Mastery Monday: Productive Aiming: Connectedness (2018)

By Albert L. Winseman, D.Min

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.” 

Whether they know this line from the Byrds’ hit song, the Bible, or maybe are hearing it for the first time, this statement resonates strongly with those who have Connectedness among their Signature Themes. Connectedness can sound like “there are no coincidences; everything happens for a reason,” or it can sound like the “Butterfly Effect” — e.g., when a butterfly beats its wings in Brazil, it rains in Beijing. Connectedness believes we are all part of a bigger whole —one humanity — and what happens to one member affects us all. Those high in Connectedness tend to see patterns and relationships where others only see chaos and confusion. While there may indeed be randomness in the world to those with strong Connectedness talents, there is no occurrence that is without meaning. The mystery of life is not confusing; rather, in a very profound way, it is comforting.

Adaptability: Putting Yourself in Chaos' Way - Theme Thursday Season 4

On this Theme Thursday Season Four webcast, Jim Collison, Gallup's Director of Talent Sourcing, and Maika Leibbrandt, Senior Workplace Consultant, talk about Adaptability. 

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Adaptability is about being urgent, current, present, responsive, in touch, and calm. It can be a protector from chaos. Adaptability has an openness to it. It lets you be very in touch with what is going on. If other themes are textbooks, Adaptability is Twitter. It’s an unplanned moment, 280 characters and go. It is just in time fulfillment. 

When Adaptability is at its best you are gracefully responding to the needs of those around you. This may be responding to clients or teammates. You are masterfully navigating the here and now. Adaptability has the ability to constantly have your finger on the pulse of what is going on. This theme thrives under change, and individuals who are high in it can’t wait to find that change. 

Using CSF to Help Manage Change and Build Engagement- Called to Coach S6E9

On a recent Called to Coach, we spoke with guest Roma Ahuja.

Roma’s role has been to historically focused on helping multinationals develop their teams. Now, Roma’s focused on native professionals who are looking for new ways to develop their professional lives. She needed a tool to help her connect with her clients.

Roma took CSF for herself as a tool to help reveal more instinctual elements of her clients instead of relying on more binary assessments. Roma had an immediate connection with her Top 5. 

Roma also felt an immediate correlation between what her Top 5 talents were and the work she was doing professionally. Though Deliberative gave her pause. By looking further down her list, she found that she was using Individualization and Maximizer to support Deliberative. 

Roma also had a colleague take the assessment and they found that her colleague’s high Executing theme profile explained a lot about how they worked together.
Self-awareness expanded into team development

Strengths in Motion: Themes Are Not Labels

By Dan Vincent

Even though it may seem overwhelming, knowing and understanding the depth of your Signature Themes is key to making your CliftonStrengths assessment results truly empower your day-to-day life. It is essential that you not fall into the mentality of using your top five as labels or categories — i.e., “You are Achiever.” You are not just “Achiever” — you are so much more than one word. That is the distinction between CliftonStrengths and personality profiles; a profile categorizes, whereas CliftonStrengths reveals themes of talent with which you typically lead your everyday life. 

If you have Achiever as a dominant theme, you may be motivated to complete the most tasks possible in your day and generally have a great deal of stamina to do so. You might feel discouraged, even defeated, when faced with nothing to do. Statements like these describe how your talents influence your tendencies, motivations and needs, but they are not a full description of you. Merely labeling yourself “Achiever” is a shortcut that misses the depth of your talent, the depth of how you think, feel and behave. To set your CliftonStrengths in motion, dig a bit deeper. 

Mastery Monday: Productive Aiming: Competition (2018)

By Albert L. Winseman, D.Min

Vince Lombardi, legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, once famously said, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” Those with Competition as one of their Signature Themes understand the truth of that statement because to them there is nothing like winning. But there is a lesser-known Vince Lombardi quote that perhaps sums up the philosophy of Competition even more accurately: “Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.” What marks the true spirit of the Competition theme isn’t just the desire to win; everybody likes to win. But hating to lose, well, that is another matter. Competition hates to lose, and as such chooses it’s “games” wisely — if I can’t win, why even play? Competition needs metrics, because metrics spur comparison. “What are the numbers I have to beat? What is the time I need to win? Who is ahead of me — of us? Who is the closest competitor in our market? Are we more productive this month than last month? What are our year-over-year numbers, and who do we need to beat?” Competing drives performance, and it is performance that counts.

Activator: The Brave First Step - Theme Thursday Season 4

On this Theme Thursday Season Four webcast, Jim Collison, Gallup's Director of Talent Sourcing, and Maika Leibbrandt, Senior Workplace Consultant, talk about Activator. 

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If you’re an Activator you’re a starter, a realizer. You can really quickly take an idea and make it into something going on. There’s confidence and courage in Activator. It is about taking opportunity in the moment. You have more courage than others to begin. The beauty of Activator is that it takes a brave first step on situations others had been too scared to begin. You have the ability to think through next steps, and are able to get things moving with these steps. An Activator dreams about the act of pushing things off center and getting things going. 

Who are you when you’re at your best? You are taking advantage of opportunities that other people are missing. You are finding your area of expertise that will catapult your career to a new place. An Activator can not only start their own progress, but can also inspire others to take that first step. At its best Activator is also about taking action on ideas that others are still considering. There is a continual motion to always start something. There is a gracefulness in knowing to push that first domino when others are still working on getting them set-up. 

There is a lot of risk in starting something, and Activators are willing to take that risk. 

Preview of the 3rd Annual CliftonStrengths Summit - Called to Coach S6E8

On a recent Called to Coach, we spoke with Gallup's Andrew Bridger and Abbie Goranson.

The 3rd Annual CliftonStrength Summit is Monday, July 16 through Wednesday, July 18 here in Omaha, Nebraska! The current price is $795. There is a discount for Certified Coaches & Educators – haven’t received, email CliftonStrengthsSummit@Gallup.com.

All Travel Information can be found at www.CliftonStrengthsSummit.com under the Travel Information tab including information about the negotiated rates at 11 different hotels in close proximity to all event locations. 

Transportation Information is listed under the list of preferred hotels. All of our hotels except the EVEN, Hampton Inn Airport, and Holiday Inn Airport will have complimentary shuttles running to and from our venues. We will also have busses running back and forth to the airport and the CenturyLink Convention Center at the close of the Summit on Wednesday. Don’t forget that Omaha has Uber & Lyft and is a very walkable city!

Strategy for Using Employee Engagement & Strengths in Healthcare - Called to Coach S6E7

On a recent Called to Coach, we spoke with Gallup-Certified Strengths coach Penny Gray.

Penny Gray is a registered Organisational Psychologist and holds the position of Group Learning & Development Consultant at St Vincent’s Health Australia (SVHA), a large National health and aged care provider. Penny uses strengths-based strategies to help leaders and teams throughout her organization improve performance and engagement.

Mastery Monday: Productive Aiming: Communication (2018)

By Albert L. Winseman, D.Min

 “Let me phrase it another way …”

If you have Communication among your Signature Themes, you might find yourself saying this often as you seek to find the perfect wording or phrase to express an idea. Those with Communication desire to “make it plain” — to give instructions or directions in such a way that the audience has a better understanding of a concept or process. Communication thinks in stories and telling those stories in great detail is one of this theme’s hallmarks. Individuals with Communication in their top five “think out loud”; they come to clarity about what they are thinking by verbally expressing their ideas and seek out partners whom they can bounce ideas off of. Once clarity is achieved, Communication can often paint the picture with words so that others can see it as clearly as they can.

Achiever: A Commitment Towards Completion - Theme Thursday Season 4

On this Theme Thursday Season Four webcast, Jim Collison, Gallup's Director of Talent Sourcing, and Maika Leibbrandt, Senior Workplace Consultant, talk about Achiever. 

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What does Achiever look like when it is in its best form? As an Achiever you are an attainer, a doer, a pusher, a tracker, and a pace setter. It is about the stamina to complete. It is a countdown to completion. When you are at your very best as an Achiever it looks like pushing yourself and others towards milestones. It is also about exuding and inspiring more energy than other people. Achievers are constantly on, constantly going, and constantly pushing towards the finish line. In its best state it is also about pushing other people to work harder. It is an understanding of what needs to be done, and how to get there. It is also about crushing your to-do list in a way that advances your own accomplishments. 

Achiever is a great awareness piece in the back of your mind that grows and tracks progress. There’s an element of counting and qualifying to move towards a goal. The thing that stands alone to an Achiever is that it is something that restarts daily. Your Achiever focus is able to look at the progress towards the day to meet your goals.