1. Belief

2. Today’s Goals We want you to be able to:
Identify two ways you can develop your Belief strength.
Identify two valuable things about the Belief theme in action
Feel comfortable working with others with the Belief strength towards a positive goal in a group setting.
Facilitator Notes
Welcome
Introductions (name, title, department, fun fact)
If there are 10 or less participants in the session who are not familiar with one another, ask them to introduce themselves.
Share that this session is a part of the Be Initiative. The Be Better initiative is aimed at establishing the University of Iowa as the university that creates leaders who leverage their strengths, leadership knowledge, and leadership skills to contribute to their communities now and in the future.
Learning Goals
Share the takeaways
Ask students if they have additional things they’d like to learn about the Command strength
Engagement
Ask students to silence and put away electronic devices
Make sure everyone has something to write with.
Ask who is and who is not an Belief. If applicable, ask Believers to sit next to someone who is not an Believers

3. People who are exceptionally talented in the Belief theme have certain core values that are unchanging. Out of these values emerges a defined purpose for their life.
Facilitator Notes
If you possess a strong Belief theme, you have certain core values that are enduring. These values vary from one person to another, but ordinarily your Belief theme causes you to be family-oriented, altruistic, even spiritual, and to value responsibility and high ethics -- both in yourself and others. These core values affect your behavior in many ways. They give your life meaning and satisfaction; in your view, success is more than money and prestige. They provide you with direction, guiding you through the temptations and distractions of life toward a consistent set of priorities.
This consistency is the foundation for all your relationships. Your friends call you dependable. "I know where you stand," they say. Your Belief makes you easy to trust. It also demands that you find work that meshes with your values. Your work must be meaningful; it must matter to you. And guided by your Belief theme it will matter only if it gives you a chance to live out your values.
Source:
Group Discussion:
What are some ways you’ve seen your Achiever strength show up in your life and interactions with others? Either inside or outside of the classroom. Provide an example to get the conversation started.

4. Facilitator Notes
Time: 5 minutes
The Princess and the Frog (2009) Clip Length: 2:44
Group Discussion
What aspects of the Belief theme did you see in this clip? Give specific examples.

5. What’s Your Perspective?
Balcony
Ethical
Compassionate
True to self and ideals
Responsible
Basement
Stubborn
Set in their ways
Elitist
Righteous
Facilitator Notes Time : 7 minutes
A barrier label describes when a talent is mistakenly devalued and dismissed as a weakness.
Remember: Nobody is perfect. Nobody can always be in the balcony. Everyone finds themselves in the basement from time to time.
Group Discussion:
Do you agree with the balcony and basement/barrier labels associated with belief ?
Now that you are aware of the basement or barrier labels. What are some things you can do to manage and/or avoid them?
If you do not have Belief as a strength, how would you work with someone knowing this information.

6. Who are you? Facilitator Notes Time : 30 minutes
Materials needed: multicolored pipe cleaners, 8 oz measuring cup
Explain to students that this activity is a personal exploration of how they see themselves.
Distribute 4 pipe cleaners to each student.
Ask students to answer the question, “Who are you?” using the pipe cleaners.
Students can shape the pipe cleaners in any fashion that they choose to answer the question. Encourage the students to go beyond the basics
Remind students there are no incorrect answers to this question, and their creations should simply speak to how they see themselves.
As students finish shaping their pipe cleaners, invite them to share their creations with 1-2 other students.
Invite them to articulate how what they made says who they are, and why they choose to express themselves in that way.
Present the measuring cup to the students and pose the question, who believes they can fit their creation into the measuring cup? Spend a minute or two allowing students to attempt to fit their creation into the cup. Ask for a show of hands of students who cannot fit their creations into the cup.
Group discussion
What if your worthiness to be part of a group or to participate in a leadership process was determined based upon your ability to fit into the cup?
Should you have to change who you are to fit into the cup?
Who gets left out of the cup and why?
Is the cup an accurate measure of one’s worthiness?
What might the cup represent?
What are some ways we can address the unfair application of the cup to others?
Source: Exploring Leadership (2013), Wagner, Ostick, and Associates

7. Next Steps for Belief
Accept that the values of other people might differ from your own.
Seek roles that fit your values
Spend time thinking about your “calling”
Facilitator Notes Time : 7 minutes
Express your beliefs without being judgmental
Actively seek roles that fit your values. I n particular, think about joining orgs that define your purposes by the contribution they make to society.
Spend time thinking about your calling. Once you have articulated this mission, seek more information about careers that can help you fulfill it.
Intensify Strength
(handout –Supplemental Activity 2.K: Intensify Strength p. 38 of StrengthsQuest Activity workbook)
Ask the students to develop talent based actions to respond to each touchpoint on the worksheet.
Debrief this activity by asking students to share their responses with a small group. As with so many others, the positive effect of this activity can be enhanced by having students discuss their work in small groups and/or report to the entire group.