Double Down On Your Strengths
Don Clifton’s Dream
Imagine if we lived in a world where everyone is fully engaged and passionate about not only their work but their day to day lives because they are operating from their strengths zone.
According to Wikipedia, Donald O. Clifton (February 5, 1924 – September 14, 2003) was an American psychologist, educator, author, researcher, and entrepreneur. He founded Selection Research, Inc., which later acquired Gallup Inc., where he became chairman, and developed CliftonStrengths®, Gallup’s online psychological assessment. Clifton was recognized with a presidential commendation from the American Psychological Association as “the father of strengths-based psychology and the grandfather of positive psychology”.
Very early in his career, Don pondered the question: “What would happen if we actually studied what is right with people?”
Forget about bettering your so-called weaknesses. Forget about wishing that you were more of this or were better at that by comparing yourself to “John or Betty.” There are other people who love to do what you absolutely abhor or don’t gravitate to, so why should you beat yourself up about it?
When you’re in a place where you know that you know that you know, then everything just flows out of you with ease. That’s the strengths zone; it’s a place where your uniqueness exists because it is derived from the way that we were hardwired at birth.
When you can “Name, Claim and Aim” (a Gallup phrase) your talents and truly double down on them by building them up through intentional use each day as you encounter the smallest and largest of tasks, then you can appreciate that they are as unique to you as your thumbprint and only then can they be called strengths. (Similar to a muscle, if a talent is unused then it weakens and actually can work against you.)
According to Gallup’s Web site, the CliftonStrengths Finder assessment has been taken more than 31 million people worldwide. People who know and use their CliftonStrengths are:
6X more likely to be engaged at work
7.8% more productive in their role
3X more likely to have an excellent quality of life
6X more likely to do what they do best every day
Having personally utilized the CliftonStrengths assessment for more than ten years, I have seen the benefit that it brings to an organization in creating a common language, empathy and awareness of the worth of each team member’s talents.
Rather than concentrating on our weaknesses, it asks us to embrace who we are and operate from the areas in which we are strongest and most engaged. It sees our strengths as our super powers and encourages us to proactively and positively lean on our fellow team members to advance our mission/vision.
Prior to my enlightening by CliftonStrengths, I was under the assumption that everyone thought the way that I did or could strategically see the things that I can. I was impossible to be with in a meeting because of those assumptions. It took me forever to figure out that it takes some people a while to grasp the concepts that I vocalize so I need to wait a while for them to catch up while it soaks in.
My Top 5 Talent Themes:
Input
Competition
Significance
Ideation
Individualization
My Strengths at Work:
Input – Always a resource; I’m hardwired as a collector of information, people, things to help someone in the future.
Competition – I’m a self-proclaimed deal junkie. There’s no better high in the world than winning.
Significance – I want to leave a legacy; I want to be remembered for doing something good when I’m gone.
Ideation – Ideas are like popcorn for me. If you don’t like this idea, then there will be three more coming right around the corner.
Individualization – I intuitively match people’s talents and value that they bring to the table to assignments/other people.
My Strengths as Watch-Outs!
Input – My craving to know more can sometimes be misinterpreted as “the Spanish Inquisition” (a term used by my husband.) I’m just naturally curious.
Competition – If I didn’t think that we could win, then I didn’t want to pursue. This awareness was one of the largest enlightenments of my career.
Significance – I used to overcommit because (with my Number 6 Strength: Command) I can’t just be a member of an organization, I have to be President!
Ideation – Because I have so many ideas going in my head, I have had to pay attention to the best times that work for me to be creative and not distracted. For whatever reason, 5:00 am is a peak time-slot for maximizing my productivity.
Individualization – I used to get frustrated if someone didn’t appreciate the vision that I see when customizing teams for talents. Now, I give them the information and patiently wait until they catch up.
By seeing firsthand the impact of CliftonStrengths on me personally as well as experiencing the utilization within my prior organization, I became Gallup CliftonStrengths Certified in 2018. I believe that an organization’s foundation must be healthy (starting from the top with the alignment of the leadership team) before any true and sustained growth may be realized for advancement.
By embedding a tool such as CliftonStrengths into an organization, there becomes a shared language amongst colleagues as well as more empathy and appreciation for diversity of thought and experience. That ultimately leads to more engaged, content and passionate employees because their super powers are in maximum overdrive.
Gallup’s classic question has always been: “Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?”
Just imagine what this world would be like if we all did…
Are you curious about learning more about the Gallup CliftonStrengths Assessment and its application within your organization?
Please contact me at dlandry@authentizity.com
