Understanding your strengths can be a great way to support you in achieving goals. There are advantages to all the self-assessment resources out there. Today, I want to focus on one of those alternatives – CliftonStrengths. Below is an overview of the assessment and what you will learn.
Background
The CliftonStrengths assessment was developed by Donald Clifton after years of focus on positive psychology.
The beginnings of the tool were seen in the 1995 book “Soar with Your Strengths”. However, the official launch of the assessment was in 1999 with over 18K individuals participating that year.
Since that time, nearly 30 million people around the world have taken the CliftonStrengths assessment.
What You Will Learn
The report provides you with an overview of your top talents. There are 34 individual talents grouped into four domains – Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Thinking. Your top talents are unique with a 1 in 33 Million chance of someone else having the same Top 5 in the same order.
The talents are your natural tendency and when matched with the skills and experience you have acquired can be developed from talent to strength.
Taking the Assessment
The assessment has 177-word pairs where you indicate which of the words more strongly represents you. There is a time limit to completing each question (so you don’t overthink it) and the overall process takes 20-30 minutes.
Gallup offers products at three different investment levels (below), and all can be purchased here.
- The CliftonStrengths 34 report provides all 34 themes for $59.99
- The Top 5 Report and the Top 5 for Students are each $19.99
- There are 3 specialty reports each at a cost $49.99 – Leaders, Managers, and Sales
My Story
In 2014, I took the CliftonStrengths assessment and was immediately drawn to the approach. With the 34 unique themes, my top 5 provided a very accurate description of how I approach the world. The report brought clarity to things I knew about myself but struggled to articulate to others.
After taking the assessment, I spent the next 5 years reading all the books, listening to all the podcasts, and consuming everything I could find about the tool. I recommended the assessment to others and used reports to help coach and understand my team.
In 2019, I officially became a Gallup certified CliftonStrengths coach and love helping others understand their strengths and develop strategies to leverage them even more in their career and life.
Your Turn
Have you taken the CliftonStrength assessment?
If so, what insights did you find most valuable?
How might these insights help you in the pursuit of your career goals?