The Hidden Trauma in Your Strengths Finder Results

About 5 years ago I took the StrengthsFinder test. My results were "Achiever, Arranger, Intellection, Learner and Responsibility.” What I actually would prefer for myself were “Achiever, Command, Communication, Developer, Strategic.”

But these skills that I naturally possessed were stolen from me by family and society when I was just a kid. For the next decade, every time I tried to communicate, I was systematically destroyed. My accent was wrong. My grammar was imperfect. My cultural references didn't match. Teachers, classmates, and the entire system sent one clear message: My voice doesn't matter.

When I was nine years old, I was the cheeky kid everyone knew in our village in northern Turkey. I spoke up, made jokes, tested boundaries the way confident children do. Other kids naturally looked to me when decisions needed to be made. I had no concept of being an outsider because I had never been one.

Then my family moved to Austria.

The test wasn't measuring my authentic personality. It was documenting a crime scene.

Here's how I was systematically transformed from who I naturally was into my "test results":

From Communicator to Intellection

I was systematically criticized for speaking up and developed a system that I only speak and excel when my authority is assumed and expected. When it wasn't, I just kept quiet. I became an intellector instead of a communicator.

I thought, day and night, how I can say it better than them so I could get accepted. I was so good at imagining things and conversations in my head by night, daydreaming by day. But when it came to execution all my alarm signals and defense mechanisms kicked off. I was the immigrant, I immediately thought about grammar and syntax, the way I structure the sentence and by the time I said my first sentence I already started rambling.

The result is that I became an intellector for life instead of just getting my ideas across.

From Commander to Arranger

The outsider immigrant who did not fit in naturally. I was always led to believe my ideas and my work didn't matter during school by my teacher and at home by my father. I became the arranger instead of the commander in my adult life. I wasn't able to command what I arranged.

So people always came to me wondering how I actually was able to figure out a complex system. For example I was good at math but people were puzzled how that was possible when they had A+ grades in German and I had only D. I was still able to solve that math problem better and faster without significant effort. I focused, paid attention during class and figured out a way to solve it on paper and pen but when it came to communicating how I did it in language I started doubting myself again. So I refrained from doing so.

The problem was I wasn't able to command or communicate with them.

From Developer to Learner

I read and studied books on linguistics, advanced literature. But I did all this wondering why I still am not able to express myself. I kept looking for answers until I found them. I found that English is easier for me to express myself so I moved that direction but I still had the issue with talking when the authority isn't assumed yet. Only recently I figured out that I could have read ten times more books. It would not have helped. I had to establish something I had naturally, being a developer instead of just a learner.

I fought back only to find out that I was looking for the solution in the wrong place. It hindered me to unleash my ability and drive to help others bring out the best of themselves. Because all my life I saw so much potential wasted by the same parenting style and school system. And I dreaded that I can't do anything to fix it for myself or the others.

Now that I found the solution I can dedicate my life to what actually my strength is. Help other people unleash what they're really good at.

From Strategic to Responsible

Because after all, that's something I could easily control. I wasn't able to get out of my comfort zone and into the scary world of being judged again for expressing myself. So whenever someone gave me a task I had to fix and finish it. Because my authority was assumed if someone gave me something.

But I wasn't able to strategically assume the authority before the task and then execute on it moving a project forward that I came up with. Most of the time I waited for someone to come up with the project or approve mine and then I was responsible to finish it to the end.

How Trauma Becomes "Personality"

StrengthsFinder treats trauma responses as natural limitations. Consider these common scenarios:

Child systematically criticized for speaking up → Test result: "You're naturally not a communicator"
Kid punished for taking initiative → Test result: "Command isn't your strength"
Student failed for creative thinking → Test result: "Strategic thinking isn't natural for you"
Person rejected for being different → Test result: "You're naturally not competitive"

The assessment can't distinguish between someone who's genuinely introverted and someone who learned that speaking up leads to punishment. It doesn't separate natural analytical tendencies from hypervigilance developed through trauma.

Your "strengths profile" might actually be a trauma inventory.

The Corporate Programming

This trauma-blindness isn't accidental—it's convenient. StrengthsFinder serves the system perfectly by:

Keeping people in their assigned boxes ("You're naturally suited for support roles")
Preventing them from reclaiming stolen abilities ("Don't try to develop Communication, it's not your strength")
Making them grateful for limitations ("Focus on what you're good at")
Channeling talent into corporate hierarchies ("Be the reliable individual contributor")

The message is clear: Accept your place, be useful to others, and don't reach beyond your "natural" limitations.

The Questions StrengthsFinder Should Ask (But Doesn't)

Before concluding that Communication isn't your strength, the assessment should explore:

Were you encouraged or discouraged from speaking up as a child?
Did your school system reward or punish your natural communication style?
Have cultural or language barriers affected your confidence in expressing yourself?
Were you systematically criticized for your accent, grammar, or cultural perspective?
Did authority figures make you feel stupid when you tried to contribute?

Without these questions, StrengthsFinder is measuring the aftermath of systematic oppression and calling it personality.

Reclaiming Your Stolen Strengths

Here's what I've learned about recovering abilities that were beaten out of you:

1. Identify What Was Stolen vs. What's Natural

Look at your childhood before the system got to you. What came naturally? What did you enjoy? What were you confident about before someone told you that you weren't good enough?

2. Recognize Trauma Responses as Temporary

That "natural" aversion to public speaking? It might be your nervous system protecting you from situations that previously led to humiliation. That's adaptation, not limitation.

3. Use Your Actual Strengths for Recovery

My systematic approach (Arranger) and persistence (Achiever) are helping me reclaim communication abilities. Your real strengths become tools for recovering stolen ones.

4. Start Small and Build Evidence

I'm working on camera confidence through daily practice. Each small success proves to my brain that communication is safe again. The "weakness" is becoming a strength through deliberate practice.

The Real Strength: Systematic Recovery

Here's the irony: people who've had abilities systematically destroyed often become better at those abilities than people who never lost them. Why? Because we understand the mechanics of both destruction and recovery.

I'm becoming a better communicator than many "natural" communicators because I understand:

How confidence gets destroyed
How authority gets undermined
How to rebuild systematically
How to help others do the same

The trauma gave me expertise that privileged people don't have.

What This Means for You

If your StrengthsFinder results feel limiting or don't match your childhood self, consider this:

You might not be naturally weak at Communication, Command, or Strategic thinking. You might be carrying the systematic destruction of those abilities.

The difference is crucial. Natural limitations should be accepted and worked around. Stolen abilities should be reclaimed and restored.

Your "personality" might actually be someone else's agenda for your life.

Moving Forward

But no more of this bullshit. I'll assume the character that others sought to destroy in me during my childhood. I have been an achiever and I never gave up, in my assumed trauma strengths and also how I perceive myself if I didn't have all the baggage.

I'm not throwing StrengthsFinder in the bin. I'm using it as a trauma detection radar. Every "weakness" it identifies gets this question: "Was this stolen from me or am I naturally this way?"

Then I'm systematically reclaiming what was taken.

The cheeky, confident kid who belonged everywhere in his universe? He's still here. The Austrian school system just convinced him to hide.

Time to bring him back.