Applying Your Strengths on the Job

Several books I've read recommend you turn your work into play by doing whatever you do best.  Learn your strengths and fill your day with tasks that let you apply those strengths.  The work then becomes a "flow" experience.  You focus deeply on each task, feeling energized, challenged, and proud of what you've done.

If you buy one of these books, Now, Discover Your Strengths, you get a code that you can use to take an Internet based survey from the Gallup Organization that identifies your top five "signature strengths".  These are the strengths the authors recommend you apply as often as possible.

Based on this survey, what are some of my "signature strengths"?  When I apply them at work, do I experience "flow"?

1. "Includer".  A person with this strength views everyone as equally important and equally deserving of attention and inclusion in the group.  For me, I think this shows up in how I enjoy finding ways to make life better for the operators who run the production lines.  These are people are sometimes not highly educated, sometimes not very sophisticated, and are easily ignored or dismissed.  That seems to make me that much more determined to take their opinions and needs seriously.
2. "Connectedness".  A person with this strength believes that all people are connected and are part of something larger, and tends to enjoy helping others.  I think I express this through my desire to help operators and my desire to get people in different parts of the business to work together effectively.
3. "Woo".  Woo stands for "Winning Others Over".  A person with "woo" likes to mingle, "schmooze", to approach people he doesn't know well and start to build rapport and trust.  This shows up for me in how I enjoy approaching operators or managers at any production line, striking up a conversation, building rapport, and then working together to meet business goals.  When I walk into a plant site, I'm the guy who seems to know EVERYBODY.
4.  "Maximizer".  A person with this strength likes to take something good and make it excellent.  This shows up for me in how I like to perfect information systems, work processes, training materials, spreadsheets, process settings, and computer screens that operators use to run equipment.  

My work feels like play when I'm applying these strengths--when I'm connecting to people, including people who sometimes get ignored or dismissed, schmoozing, and perfecting systems or processes. The less time I spend on other things, like going to big meetings, the better--for me and for the company I work for.