s like a cat,” he said. “He likes round things that go around.”

It’s true that James loves wheels, but then I’ve known him for two years. In about 10 minutes, Alex had quietly ‘gotten’ James and taken it to meta-level.

Alex has strength called Strategic, which you either have or you don’t; it can’t be taught. He sees patterns where others simply see complexity. Strategics cut through clutter. Alex then verbalized what he’d discovered. “This person [Strategic] is likely to have a strength for putting his ideas and thoughts into words,” say Buckingham and Clifton. “Position this person on leading edge of your organization.”

Alex is also exhibiting strong right-brain traits, using a simile to describe picturesquely what he’s discovered, comparing two disparate things – a cat and a boy.

He’s also exhibiting Empathy. Understanding innately how James feels about things. James doesn’t just love things that go ‘round; he’s obsessed with them. Alex tapped into a feeling thing, and from feelings we know how to manage people, guide them and work with them. Once you know what James likes, you have key to motivating him, something that managers, therapists, and coaches need to be able to do.

These two traits of Empathy and Strategist also show up in his comment about neighbor. He’s made a big connection for a small boy – that a woman who reports her neighbor for watering on wrong day is going to be furious at a toddler throwing dirt on her driveway, i.e., that she’s fastidious and rigid about things.

KNOWING YOUR STRENGTHS

If you’ve been lucky, your parents keyed in on things like this, and your teachers, and your counselors, and your coaches, and your managers. If not, these natural propensities were ignored, or even considered weaknesses, and you’ve lost touch with them.

I have one client, for instance, who has Intellection, Learner and Ideation for 3 of her top themes. This means she’s intellectual, loves to learn and study, and loves ideas for their own sake. Her parents were farmers, and actually said to her, “Get your head out of that book and do something useful. That won’t be tolerated in this household.”

So you see how it goes.

MAKE YOUR OWN LUCK

If you were lucky in this respect, and have crafted your life around your strengths, congratulations. If you were not, you can do it for yourself. Take time this year to delve into your innate talents and strengths and take first step on one of paths to happiness.

Self-awareness will lead to better understand of others and will help you see and understand innate strengths in others as well.

ASSIGN & DELEGATE

Delegate any task you can. For an idea of how to organize this, take a look at a program from a big event, or those ball flyers. They'll list all committee chairs. SAVING MONEY

There are many ways you can get things for little or no money. Entertainment, for instance. If you look around town, you'll find groups who perform for love of it, and they can be quite good.

Remember that children always "work." They can be as bad as bad, and that much more adorable. I had a group of kids perform free) when I did a New Orleans Jazz Brunch. I had a professional jazz band lead in with "When Saints Go Marching In" and children, dressed in Mardi Gras costumes, ran around throwing coins, confetti, and streamers.

Throwing confetti? I had a hotel Event Coordinator agree to let us bring in men on motorcycles if we agreed to clean up any oil spills.

You truly never know!

There's also a serious Boys' Choir in S.A. I've used, and they were worth what they charged. Stay away from amateur comedians. Bad humor is irretrievable and so is your reputation. EXPECT THE WORST

Because it will happen. I've had every volunteer fail at some point - no decorations, no program ... You just have to learn how to cope. If decorations person f ails, buy a pretty floral arrangement for each table. If there's no money, buy that crepey paper and "wrap" each table like a gift.

HAVE A TRANQUIL FRIEND

Your nerves may be a bit on edge. I remember maitre d' who saw me about to decompensate at set-up time, who took me in his arms and said, "Let's dance," and waltzed me around mess in ballroom that was bad and getting worse.

I remember chef who told me at set-up time that he couldn't possibly serve this in less than 3 hours, "Surely you jest." Lucha was there. She went into kitchen with him and came back 30 minutes later saying brunch would be served in 50 minutes. KNOW YOUR CEO

Some need to be briefed on how to run show; some don't. SPEAKERS?

Ready sources for speakers are ministers, community leaders, university professors, and professional speakers. And hey, ask mayor. You never know!

DONATIONS

Getting door prizes is easy. Send out form letters or make phone calls to business owners telling them they'll get promotion in program. Restaurants will kick in dinners, airlines will give tickets, hotels will give golf packages. These places have budgets for this kind of thing. They'll also foot printing costs.

PROCESS

Process after event and keep things in a file. You'll want to remember what worked and what didn't.