Strengths Based Tools for Depression, Anxiety and Addiction Recovery Part 2

Welcome back to this presentation, identifying strengths. I'm your host, Dr. Donnelly Snipes. In this part of the presentation, we're going to explore questions to help identify strengths. Because sometimes people are like, I don't know what you're talking about. We'll explain how understanding temperament can help people live more authentically and capitalize on their strengths. And we'll brainstorm physical, affective, cognitive, environmental, and relational strengths based interventions. I don't know why I have such a hard time saying strengths based and not tripping over my tongue, but whatever. So how do we help people identify their strengths? I mean, when you ask them, what are your strengths? A lot of times people look at you with this blank look on their face. The miracle question is probably one that you were taught back in, you know, first year counseling. If a miracle happened and you woke up tomorrow and your problem was gone, what would be different? So that's one way that you can start identifying their vision of health and happiness or a rich and meaningful life, whatever you want to call it. And then within that vision, you know, we want to hear about who's there, what things do you do? What makes you happy? And we can start trying to identify some strengths. That way we can ask them what's helped in the past. That's a pretty straightforward question. And what might help in the future? Sometimes people have been struggling for quite a while, but they've also been doing some reading or talking to friends and they think, well, heard that this might help. Okay, well, let's put that on the list. You know, this is just a brainstorming opportunity. It's not necessarily saying something that they're going to do. Scaling questions. I like scaling questions because they are trackable on a likert scale. So one being awful and five being the best ever. When you've been at a three, what was different? So I'm not asking you to think back to when you were deliriously happy. I'm asking them to think back to a time that was somewhat better. You can even do it as a two. You know, when you felt a little bit better, what was different? Because we see for a lot of people that, that their mood disorders, their physical health issues tend to gradually get worse. So if they think back to when it was not quite this bad, they may recognize that they were doing something differently. My daughter is dealing with something called POTS right now. It's a postural orthostatic tachycardia. And when she started dealing with wasn't quite as bad. And as her stress got worse the pots got worse. So we were able to identify certain triggers that were exacerbating it. And we were able to address those things and say, okay, you know, we can figure out, we can deal with that. You can also ask people, you know, you're at a 1 now, a 5 is where you want to be, or even a 10. But I find if you break it up too much, people get overwhelmed. A five is where you want to be. What would a two look like? You know, we're not setting goals in order to, you know, six months down the road, a year down the road where you are discharging treatment and you've met all your goals. I want to know what's going to help you take that first step towards health and happiness. Now, I told you earlier that there were some resources I was going to show you that are really pretty cool, in my opinion. And I know this is really small. I apologize. In the PDF that's in your classroom, you can click on the link and it'll take you to this PDF of the the Clifton Strengths Finder themes. Now, the CliftonStrengths Finder, to the best of my knowledge, is not free. It's not super expensive, but it's not free. But what it does is asks a bunch of questions that helps people identify some of their strengths. But these are more state trait strengths than they are, for example, you know, actual resources that they have. And the themes that they identify are achiever. And this is something that is, that tends to work hard, possess a great deal of stamina and take immense satisfaction at being busy and productive. This is somebody who just really wants to keep going. And they, they've never probably found something that they didn't want to try to learn how to do or improve. The activator is good at making things happen by turning thoughts into actions. People who are adaptable, that's a strength. I tend to not be very adaptable, so I recognize that that's not one of my strengths. Now, I stopped short of saying it's a weakness, but I recognize that it is not one of my strengths. My husband is very adaptable. And so we go well together. We synergize quite well because when things go haywire, he can drop back and punt pretty easily. Analytical Arranger. Belief. Command. And people who are, for example, exceptionally talented in the command theme have a presence. They are ones that walk into a room and people just pay attention. They want to hear what this person has to say. Communication. Competition. Connectedness. Consistency. Context. Deliberative. Developer. You see where we're going, there's a whole other page of these. But some of them are not things that you would necessarily think of as being either a strength or a weakness. But you can see how they can be a strength. Like belief. People have certain core values that are unchanging, that helps them have a defined purpose for their life. So a belief system can be extremely helpful. Not everybody has one that is strong and guiding. Now do they have to? That's a personal choice. But with somebody that does have a very strong belief system, that can be a strength because it helps them more clearly visualize where they want to go. So I would encourage you to download this and look at each one and ask yourself, how can this be an adaptive strength for somebody? And then there is the Via Signature Strengths Inventory. And this one you can download, it's a PDF. And again it goes through different signature strengths. This one breaks it down into wisdom and knowledge, curiosity, humanity and love, justice, temperance, transcendence, And give people examples so they can figure out how they can use their particular strengths. So if they tend to be creative, you know, what can you do? If you tend to be a creative person, what would help you? I am not exceptionally creative, so I always struggled when I ended up having to facilitate art therapy groups because that was hard for me to wrap my head around. But people who are creative often would prefer to either write a story or do art therapy or art involved expressive type activities as opposed to something more cognitive behavioral in nature. And that can help us understand how people may process information better. One of the more important, in my opinion, things for people to be aware of is their own temperament. And if you're familiar with the Kirsi or the Myers Briggs, that's kind of what this is is based on. And the introvert extrovert dimension I conceptualize as how people prefer their environment and their relationships, how they like to socialize. The sensing and intuitive dimension is how they handle information. That's their data processing dimension. Thinking and feeling is their decision making and motivation dimension. And judging and perceiving is their time management dimension. And that's grossly overgeneralized. But it really helps when I'm working with people and explaining temperament to them. Sometimes it helps them wrap their head around it so it doesn't seem kind of as abstract or overwhelming. But it's important for people to recognize in themselves their strengths as well as potentially their areas that might be a weakness for their recovery. When we do relapse prevention planning, for example, people who are introverted may struggle in large 12 step group meetings, because they tend to be pretty large. They. They may prefer what we call a home group meeting and big book studies. Those tend to be much smaller and are less overwhelming to somebody who's an extrovert, Remembering that temperament is along a continuum and one is not better or worse. They're just different. And each end of the spectrum, they can synergize quite well together. But it's important to recognize your strengths. And instead of seeing somebody's differences as being a weakness because they're not like you, see it as a strength, because you can synergize, they sort of complete the puzzle. So extroverts tend to be expansive and less passionate. They tend to be interested in a lot of things, but they don't do a deep dive on much of anything. So you can see how in treatment, this can be a challenge. If they're interested in learning about a lot of things, that's great. So we want to harness that. But they can get bored, for example, if we make them do a deep dive into particular topic like boundaries or what have you. So they may prefer to have multiple goals they're working on concurrently as opposed to one goal that is singular in focus. They tend to be easy to get to know. And like meeting new people, they rather figure things out while they talk. And this can be advantageous sometimes because they can talk it out. But if they're dealing with somebody who's more introverted, who needs time to sit down and think and process and then talk, it can cause conflict. So in relationships, helping people recognize, especially when it comes to conflict, how do you process information? And if you've got an introvert and an extrovert in a relationship setting some ground rules, for example, because the introvert may need 10 minutes or something in order to process what's been said, what's going on, and figure out how they're going to respond, the extrovert kind of gets stuck in this loop until they can talk it out. So they need to know that the introvert is going to come back and they're going to be able to process, process what's going on. And it is true to recognize. And I agree, Lavon, a lot of times different temperament styles get criticized. And it's important, I think, to recognize that each one of the characteristics up here can be a strength. If it is not your strength, you need to figure out how to make it work for you. For example, if you're one of those people who is an introvert and you prefer peace and quiet, and you're in an environment that tends to be very noisy. Okay, how do you mitigate that? You know, noise canceling headphones come to mind. But recognizing your own, recognizing temperament is something that's innate and it's not good or bad is so important because then we're not saying that's wrong. You need to conform to fit this over here. We're saying, okay, this environment may not be the best for you, it may be a challenging environment. So what can you do? How can we you empower yourself to cope with it, to deal with it in a way that's meaningful to you so they can be as authentic as possible. When we work against our tendencies, it's like a fish swimming upstream. It takes a lot more energy and oftentimes is less successful. If we work with our stuff instead of forcing ourselves to be extroverts. For example, if we're an introvert, then we can capitalize and we can use that energy that we would otherwise waste trying to swim upstream to enhance the relationships. Extroverts tend to know what's going on around them more so than inside them. Now let's think about with therapy, how this can be a challenge. And introverts are more likely to know what's going on inside them than around them. They are more inner focused where extroverts tend to be more outer focused. We need both of these skills ideally, but we tend to be more one or the other. And the extrovert who is more aware of what's going on around them, they're going to sometimes be very sensitive to negative environments. If they're in an environment where there's a lot of stress, it can be very oppressive to the extrovert because they're in tune with what's going on. And they tend to draw energy from other people. And if the energy they're drawing from other people people is negative energy, it can work against them. People who are introverted, they tend to be very aware of what's going on inside them. So they can, you know, check themselves, they tend to be more mindful, if you will, of what's going on inside them, but they may be less naturally aware of what's going on around them. And when they are in environments where there's a lot of stimulus, there's a lot of people, a lot of hubbub. All of that input can be overwhelming for the introvert because they're trying to process everything, which is why a lot of people who are introverts need some grounding time each day. When I'VE done this presentation before. I've shared with y' all that my daughter is an introvert. I'm an extrovert, and will go somewhere, like even just going to the mall and being out shopping for a couple of hours. And she'll come in and she has announced to me that that was plenty of extroverting for one day. And she will go into her room and, you know, she's an artist, so she'll draw and do those sorts of things to get regrounded. But she recognizes that it's not that she loves people, so not that she doesn't like people, but it's just exhausting to have that much input and be receiving that much stimulus. In terms of therapy and in terms of treatment, people who are aware of what's going on inside them are often more aware of when they start spiraling or decompensating or whatever word you want to use. People who are extroverts tend to not notice that as much until it starts affecting those around them. And then they may realize, oh, I'm being kind of snippy because people are, you know, backing off. Some people who are extroverts don't mind interruptions and are considered good talkers. Well, that's great. You know, that means there are a lot of professions that they are well suited to. People who are introverts dislike being interrupted and are often good listeners. They want to take the information in, they want to hear what's going on. But we need to recognize this if we're helping people try to reduce their HPA axis activation, try to feel safer and more empowered and use their energy in a way that is meaningful. We need to help them figure out what adds to and what mitigates their stress. So sensing an intuitive. Now, this is what I talked about earlier in terms and I referred to it as the information processing domain. Sensors tend to be very bottom up sort of thinkers. They like to put the pieces together and figure out what's happening. Intuitive people, they're the ones who like to start with a framework and then break it down. So sensors tend to build up to figure out what's going on. And the best analogy I've ever really kind of found to give is if you do puzzles, do you do the frame first and look at the picture while you're trying to put things together or do you just start putting together? It's like, oh, let's put all these blues together and then I have a pile of yellows. Let's put those together. How is it that you do it or when you go to the movies or you watch a television show, can you go into it without reading the wiki first? I can't even. I went to see, oh, whatever the movie is with the look with the little yellow. The little yellow creatures in it. We went to see Despicable Me and yes, the little minions and I needed. We were sitting there in the, in the movie theater and I had to pull out my phone just to get the synopsis to understand what this movie was about before it started because it was driving me nuts not to have any idea about, you know, okay, what are we supposed to be looking for in the storyline? So obviously I tend to be more on the intuitive side when we talk about treatment or relationships or work. You know, intuitive people tend to be imaginative dreamers. They're the ones that are going to be your grant writers. They're the ones that are going to be your inventors, tend to be your artists. They often prefer abstraction, inspiration and insights. Live in the world of possibilities. Would rather think than do. Well, that's true for me. You know, I can think, I can plan, I can see my garden for the spring and it looks gorgeous in my mind and I can spend a whole lot of time planning. But actually getting out there and doing it, you know, requires me to kick start myself. And I recognize that a lot of times it's because I spend so much time planning, I almost overwhelm myself and I don't know where to start. We can focus on complicated abstract problems, but we often see the big picture but miss the details. When I was writing grants, this used to be something that would come up and it's still, you know, when I write books and everything else. That's why I need an editor, because I can get the big picture. But a lot of times I'll miss things. Whether it's formatting things or, you know, a comma here or whatever it is. I need somebody who has immense attention to detail to complement my strategies. Intuitive people tend to love word games and may think that people preferring the practical lack vision. They believe anything can be improved and often focus on the future and possibilities, which can be a detriment. Sometimes it also can be great, you know, when you start a new job, for example, sometimes it's good to get in there and just observe. Maybe nothing actually does need to be changed. Instead of going in and from day one trying to change something, unfortunately, or maybe it's not unfortunately, but that focus on the future and possibilities can really excite a person. Who's intuitive because they can see, wow, you know, when we get this grant or when we finish this project. And that's wonderful. But sometimes it distracts them from the present moment. So mindfulness can be really important for someone who's intuitive. People who are sensing tend to be practical and realistic, prefer facts and are content in general. They're not about to. They think, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. They would rather do than think. They think planning takes, is, takes too much. My brother in law is like this. My father in law is an engineer and he loves to think and plan and make designs and those sorts of things. And I remember one time my husband was telling me that they were trying to make a dog house. And before my father in law had finished drawing up all the plans for the doghouse, my brother in law had gone out, gotten the wood and put together a doghouse. Thank you very much. So it's just a different approach to things now. The nice thing is when you've got these two people on a team, they balance each other out. So one says, all right, we need to think a little bit first. And the other one says, okay, we've thought for long enough, now it's time to get going. So they synergize. And that's what temperament is all about, is synergy. Recognizing where your strengths are and recognizing if your strengths don't mesh with the current situation. How do you adapt? What can you do to make it work as well as you can? People who are sensing often see the details but may ignore the big picture. In recovery, you know, people can do a relapse prevention plan that's, you know, 17 pages long. Hopefully not, but you get my picture. They have all of these different things that they need to do every single day. And that's great. They stay busy. But they're missing the big picture. They are so involved at putting one foot in front of the other, they're not enjoying life. And a lot of people who have super detailed, you know, minute by minute, relapse prevention plans often struggle to implement or maintain those plans because it's not fun after a while and they feel hemmed in. And that's not always. But it's important for people who are sensing to pick their heads up out of the weeds. Some for people who are intuitive, it's important for us to sometimes recognize that we need to look down and pay attention to some of the details. Sometimes it doesn't mean that we have to, to go to the other end of the spectrum. But we need to recognize if that's a weakness. How do we balance it out? Do we alter our behavior? Do we mitigate our behaviors? Or do we connect with somebody who is different than us, who can synergize. Motivation, the thinking and feeling dimension. And thinkers get such a bad rap. It's not that they don't feel things. It's not that they're not emotional, but they express it in a different way. A lot of people who are thinkers tend to use metaphors like, I feel like I got kicked in the gut, or I feel like I'm carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders instead of saying, you know, I felt angry or I felt overwhelmed, and that's okay. They just have a different way of expressing it, a different vocabulary, if you will. People who are thinkers tend to like words like principles and justice and respond to people's thoughts. Valuing objectivity above sentiment. They can assess logical consequences. Believe it's more important to be just than merciful. Address reality through a true false lens. It's yes or no. May think that those who are sentimental take things too personally and may argue both sides of an issue for mental stimulation. Now, when you're working with somebody who's a thinker, you know, recognizing that they prefer, often prefer to a more cognitive, behavioral, logical approach to things, and that's fine, you know, recognizing what works for them, but it's also important for them to understand how to interface with people who are feelers. Because a lot of times we see conflict in this motivation and communication area. Because thinkers are motivated by facts, by logic, what seems to make the most sense right now. And feelers tend to be more motivated by things like compassion, intimacy, harmony, devotion, values. They tend to be very sentimental and are good at assessing the human or interpersonal impact. Think it's more important to be caring and merciful than right or wrong. Assess reality with a good bad lens. So instead of right or wrong or yes, true or false, it is, is this a good decision or a bad decision? Is this a helpful decision or an unhelpful decision? And they prefer to agree with people. So feelers are more motivated by harmony. What is going to be the most harmonious, compassionate response? Thinkers are more motivated by logic. And I'll give you an example. When I was pregnant with our first child, you know, I was still in college, I was still in graduate school, and money was tight and we already had two dogs. But this stray dog comes up to me on the street one day and, you know, sweetest dog that you could ever hope to meet. And long story short, I thought it had an owner. So we called the pound and the pound came and picked it up. Nobody claimed it. And because it was an adult dog, it was not going to get put have the option to get adopted. And I remember distinctly laying in bed one night, I knew logically that we couldn't afford another dog right now. And it was not the right thing to do logically. And, you know, all those reasons that I assumed if I brought up with my husband, he would throw back at me. And I couldn't argue with them. But he tapped me on the shoulder that night and he said, we're going to go get the dog in the morning. And I'm like, what? But his response was recognizing that, yes, logically it doesn't make any sense to get a dog right now, but 10 years from now, you're still going to feel guilty of this dog does not get put up for adoption. And he recognized the sentimentality of it. He recognized that I was, you know, wanted to make decisions based on sentiment, and I was trying to take his perspective. So that was kind of cool that we sort of swapped motivational strategies at that point in time. But if you're trying to motivate somebody who's a feeler, you know, helping them see how well what you're getting ready to do, improve the world, improve your relationships, help create harmony, if you're trying to motivate a thinker to do something, how does making this decision make sense? How is it logical? How is it the correct thing to do? A lot of your engineers, not all of them, but a lot of your people who are like engineers and tend to be very cognitive sort of people, tend to be more thinkers. It's okay. We just have to understand if you're trying to convince them to do something, you need to talk in their language. So that's always kind of an interesting thing that you can see. And it can be helpful to examine the temperament of the people in your life. You know, I have two children, and my daughter and my son are very different than from one another. And each one of them is very different from either their father or I. So it's interesting to look at the different characteristics because remember, temperament's on a continuum. So most people are not pure thinkers or pure feelers or extroverts or introverts. They're somewhere in the middle. But once you start to recognize some of your inherent traits and what types of situations go against your grain, so to speak, add stress to your life, then you can start making more informed decisions and you can also start making in relationships better decisions. And going back to the introvert, extrovert thing that we talked about a minute ago, I said, I'm an extrovert for the most part. My husband, for the most part, is an introvert. And my idea of a great way to celebrate his retirement was to throw him a party. And not a small party either. And lo and behold, I found out later that he retired from the police force when we hadn't been together for very long. But lo and behold, that was really stressful for him. When he celebrates, it's, you know, let's have a couple, maybe another couple or two couples come over and hang out for an hour or two and then they go home. For me, I'm like, let's have a big party and keep it going all night long. Because I draw energy from people, people draw energy from him. So it's important to recognize, kind of like when we talk about love languages, that what you want, what's rewarding for you, what is less stressful for you, may not be the same for your spirit, significant other. So it's important to balance that out. And finally, the final dimension of temperament is judging and perceiving. And I think of this as the time management domain. Planning ahead, being self disciplined and purposeful, thriving on order, getting things done early and working steadily, defining and working within limits. Unfortunately, people who are judgers may be hasty in making decisions. They're like, okay, I have to make this decision by Thursday at 4pm I will have all my information by Wednesday at 4pm Anything that comes in after that doesn't get considered and that can lead them to not appreciate information that comes in later. People who are judgers also tend to not like spontaneity. They like structure, they like planners, they like push notifications. And I am like almost the far end of judging in my characteristics. So it can be difficult when you have a judger and a perceiver together. Judgers tend to get stressed out when things don't go as planned. They have difficulty working in groups sometimes when there are people who are strongly perceivers because they feel like they have difficulty reining them in and getting them to stay on task and get things done. So it's important to look at those things in terms of treatment. You know, thriving on order can be great, but unfortunately life is often not orderly. So it's important for us to help people recognize. What can you do to implement order in a disorderly world? You know, how can you implement Order, maybe in your corner of the world, so to speak. People who are perceivers tend to adapt as they go. They're flexible and tolerant. They love spontaneity. They tend to get bored in jobs where they do the same thing day after day after day. Whereas judgers really like the structure. They know what's coming up. They can anticipate it. Perceivers get things done at the last minute or depending on a spurt of energy, often want more information. They have a hard time making decisions because they're just still gathering info. They think that those who are not spontaneous can be too rigid or dull. But they're good at handling unplanned events but may not make effective choices among the possibilities. So people who are perceivers keep gathering information and may not have time to step back and synthesize it in order to make the best decision among the possibilities. Each of these people, and I've mentioned it as we've gone through each slide, each dimension of temperament has its strengths and has its weaknesses. But it's being aware of your strengths and weaknesses temperamentally that can be an overall strength. You know, I said earlier that I tend to be. I have a whole lot of difficulty dealing with spontaneity. When things don't go as planned, I spiral really quickly. I know that about myself. So my strength is I have a plan for how to handle chaos. And that is usually calling my husband but. Or I have options that I can default to. I always have a plan B and a plan C just in case. And that helps me feel calmer, helps me feel more at ease and in my own skin. And as we go through day to day, different things people can do. You know, if you have a couple that's in a relationship and you've got one that's a judger and one that's a perceiver, one of the challenges is getting the perceiver out of the door on time and keeping them from feeling like they are bored. One of the things that we did just, you know, I can talk about myself because it's not a violation of hipaa, but because I am a judger and my husband tends to be more of a perceiver. He's not like polar opposite of me. But when the kids were young, we used to schedule a day of the week where we would go do something as a family, which that was a big step for me, not knowing exactly what we were doing, when we were doing it and how long we would be there. So that was a compromise where I said, okay, you know, if I Know that I'm going to have to be flexible on a certain day. Let me plan for it. And it's talking with our clients and helping them identify how to compromise with the other person. But again, and I know I've said this like six times, recognizing that their characteristics, like my characteristic of liking to have order and a plan that actually can is a strength in its own way, you know, because I know that on a particular day I go do grocery shopping and you know, that keeps some semblance of order. And I don't like the word. I don't know where they came up with judging and perceiving, but judging sounds critical anyway. And judging has no bearing at all on being judgmental. But we who are structured tend to complement those who are, who are not. So some strengths based interventions. What can you do? And I'm putting it in your ballpark now, get you a little bit more thinking. What types of strengths based interventions can you do or can you help your clients do to improve their sleep and circadian rhythms or their nutrition or how much they move oxygenation, motivating them to get a physical exam? Now think back to that temperament. If you're talking about somebody who is a judger, for example, creating a sleep routine and setting those circadian rhythms may not feel like too much of an imposition. But for a perceiver, being told that you need to be in bed about the same time every night can feel very oppressive. For thinkers, we want to tell them why. If we are presenting a tool to them to use, a lot of times it can be motivating to help them see how this is logical, what the research says about how it will help them improve their current situation. If we're dealing with a feeler we want to help them focus on potentially to keep them get them motivated on how it will help them feel better so they can be more present for the people they care about. You know, it's just a different focus. For people who exercise. Exactly, exactly. Helping them identify what they need to do in order to prepare. Putting your clothes and shoes in the car for after work so you go directly to the gym. I've had some people who, not that I'm necessarily advocating for it, but it worked for them. They slept in their workout gear because just getting changed in the morning felt overwhelming. So they would do that, but they had a specific time that they went every single day. That was what was scheduled in for them. I've had other people who wanted to start exercising or needed to go to 12 step meetings or whatever it was, they didn't want to schedule in, they didn't want to do the same thing every single day. So yes, they packed their stuff and they brought it with them for the gym or they knew they needed to make a meeting during the day, but they didn't necessarily go to the same one at the same time every single day. So they felt like they had some flexibility, some choice in the matter. In terms of cognitive processing. Helping people understand, you know, how is this going to help you achieve your goals can work really well for a thinker, but also, you know, identifying what their goals are. Thinkers goals are probably going to be more logical, whereas a feelers goals are probably going to be more interpersonal. There are many different ways to help people identify strengths. By helping them identify their characteristics and view them as strengths instead of weaknesses. Each one of those things can be a strength in certain situations. So let's examine that. How has this characteristic been useful to you in the past that will help people find activities and environments that are less distressing to them, enhance their self esteem and sense of empowerment. They can look at themselves and go, hey, you know, there's a benefit to this. I was actually watching and I just started watching it. It's been in production for several years now, Chicago Med. And they have a doctor on there who they are portraying as having Asperger's. And one of the things that they are alluding to, which based on my research is not necessarily 100% accurate, but that he does not connect with people's feelings in the same way. So it's easier for him to make decisions, life and death decisions, because he's not getting emotionally involved in the situation. Now there is some information out there that indicates that people with Asperger's actually do perceive emotions from other people and may feel them very intensely. So I don't want to say that people with Asperger's don't feel anything, but a lot of times it seems they have more difficulty interpreting nonverbal communication and picking up on cues like that may indicate, for example, sarcasm. But my main point was I think it's interesting that they were trying to highlight how somebody who is very different than the rest of the staff at Chicago Med, actually in this particular situation those differences are extraordinarily beneficial. And by helping people know their characteristics, they can improve their relationships and supports by being better able to appreciate each other's strengths and synergize.