APPENDIX B

THE LOGB PERSONAL STRENGTHS SURVEY

John Trent, PhD

DURING MY DOCTORAL PROGRAM, I studied many different tests that were created to help people see their strengths. However, I quickly discovered that while most were very helpful, almost all of them were extremely complicated to take, and even the results were hard to understand! For example, one popular personality tool uses 364 questions to assess a person’s strengths and weaknesses —and you have to be certified to explain what your answers to those questions mean!

So I decided to create a tool that was accurate and easy to read and that someone could take in just three to five minutes. The goal of the assessment was to give people a picture of their unique, God-given strengths.

If you look at the survey we’re asking you to take (at the end of this section), you’ll see it has only four boxes —an L box, an O box, a G box, and a B box. And in each box, there are only fourteen words or short phrases in two lists, and then below those words, there is one phrase.

For example, if you’ll look at the L box, you’ll see a list of words in two columns beginning with “Takes charge.” Underneath that list of fourteen words, you’ll see the statement in italics, “Let’s do it now!”

To complete this survey (not a test but a tool to help you see your strengths), all you need to do is think about how you naturally react when you’re at home with your fiancé(e) or spouse. (Feel free to take this instrument later on to determine who you are when you’re at work. Many of us tend to be one personality type when we’re at home and someone very different when we’re at work.)

For now, however, focus on identifying your strengths at home, with your fiancé(e) or spouse. Read through all four boxes (the L, O, G, and B boxes), and circle every word and phrase in each box that describes who you are as a person.

For example, start with the L box. Using a pen or pencil, read and circle every word or phrase in the list that sounds like you. If you are “assertive” when you’re at home, circle it. If you tend to “take charge,” then you’d circle those words. Be sure and circle the statement at the bottom of the L box —“Let’s do it now!” —if it describes you as well.

That means there are fourteen words or phrases and one statement in each box you could choose to circle —or fifteen possible responses in each box. Feel free to circle all fifteen words or phrases in a box if all of them describe you. In some of the boxes, you might circle only a few words, or even none. Just be sure to circle every word and phrase that gives you an internal head nod that says, Yep! That’s me all right!

After you’ve gone through each box circling every word and phrase that describes you, then do what it says at the bottom of each box, and “double the number circled.”

For example, let’s say in the L box you circled seven words and the statement “Let’s do it now!” So that’s eight total circles in the L box. Doubling the number circled would mean that your total score for the L box would be 16 (8 x 2 = 16).

What do you do with that number?

See the Strengths Assessment Chart below the four boxes? You’ll notice that on the graph, there is an L line, an O line, a G line, and a B line. And over on the left, you’ll see the numbers 0–30. Just take your total score from your L box (in the example above, 16 was the total score), and put a dot on L line just above the 15. (Note: Some of you might end up with a tie for the highest score, which is common.)

Now double the number circled in the O, G, and B boxes as well.

The last thing to do is connect the dots! That will give you a graph. That’s it! Now you have a picture of your unique, God-given strengths!