Running Head: COMPREHENSIVE STRENGTHS REFLECTION

Comprehensive Strengths Reflection

Raymond Chang
COMPREHENSIVE STRENGTHS REFLECTION

Leadership requires self-awareness and the ability to understand and navigate the

relational landscape of any movement, organization, or institution. The higher educational

professional combines both theory and practice through leadership, thus requiring an emotional

and relational competency when it comes to how they operate in their roles. My personal

leadership is primarily mission/vision oriented, inspirational, and relational. Detailed

organizational and logistical leadership are not areas of great strength; however, I know they are

important enough for me to pay careful attention to them. I ultimately lead with vision,

inspiration, and movement.

When I consider the 10-15 years following the completion of my PhD degree, though

there are a lot of unknowns, a few themes emerge clearly. I know that I want to be a part of both

movements and institutions, do things locally as well as nationally, speak and write for public

consumption, be a part of rich traditions while also creatively innovating, start new things, and to

contribute to thoughtful engagement among Christians.

In order to understand how I am thinking about my future, I have to look back to my past

and consider my present realities. In this reflection, I will consider insights from Kolbe, the

Enneagram, Strengths Finder, Meyers Briggs, and Values in Action. My Kolbe numbers are

7392, my Enneagram is a 7w8, my Clifton Strengths are woo, strategic, ideation, futuristic,

belief, my MBTI is ENTP, and my strongest Values in Action are creativity, perspective,

spirituality, curiosity, justice.

One of the things I learned throughout my life is that my work needs to be tied to bearing

Christian witness. Work that is not somehow directly tied to Christian mission ultimately falls

short for me. I lose interest and motivation wanes when I do not see it directly tied to my

Christian faith. I attribute this to my Strength of “belief.” Convictions have always been

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important to me and my motivation often been connected to conviction. This is further verified in

my weakest areas of VIA: self-regulation, prudence, and perseverance. Without a strong

conviction, I simply struggle to persist. This is also tied to my Enneagram 7, where I want the

new and novel as well as my Kolbe 9 for being a high quick start. I am far better at starting

things than finishing them and seeing them through, which until I learned from Kolbe, felt

ashamed about. I learned through the Kolbe test that being a catalyst who can start things is a

part of the way I am wired.

Currently, I am in campus ministry at Wheaton College. The aspects I love about the

work is the clear mission, the highly competent faculty and staff colleagues, and our very

capable students. One of the things that makes working at a college so life giving is that my woo

strength is always at work, which is my top strength. I am constantly meeting new people and

connecting with them within a minute or an hour (and sometimes, that is our entire interaction

for the year). My strong extroversion (ENTP) is also nourished in the student

development/chaplaincy role. One other aspect of working in higher education is my proximity

to knowledge. I love being near those who are experts in their fields – especially as they pertain

to faith integration. This fits with the 7 on the Kolbe, which is that I have a high fact-finding

disposition. I love to be informed and to make informed decisions. Love of learning is a middle

VIA strength of mine (#7), but I do find that my strategic and ideation strengths lean heavily on

making informed decisions. A part of me is always searching for the leading scholarship and

cutting-edge ideas.

The PhD program has been instrumental in learning how to navigate the academic

landscape. I have become more adept in searching for and appreciating important, but obscure

journal articles, the importance of producing knowledge, and the significance of publishing. I’ve

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also been convinced that higher education is one of the greatest forces of social change and

Christian higher education could potentially be one of the greatest forces of social change. Being

in the PhD program has tapped into my top VIA strengths of perspective (2) and curiosity (4),

along with my middle VIA strength of love of learning (7).

I am not fully sure of what my post-doctoral plans might be. Since my interests vary

widely and a part of me likes the idea of keeping my options open (really influenced by the

novelty-oriented nature of the 7 on the Enneagram and the high quick start (9) on the Kolbe. I

struggle to articulate my ideal future. I am constantly wrestling between the church, the

(Christian) academy, and the idea of a para-church organization/non-profit. There are no clear

signs in any direction, however, considering the 10-15 years after I complete my PhD, my ideal

career path would consist of some key elements. In many ways, I believe that Christian higher

education fits me well. What is challenging is that many institutions are far too steeped in

whiteness. My ideal path would allow me to stay in Christian higher education in a pastoral

ministry setting, in the classroom, or in an entity that speaks to the broader Christian world.

There are several key themes that continue to emerge as significant pulls in my life. The

first, as mentioned, is work that is deeply Christian. Beyond that, there are several other

important factors that make me come alive. First, is work that is both national and local in reach.

I find that my VIA strength of perspective really kicks in when it comes to issues that are

systemic and structural, and knowing the nuances within local contexts, while also seeing the

consistent themes of the national (and even global) reality is important to me. Second, I know

that I value work that has elements of a movement, but also has the longevity and stability of an

institution. My Myers-Briggs ENTP comes alive with movements because it combines

inspiration and innovation. Creativity also happens to be my top VIA strength. Movements are

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often original and adaptive, which is what I love about them. Institutions provide stability, which

allow movements to wax and wane, while sustaining efforts to deepening the roots of the

institution. This is why I love my work with the Asian American Christian Collaborative. It is

both movement making and institution building. In the 10 months it has been in existence, we

went from a group of people who were drafting a statement to a national organization in dialog

with the White House.

Beyond the PhD, I want to continue building AACC for the reasons I’ve named. AACC

taps into all of my top five VIA strengths (creativity, perspective, spirituality, curiosity, and

justice). Building an organization from the ground up demands creativity, but also a broad

perspective. In addition, as it is distinctly Christian and committed to faith and also deeply

connected to purpose for the Asian American community, it boosts spirituality. It taps into my

endless curiosity about what is needed, and since it addresses issues of race, it is grounded in a

pursuit of justice. It also allows me to employ all of my Clifton strengths (woo, strategic,

ideation, futuristic, and belief). I am constantly networking, getting the word out for AACC,

strategizing and ideating about ways to move towards to the future, while staying grounded and

committed to my core convictions about the organization.

When it comes to higher education, the concern I have is whether Christian higher

education will ever live up to its Christian commitments. The more I engage with Christian

higher education, the more I long for it to be what it has the potential of becoming, while also

wondering if it ever will be able to divest itself of whiteness. My VIA strength of justice and

Clifton strength of belief both lead me to remain committed to a truly equitable institution, but

watching the ways decisions are made, programs are resourced, and who is viewed with favor

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and who is not, makes it extremely difficult for me to believe that a dominantly white Christian

institution will ever be Christian before it is white.

I don’t really see myself at a non-Christian institution. I could be wrong, but as I

mentioned before, being at a Christian institution is important. In this sense, if I could do

anything, based on all the things I have mentioned, I would either want to take over an institution

that needs to be turned around, and is willing to commit to racial and economic justice along

with cutting edge research, or start a college/university that does that. It might seem foolish to

think about higher education with the economy, population, cost of education, etc. the way it is,

but there is a need for Christian institutions that make a difference. If I could devote the next 15

years to building an institution that is not compromised with racism and political idolatry, I think

that would be where I would like to devote my efforts and energy.

I could also see myself staying in campus ministries where I get to preach, speak in

public, and shape conversations. I love connecting with people, counseling them, and giving

pertinent advice, which all fit within the campus ministry role.