Recently, Gallup CliftonStrengths has reached 25 million users all over the world. So it means that more than 25 million people have discovered their talents and use their discoveries to maximize their potential at work and everywhere else.
When he was still studying Psychology, Don Clifton asked himself a question: “What would happen if we studied what was right with people versus what’s wrong with people?” As Gallup explains “That question transformed his life – and millions of other people’s – and directed organizational psychology toward a new, more constructive view of people”. 30 years ago, Dr. Don Clifton himself, stated the world a challenge: “FOCUS ON STRENGTHS AND MANAGE THE WEAKNESSES.” It was very revolutionary at the moment because almost every individual at the time believed people could only find success by fixing their weaknesses. To help people discover their strengths, Clifton developed an online tool based on decades of research. Dr. Clifton dreamed of reaching 1 million people who discovered their talents using the online tool CliftonStrengths. Fortunately, this dream was overachieved. Today, more than 25 million people know their recurring patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior that can be productively applied.
I personally discovered CliftonStrengths more than a decade ago. I was immediately fascinated by the accuracy it has in describing the innate talents of an individual. Knowing oneself talents is one of the most difficult challenges I see when I coach, mentor, or consult individuals who want to improve their performance. As Peter Drucker said, “Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong”. So, having such a powerful tool like CliftonsStrengths is an incredible help in helping people discover and understand their talents. In my opinion, it’s one of the most important discoveries in the life of a person. We leave you a video that talks about these 25 million evaluations “Celebrating 25 Million People Who Know Their CliftonStrengths”.
AND, WHAT HAVE GALLUP LEARNED AFTER THESE 25 MILLION ASSESSMENTS?
- Race, gender, and nationality indicate almost nothing about a person’s strengths. Everyone is almost equally likely to have any of the 34 CliftonStrengths themes no matter where he was born, which is his/her gender or race.
- Strengths affect team performance, especially when they’re coached. Gallup researched more than 11.000 teams and discovered that strengths present on a team do impact performance – but the effect is much stronger when team members know their CliftonStrengths. And also, “managers who coach with CliftonStrengths in mind – usually with frequent check-ins, meaningful conversations, and a growth mindset – see employees as people first and the specific value they contribute to the organization”.
- A strengths-based philosophy improves employee engagement for stronger performance outcomes. Helping professionals discover their strengths increase their engagement. Employee engagement has important business implications. Professionals with a high level of engagement, compared to professionals with a low level of engagement:
- 81% lower absenteeism
- 64% fewer safety incidents
- 41% fewer defects (quality)
- 14% higher productivity
- 10% higher customer ratings
- 18% higher sales
- 23% higher profitability
So if you want to lead any team in a successful way, you first need to know your strengths and how to use them productively. And then, you must help your team members discover their own strengths and how to combine them with the others members of the group.
As Dr. Don Clifton said, “What leaders have in common is that each really knows their strengths, has developed their strengths, and can call on the right strengths at the right time”.
