Getting Started With The CliftonStrengths Assessment For Leaders
Leadership In Thirty-Four Flavors
Anyone can be a leader, but a great leader knows themselves better than anyone.
And anyone can become a great leader, if they’re willing to discover their unique leadership strengths.
The CliftonStrengths assessment, a tool developed by Donald O. Clifton and grounded in positive psychology, helps individuals identify their unique blend of strengths within four distinct categories: Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking. Effective leadership comes from leveraging your special strength blend and the categories provide high-level guidance as to where those strengths show up the most.
Everyone has the ability to grow a particular strength, but the you-of-today has a blend of innate talent and learned skills/experiences. Some strengths will simply be easier to apply than others. No strength is categorically better than another, but each domain finds certain tasks easier. Don’t be shocked that people with many Relationship Building strengths find it easier to build relationships.
Let’s dive into each of the domains!
Executing Domain: Implementing Ideas into Action
The Executing domain encapsulates strengths related to taking action and accomplishing tasks. This domain harbors essential strengths for effective leadership, including Achiever, Arranger, and Responsibility:
1. Achiever: Individuals with Achiever possess an inherent drive and a passion for setting and reaching ambitious goals. Achievers get stuff done!
2. Arranger: Those strong in Arranger possess an ability to organize and adjust plans to ensure successful execution. An Arranger can make the most out of limited resources.
3. Responsibility: Responsibility signifies reliability and commitment, showcasing an individual's accountability in leadership roles. You can trust that a leader with Responsibility will see things through to the end.
If you lack Executing domain strengths, that doesn’t mean that you can’t get things done but you might have a tendency to get stuck, either thinking about a problem, negotiating the decision, or chatting with other people.
On the other hand, if you are full of Executing strengths, you may ignore the people you need, lose sight of the bigger picture, or fail to make the best decision. Doing is not always the best choice!
Influencing Domain: Inspiring and Persuading Others
Strengths in the Influencing domain center around effective decision-making, either for yourself or amongst others. The Influencing domain highlights strengths crucial for persuasive leadership, such as Activator, Communication, and Woo.
1. Activator: Activators thrive on initiating change and inspiring others, converting ideas into tangible actions. If you need to get started, get an Activator on the job.
2. Communication: This strength emphasizes the power of effective expression and the ability to engage and motivate others through clear communication. Communicators have an uncanny ability to translate thoughts into words.
3. WOO (Winning Others Over): Individuals with Woo possess remarkable social skills and the ability to form connections effortlessly. That person at the bar who bought everyone drinks? Probably a WOO.
Not having Influencing strengths might mean you get bogged down in debate. You may have to resort to habits or procedures to force a choice and move forward.
If you’re all Influence, be careful of manipulating others, jumping into things, or never finishing. Having a strong network of people to provide friction to your decisions may help you deliver better outcomes.
Relationship Building Domain: Fostering Unity and Support
Building strong relationships and fostering a cohesive team is fundamental in leadership. The Relationship Building domain encompasses strengths that aid in this, including Empathy, Developer, and Harmony.
1. Empathy: Empathy involves understanding and connecting with others on an emotional level, a significant trait in providing support and creating trust. Not every problem is solved through logic: people with the Empathy strength can use emotion to get to consensus.
2. Developer: Developers have an innate ability to recognize and nurture the potential in others, aiding in their growth and development. Great mentors and coaches tend to have this strength.
3. Harmony: Leaders with Harmony focus on creating a balanced and conflict-free environment within a team, emphasizing unity and collaboration. A team in crisis can be mended with a strong Harmony leader.
Not everyone has Relationship Building strengths. This has no bearing on whether you are popular or have a lot of friends, but establishing trust with others may be harder to obtain.
If Relationship Building strengths dominate your top five, you may overemphasize group well-being and emotional health over outcomes, results, and efficiency. Fortunately, Relationship Builders can build a team of people with diverse strengths to offset this tendency.
Strategic Thinking Domain: Problem-Solving and Future Vision
Strategic Thinking is a strong skillset for leadership roles, emphasizing planning and identifying possible solutions.. Strengths in this domain include Analytical, Futuristic, and Strategic.
1. Analytical: The Analytical strength signifies critical thinking and problem-solving skills based on data and evidence. Complexity is delicious to Analytical leaders.
2. Futuristic: Futuristic individuals envision the future and set long-term goals, inspiring their teams towards success. Coming up with an inspirational vision is easy for Futuristic leaders.
3. Strategic: Strategic individuals are skilled at creating effective plans and finding optimal solutions for challenges. You’ll see a Strategic leader get from Point A to Point B more effectively than anyone else.
Strategic Thinking seems like a required domain for leaders, but too much Strategic Thinking tends to produce leaders who think too much and fail to act, let alone gain buy-in to their ideas.
Lacking Strategic Thinking isn’t a leadership handicap, however you should source ideas and plans from trusted people to ensure that alternative options and innovation can flourish.
Go Deeper Into Each Domain
The four domains of Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking is the big-picture perspective for thinking about leadership strengths. Each domain has 8-9 specific strengths that highlight certain preferences and behaviors. Understanding how a specific strength operates opens up deep reflective questions about how you can achieve success.
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This post was featured in the Boston Startup Hub.