As students and faculty of West Texas A&M University, we are familiar with Gallup’s StrengthsQuest. WTAMU is partnering with the Gallup, Inc. to become a strengths-based campus, which will engage students in challenging and meaningful experiences that aid in their intellectual and personal development. It is important to know our strengths because they help us discover and talk about people’s greatest talents.

Jessica Love presented last week’s theme, Command. Love serves as an instructor in the Department of Agricultural Sciences and head coach of the women’s equestrian team. Her top strengths are Command, Strategic, Relator, Activator, and Ideation. Having Command in a person’s top five strengths is especially rare because it is the least commonly occurring theme. People exceptionally talented in the command theme have presence. They can take control of a situation and make decisions. Other words used to describe a Commander are driver, persuader, leader, and challenger.

Commanders are often misunderstood as being bossy. However, people with strong Command bring decisiveness and emotional clarity. It makes them capable of resolving conflicts and misunderstandings. For Commanders, it’s not about where they go individually, but where they can go together, with their team. Love can attest to this as a coach. She says it’s about pushing the team from behind, not dragging them forward.

“I don’t care about trophies,” said Love “I want to know if we got where we need to be. Did we meet our goal?”

Because of this ‘bossy’ demeanor, people become hesitant to push or challenge Commanders. Don’t let the intimidation fool you! Commanders are hungry for a challenge, and need a good push.

Gallup.com gave some examples of action items for this theme. They say that Commanders should, “Seek roles in which you will be asked to persuade others. Help you colleagues and friends make commitments. You can provide the spark that will inspire them to act. Find a cause you believe in and support it. You might discover yourself at your best when defending a cause in the face of resistance.”

Commanders step up their game when the pressure is on. When they lead, they can be gentle like a sheep-dog—guiding and protecting others from harm. Other times, Commanders can be direct, like a military General—telling you what needs to be done to advance a cause.

As an influencing theme, Jessica Love ends by saying that her matured Command strength can, “talk you into anything.”