Applying CliftonStrengths to Your Work

CliftonStrengths is without a doubt the most valuable tool that I use in my own personal and professional development. CliftonStrengths is a performance framework that provides insights on how you naturally think, feel and behave. It does not tell you what you can do, rather how you can do whatever you need to do.   

In starting your CliftonStrengths journey, it's best to begin by focusing on your top 5 themes. An simple exercise to help you understand how you apply your strengths in your role is to review each of your top 5 themes and identify how they each contribute to your ability to do your job well. 

For instance, my top 5 themes are Strategic, Activator, Individualisation, Connectedness and Maximiser. When I consider how each of these themes help me in my role as a coach, here's what comes to mind:

1. Strategic: My strategic theme enables me to see many potential paths forward and helps me guide individuals and teams in developing their own personal strategy towards their goals.
2. Activator: My activator theme means I can naturally energise people to take action in order to improve their performance. 
3. Individualisation: My individualisation theme means I appreciate the uniqueness of each person and each situation and that I can draw out the best in each person I coach. 
4. Connectedness: My connectedness theme helps me to see patterns and inspire others that we each have a greater purpose beyond the day-to-day of our lives.
5. Maximiser: My maximiser theme helps me to see the potential in people and drives me each day to support people and teams in going from good to great!

The same approach can be used for your role, for a project or even for a task. Understanding how our top themes contribute to our lives helps to build our internal confidence, develop systems that work for us and ultimately perform more effectively.

So take some time out to read your top 5 CliftonStrengths themes and apply them to your work today. How can your themes fuel your work? What is the unique value you bring to your role? How can you apply your strengths to improve your performance?

Would love to hear your top 5 themes and how they make you effective in your role.