Most people will take CliftonStrengths, read their top five, and then file it away. There are no takeaways or any changes made.
Knowing your strengths is the ‘easy’ part. The real work comes from knowing what to do with that information, and that question always has two sides. How do you work for someone with a particular strength? And how do you lead someone with it?
There are 34 CliftonStrengths themes, grouped by Gallup into four ‘domains’: Executing (purple), Influencing (orange), Relationship Building (blue) and Strategic Thinking (green). Each one describes how people can help a team get somewhere, whether it’s through making things happen, bringing others along, holding the team together, or thinking it through.
Gallup’s view is that teamwork comes down to partnerships, and teams who focus on Strengths report 23% higher engagement and 18% better performance than those that don’t.
But a partnership flows in both directions, and unfortunately, that’s the part that most strengths conversations skip.
Leading up: play to your boss’s strengths
We talk a lot about how managers should adapt to their teams, but why do we rarely talk about the reverse?
If you know your leader’s strengths, you know how to bring them information, problems and ideas in a way they can actually hear. For example, a boss with Intellection needs the background before the decision, not in the same meeting. A boss with Responsibility wants a plan, never an excuse. That isn’t office politics; it’s literally just making the partnership work.
Leading down: stop generic management styles
The feedback that lights one person up does nothing for another. Tell someone with Significance, “Thanks, great job”, and it matters zilch to them. But if you show them the difference their work made? You’ve got them! That ultra-reliable person you keep handing extra work to? If you’re not careful, you’re burning out the people you can least afford to lose.
Strengths give you a map for each person, if you care to use it to your advantage, rather than consigning it to the trash.
Watch out for the misreading
Almost every strength has a reputation that gets it wrong. Optimists get called unrealistic. Deep thinkers get called aloof. People who want to make an impact get called attention-seekers. Those misreadings come from seeing a strength from the outside, and from only one side. It’s no surprise that this is usually where managers get it wrong.
So, think about asking three questions in both directions:
What is this person naturally great at?
What feeds them, and what drains them?
What would I do differently if I took that seriously?
Ask them about your boss.
Ask them about everyone on your team.
Then ask someone to answer them about you.
Clarity x Connection = Commitment
This is the heart of my C×C=C framework. Clarity about how someone is wired builds a genuine connection; those people who feel understood are the ones who show up as their most authentic selves, day after day.
That’s what CliftonStrengths really asks of managers.
Which strength do you think gets misread most at work? Tell me in the comments.