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Talent Resources page to learn how you can take the Clifton
StrengthsFinder and begin focusing on your core strengths today.
Copyright © 2000 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ. All rights
reserved. Clifton StrengthsFinder ® and each of the 34 Clifton
StrengthsFinder theme names are trademarks of The Gallup
Organization.
Command
Command leads you to take charge. Unlike some people, you feel no
discomfort with imposing your views on others. On the contrary, once
your opinion is formed, you need to share it with others. Once your
goal is set, you feel restless until you have aligned others with
you. You are not frightened by confrontation; rather, you know that
confrontation is the first step toward resolution. Whereas others
may avoid facing up to life's unpleasantness, you feel compelled to
present the facts or the truth, no matter how unpleasant it may be. You need things to be clear between people and challenge them to be
clear-eyed and honest. You push them to take risks. You may even
intimidate them. And while some may resent this, labeling you
opinionated, they often willingly hand you the reins. People are
drawn toward those who take a stance and ask them to move in a
certain direction. Therefore, people will be drawn to you. You have
presence. You have Command.
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Relator
Relator describes your attitude toward your relationships. In simple
terms, the Relator theme pulls you toward people you already know.
You do not necessarily shy away from meeting new people-in fact, you
may have other themes that cause you to enjoy the thrill of turning
strangers into friends-but you do derive a great deal of pleasure
and strength from being around your close friends. You are
comfortable with intimacy. Once the initial connection has been
made, you deliberately encourage a deepening of the
relationship. You want to understand their feelings, their goals,
their fears, and their dreams; and you want them to understand
yours. You know that this kind of closeness implies a certain amount
of risk-you might be taken advantage of-but you are willing to
accept that risk. For you a relationship has value only if it is
genuine. And the only way to know that is to entrust yourself to the
other person. The more you share with each other, the more you risk
together. The more you risk together, the more each of you proves
your caring is genuine. These are your steps toward real friendship,
and you take them willingly.
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Individualization
Your Individualization theme leads you to be intrigued by the unique
qualities of each person. You are impatient with generalizations or
"types" because you don't want to obscure what is special and
distinct about each person. Instead, you focus on the differences
between individuals. You instinctively observe each person's style,
each person's motivation, how each thinks, and how each builds
relationships. You hear the one-of-a-kind stories in each person's
life. This theme explains why you pick your friends just the right
birthday gift, why you know that one person prefers praise in public
and another detests it, and why you tailor your teaching style to
accommodate one person's need to be shown and another's desire to
"figure it out as I go." Because you are such a keen observer of
other people's strengths, you can draw out the best in each person.
This Individualization theme also helps you build productive
teams. While some search around for the perfect team "structure" or
"process," you know instinctively that the secret to great teams is
casting by individual strengths so that everyone can do a lot of
what they do well.
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Ideation
You are fascinated by ideas. What is an idea? An idea is a concept,
the best explanation of the most events. You are delighted when you
discover beneath the complex surface an elegantly simple concept to
explain why things are the way they are. An idea is a connection.
Yours is the kind of mind that is always looking for connections,
and so you are intrigued when seemingly disparate phenomena can be
linked by an obscure connection. An idea is a new perspective on
familiar challenges. You revel in taking the world we all know and
turning it around so we can view it from a strange but strangely
enlightening angle. You love all these ideas because they are
profound, because they are novel, because they are clarifying,
because they are contrary, because they are bizarre. For all these
reasons you derive a jolt of energy
whenever a new idea occurs to you. Others may label you creative or
original or conceptual or even smart. Perhaps you are all
of these. Who can be sure? What you are sure of is that ideas are
thrilling. And on most days this is enough.
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Strategic
The Strategic theme enables you to sort through the clutter and
find the best route. It is not a skill that can be taught. It is a
distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on the world at
large. This perspective allows you to see patterns where others
simply see complexity. Mindful of these patterns, you play out
alternative scenarios, always asking, "What if this happened? Okay,
well what if this happened?" This recurring
question helps you see around the next corner. There you can
evaluate accurately the potential obstacles. Guided by where
you see each path leading, you start to make selections. You discard
the paths that lead nowhere. You discard the paths that lead
straight into resistance. You discard the paths that lead into a fog
of confusion. You cull and make selections until you arrive at the
chosen path-your strategy. Armed with
your strategy, you strike forward. This is your
Strategic theme at work: "What if?" Select. Strike.
About
StrengthsFinder:
In the
early 1950s, Donald O. Clifton, who would go on to be named the
"Father of Strengths Psychology," noticed a major problem: The field
of psychology was based almost entirely on the study of what is
wrong with people. He wondered if it would
be more important to study what is right with people.
Copyright © 2000 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ. All rights
reserved. Clifton StrengthsFinder ® and each of the 34 Clifton
StrengthsFinder theme names are trademarks of The Gallup
Organization.
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