Being new to leadership, I felt this was a really fantastic opportunity for me to be apart of. It is administered by Clifton Strengths Coaching and I would recommend it for people looking to investigate not only their style of leadership, but also anyone wanting to delve into their own personality traits, how they can be harnessed, and work successfully alongside the strengths of colleagues in their workplace.
The process was made up of 3 parts - an online assessment, individual coaching, and finally team coaching.
Online assessment - This was a series of questions that seeks to find 5 of your most dominant themes (there are 34 in total). The assessment took about 30 minutes. By the time I got to the end I was sure I had made a complete mess of it. I felt like I had over thought, under thought, guessed, lied... but upon consideration (and acceptance) many days later, I do believe they my results are spot on.
My top 5 strengths are...
Restorative You love to solve problems. Whereas some are dismayed when they encounter yet another breakdown, you can be energized by it. You enjoy the challenge of analyzing the symptoms, identifying what is wrong, and finding the solution. You may prefer practical problems or conceptual ones or personal ones. You may seek out specific kinds of problems that you have met many times before and that you are confident you can fix. Or you may feel the greatest push when faced with complex and unfamiliar problems. Your exact preferences are determined by your other themes and experiences. But what is certain is that you enjoy bringing things back to life. It is a wonderful feeling to identify the undermining factor(s), eradicate them, and restore something to its true glory. Intuitively, you know that without your intervention, this thing—this machine, this technique, this person, this company—might have ceased to function. You fixed it, resuscitated it, rekindled its vitality. Phrasing it the way you might, you saved it. Discipline Your world needs to be predictable. It needs to be ordered and planned. So you instinctively impose structure on your world. You set up routines. You focus on timelines and deadlines. You break long-term projects into a series of specific short-term plans, and you work through each plan diligently. You are not necessarily neat and clean, but you do need precision. Faced with the inherent messiness of life, you want to feel in control. The routines, the timelines, the structure, all of these help create this feeling of control. Lacking this theme of Discipline, others may sometimes resent your need for order, but there need not be conflict. You must understand that not everyone feels your urge for predictability; they have other ways of getting things done. Likewise, you can help them understand and even appreciate your need for structure. Your dislike of surprises, your impatience with errors, your routines, and your detail orientation don’t need to be misinterpreted as controlling behaviors that box people in. Rather, these behaviors can be understood as your instinctive method for maintaining your progress and your productivity in the face of life’s many distractions. Harmony You look for areas of agreement. In your view there is little to be gained from conflict and friction, so you seek to hold them to a minimum. When you know that the people around you hold differing views, you try to find the common ground. You try to steer them away from confrontation and toward harmony. In fact, harmony is one of your guiding values. You can’t quite believe how much time is wasted by people trying to impose their views on others. Wouldn’t we all be more productive if we kept our opinions in check and instead looked for consensus and support? You believe we would, and you live by that belief. When others are sounding off about their goals, their claims, and their fervently held opinions, you hold your peace. When others strike out in a direction, you will willingly, in the service of harmony, modify your own objectives to merge with theirs (as long as their basic values do not clash with yours). When others start to argue about their pet theory or concept, you steer clear of the debate, preferring to talk about practical, down-to-earth matters on which you can all agree. In your view we are all in the same boat, and we need this boat to get where we are going. It is a good boat. There is no need to rock it just to show that you can. Consistency Balance is important to you. You are keenly aware of the need to treat people the same, no matter what their station in life, so you do not want to see the scales tipped too far in any one person’s favor. In your view this leads to selfishness and individualism. It leads to a world where some people gain an unfair advantage because of their connections or their background or their greasing of the wheels. This is truly offensive to you. You see yourself as a guardian against it. In direct contrast to this world of special favors, you believe that people function best in a consistent environment where the rules are clear and are applied to everyone equally. This is an environment where people know what is expected. It is predictable and evenhanded. It is fair. Here each person has an even chance to show his or her worth. Empathy You can sense the emotions of those around you. You can feel what they are feeling as though their feelings are your own. Intuitively, you are able to see the world through their eyes and share their perspective. You do not necessarily agree with each person’s perspective. You do not necessarily feel pity for each person’s predicament—this would be sympathy, not Empathy. You do not necessarily condone the choices each person makes, but you do understand. This instinctive ability to understand is powerful. You hear the unvoiced questions. You anticipate the need. Where others grapple for words, you seem to find the right words and the right tone. You help people find the right phrases to express their feelings—to themselves as well as to others. You help them give voice to their emotional life. For all these reasons other people are drawn to you. |
Individual Coaching - This was a 90 minute session with a brilliant coach, Emma. It took me a few days to stew on my results and hearing an expert put them all in perspective was really helpful. My gut response when I saw my top 5 was - they're not leadership skills, you fraud! Emma was able to challenge these silly thoughts and blow them away. We talked about how they all fit together, how sometimes we need to turn them outwards not inwards, and how they can balance each other. I really wish I had recorded this session.
Team Coaching - The final part was a 3 hour team session with Emma where we sat down together, shared and compared our strengths, and how they guide our actions and decisions... we laid our souls bare so to speak. This was a great opportunity to see ourselves and the rest of the SLT through a slightly different lens. I was able to think, ok that's what drives that person, that's how a particular strength is playing out when they do that. They're not just being a ... (insert inferential judgement here).
My thoughts going forward
- Embrace these strengths. They are mine and I'm happy with them. They make me who I am.
- It takes all sorts to be a leader!
- I want to be more thoughtful about my top 5 strength, and times in my life they come into play.
- It's interesting to look at other colleagues and surmise what some of their top 5 might be.
