Part 1: CliftonStrengths
—
Click here to view and download this month’s worksheet to utilize on your own or with a Group and/or Team.
—
“You cannot be anything you want to be – but you can be a lot more of who you already are.”
Tom Rath, StrengthsFinder 2.0
Our year-long exploration of the self-awareness tools we utilize in our 1-1 coaching and development practice continues, as this quarter we examine the outstanding CliftonStrengths tool and consider the incredible impact it would have we were empowered to focus on our talents to succeed by doing what we naturally do best and being who we already are. This month, we start by stating the case for strengths-based coaching in the workplace. In August, we will take an in-depth look at the CliftonStrengths assessment and tool. Then, in September, we will wrap up Q3 by providing practical CliftonStrengths application and a case study.
As we explore this tool, you may want to invest in yourself by completing and engaging with the CliftonStrengths assessment. There are three ways to take the CliftonStrengths assessment:
Purchase a copy of StrengthsFinder 2.0. Each book includes a code that unlocks a complimentary assessment.
Access the Gallup website here to purchase the assessment.
Contact us and we can administer the CliftonStrengths assessment for a nominal fee.
One of the greatest challenges a leader manager faces is acquiring the ability to develop themselves and then, subsequently, develop others. For the majority of our lives, we are educated to become subject matter experts and our resulting confidence is rooted in our subject matter expertise competence and our ability to gain mastery over tasks and outcomes.
Further, as students we were admonished to correct weaknesses, become well-rounded, and improve grades in subject areas that did not give us energy or focus on our natural abilities. We applaud those who obtain “straight As” in all subjects and shower accolades and awards on students of the month. All certainly well-intended, however neglectful of the vast majority of learners and future team members inherent talents, gifts, and unique abilities.
Certainly, being “well-rounded” has its merits and subject matter expertise is essential. Subject matter expertise is foundational and core to achieving results and desired outcomes. No one wants to have a broken leg operated on by a doctor that does not possess subject matter expertise!
Our training and experience, logic and reasoning lead us to think and believe overcoming weaknesses and managing performance are the route to success and effectiveness. Our brains are wired to focus on overcoming weakness for the sake of survival and as such we may tend to spend an inordinate amount of time focused on what is ‘wrong’ with us, rather than discovering, leaning into, and focusing on what we do well.
Being and becoming effective is a two-part equation and requires both/and thinking and a both/and approach to coaching behavior and developing ourselves and others as well as managing performance and GSD (fondly known as, getting stuff done!).
The father of strengths psychology and inventor of the CliftonStrengths tool, Dr. Donald Clifton, believed it would be a more wonderful world if we eased up on society’s relentless institutionalized focus on overcoming weaknesses. Dr. Clifton asked the question, “what will happen when we think about what is right with people rather than fixating on what is wrong with them?”
Gallup, now the owner of CliftonStrengths, advocates that leader managers focus on unleashing the talent, naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied, within themselves and use it as a tool to unleash the talent in others. The Gallup organization’s extensive research found, “…that people that do have the opportunity to focus on their strengths every day are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life in general.”
A leader manager’s development approach generally falls into one of three categories:
Ignores team member development needs and or engages in the perfunctory (highly damaging) annual evaluation process only.
Focuses on weaknesses and unfortunately and ill-advisedly, spends the majority of their time catching people doing something wrong and focuses on improving weaknesses.
Develops themselves so the leader manager develops the capacity and ability to develop others by focusing on their strengths, catching people doing something right and spending time validating, affirming, and appropriately recognizing others for their contribution to the team.
Tragically we have spent decades in business investing millions of dollars of resources on performance evaluation systems designed to rate, rank, and demotivate adults limiting the unique gifts, talents, and human spirit each individual brings to a team. Gallup’s research found that even more harmful to team member engagement levels and wellbeing, as noted in #1 above, is a leader manager that ignores a team.
The CliftonStrengths tool is designed to provide a framework for strengths-based coaching and development and allows leader managers to share a common language, gain insight and understanding into the unique combination of strengths individuals bring to the workplace. The tool helps describe and discover the talents inherent in every unique team member. Once an individual is able to accurately identify their talents, a leader manager can serve as a coach to help them lean into their talents for the purpose of creating strengths. We firmly believe an individual is wired the way they are wired for a good purpose.
In 1998, a team of researchers interviewed 100,000 individuals to surface a common language for talent. The researchers spent years identifying the 34 strengths and classified the strengths into 4 talent domains. Additionally, the team at Gallup has surveyed more than 10 million people to find that approximately 7 million of the respondents do not feel they have the opportunity to do what they do best every day.
The case for identifying your talents and those you lead and manage is vital and critical. The Tool of the Month reference attached provides an overview of the 4 domains and the 34 strengths. The 4 domains the 34 strengths align with are:
Executing – help you and your team perform, make things happen
Influence – take charge, speak up, make sure others are heard and communicate effectively
Relationship Building – consider others and how they are affected and hold a team together
Strategic Thinking – absorb and think about information that informs better decisions
Leading and managing others effectively has incredibly rewarding potential, not only to positively impact the professional, psychological, mental, and physical well-being of team members, but even that of our families, community, and the world around us. Leading and managing others effectively is a high calling and not something to be taken lightly.
I am fond of the adage; we all do the same things for different reasons. When we focus on identifying and developing the inherent talent in each person, we discover different, equally valuable team members can deliver the same performance outcomes using different behaviors and talents. What an incredibly powerful insight to unleashing and maximizing the innate power and potential in others!
Development focused coaches help team members understand and utilize their greatest talents. When you focus on capitalizing on a team member’s strengths you accelerate growth leading to a positive impact and influence.
Management expert and author Peter Drucker said, “most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong. And yet, a person can perform only from strength.” What a wonderful world indeed it will be when you and I commit to helping ourselves and others be and become the most effective version of ourselves possible by taking the strengths path!
-LS
This Month’s Worksheet
Click here to view and download this month’s worksheet to utilize on your own or with a Group and/or Team.
Recommended Quarterly Reading
StrengthsFinder 2.0
By Tom Rath
2023
Managing From The Inside Out
Winter 2023
February 1, 8, 15, 22
March 1, 8, 15
AM Classes: 8:30-11:30 A.M.
PM Classes: 1:30-4:30 P.M.
Spring 2023
May 3, 10, 17, 24, 31
June 7, 14
AM Classes: 8:30-11:30 A.M.
PM Classes: 1:30-4:30 P.M.
Fall 2023
October 4, 11, 18, 25
November 1, 8, 15
AM Classes: 8:30-11:30 A.M.
PM Classes: 1:30-4:30 P.M.
Register today to engage in professional growth and development as a Leader Manager and join us for Managing From The Inside Out! Simply email Kelly Martin at kelly@lauraschanz.com to reserve a seat for yourself or a Team Member. The 2023 Registration Fee is $1,295.