StrengthsFinder: Harness Employee Talent for Organizational Performance
Most people in corporate America are familiar with personality assessments: Myers Briggs, DISC, and CliftonStrengths (formerly StrengthsFinder) to name a few. The results from these assessments help people understand themselves, as well as fellow coworkers, on a personal and professional level. However, most companies never tap into the full potential of using personality assessments. Companies that are successful with using personality assessments incorporate personality assessment language into the culture, goals, and leader-employee conversations. We sat down with Kim Newman, a Change Management Professional and Gallup-certified Strength Coach, to learn more about the CliftonStrengths assessment and how companies can be successful with implementing personality assessments to help individuals, teams, and companies thrive.
What is CliftonStrengths?
CliftonStrengths is a personality assessment that focuses on our natural talents (a natural recurring pattern of thought, feeling or behavior that can be productively applied) with the goal of enhancing those talents into true strengths. It helps people to identify where their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors naturally gravitate toward and then capitalizes on that. It helps people to understand where they play well and where they should lean on their team members. It is about taking what you already do well and doing it better!
The CliftonStrengths Assessment takes about 30-minutes to complete and includes 177 questions. After completing the assessment, each person receives a custom report that explains their top talents, provides a rank order of talents, and tips on how to refine talents to help them become strengths. Armed with a better understanding of what makes them unique, people are able tobetter aim their talents at success.
How can CliftonStrengths be used to drive performance?
When CliftonStrengths is used at its full potential by following these steps, employers can expect to see accelerated performance from employees:
Step one of using a personality assessment is for employees to take the assessment and develop a common language with their coworkers and leaders.
Step two is for employees to incorporate their custom CliftonStrengths talents in their performance goals and for leaders to include the team’s CliftonStrengths talents in the team goals.
Step three is to measure individual and team performance against the established goals.
When talents are refined, they can become strengths which benefits the individual, team, and the company! Leaders can help drive performance by continuing to reinforce the use of the CliftonStrengths language in one-on-ones with employees and in team meetings. Being able to communicate and understand your fellow employees, team members, and customers is crucial to success.
Top tips to be successful with CliftonStrengths
Don’t stop at step one. Too many companies stop at the step one (employees complete the assessment and learn their talents). However, once employees understand the CliftonStrengths language and framework in step one, the magic can happen!
Practice is key. It takes time and dedication to tap into the full potential of CliftonStrengths. Leaders can help this happen by continually using the CliftonStrengths language and championing the use of talents into individual and team goals.
Avoid performing weaknesses. When possible, individuals should avoid spending too much time on weaknesses as it’s not where natural abilities lie and it can drain energy.
Use your top strengths to get into a flow. When people use their talents, it can help them get into a rhythm or flow. Flow is the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter.
Most personality assessments will be successful when everyone in the company understands the framework and integrates the language into the culture. CliftonStrengths is an ideal personality assessment for companies to use because it highlights where employees naturally thrive so that their talents can be refined into strengths; this allows for better teams to be built. When individuals understand their talents and weaknesses as well as their coworker’s, they can learn to rely on one another benefiting the individual, team, and the company!
Contact ChangeStaffing to learn how to successfully implement CliftonStrengths to help individuals, teams, and companies thrive!
A very special thank you to Kim Newman, Change Management Professional and Gallup-certified Strength Coach for her thought leadership and for collaborating with us on this blog.
Written by Kylette Harrison