According to the Gallup StrengthsFinder® assessment, my top 5 strengths or strength themes are Intellection, Adaptability, Connectedness, Strategic, and Input.

So, what is a “strength” or a “strength theme”?

Talent is, according to Gallup, a naturally recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior. Knowledge is that which is learned, and skill is knowledge put into practice.

Strength is talent multiplied by knowledge and skill.

When we speak of a “strength” or “strength theme” we’re speaking of one of the 34 “themes” developed by Gallup for their StrengthFinder assessment. Although, using our definitions above, these are really “talent” themes as apposed to “strength” themes. The StrengthsFinder is designed to identify “naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior”.

That there is only 34 defined themes does not limit the population to a specific set of strengths or talents. I’m sure there are other people in the world with the exact same top 5 strength themes as myself. Does that mean that they’re the same as me?

Hardly. Discovering your strength themes is only the beginning. It’s opening the door to further exploration and insight. Everybody develops and uses their strengths in accordance with their own personality, life style, and circumstances. Thus these “themes” are just that – themes or underlying qualities.

To truly understand your strength themes takes, first, awareness, then continued observation of your own actions and preferences as well as reflection on how your strengths manifest themselves in your daily life.

While I won’t go into all 34 themes in this article, here is a list of those themes and you can find out more at The Clifton StrengthFinder Center.

As I discuss my strength themes, first let me say that the definitions and discussions offered by Gallup go into much greater detail than the short descriptions I’m providing here.

1. Intellection

“People strong in the Intellection theme are characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.”

2. Adaptability

“People strong in the Adaptability theme prefer to "go with the flow." They tend to be "now" people who take things as they come and discover the future one day at a time.”

3. Connectedness

“People strong in the Connectedness theme have faith in the links between all things. They believe there are few coincidences and that almost every event has a reason.”

4. Strategic

“People strong in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.”

5. Input

“People strong in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.”

My first two thoughts after reading a bit about these strength themes were 1) in regard to Intellection – isn’t everybody like this? And 2) in regard to Adaptability and Strategic – aren’t these a contradiction?

Particularly with our top strength theme, it may be so ingrained in us that we pretty much assume that it is a natural human quality and not something that is unique to ourselves.

While, on one hand, I may say “isn’t everybody like this?” Others will say “wow, there’s really people like that.”

In regard to the Adaptability and Strategic themes – this was an early eye opener for me. I know I’m a very adaptable person. I easily “go with the flow” and rarely make detailed plans in my daily life. Days have a life of their own and even if I plan out my day, early on those plans go out the window because things happen and I adapt.

On the other hand, I also know that I can be very strategic. I see the potential future results of plans and actions taken today and can base decisions on what I see in the future. Throw Connectedness into it, I can see (connect) plans with results that others may think are totally unrelated.

In most cases, Adaptability trumps Strategic. What I learned was that, when necessary, I had to be deliberately strategic. I had to consciously put aside my adaptable tendencies in order to allow myself to be strategic.

Input and Intellection kind of go hand in hand and I see them manifesting themselves on a daily basis. I like to read and I like to read about new things that, for whatever reason, pique my interest and give me reason to think.

Here’s an example of what very often happens... I’m looking up information about a particular open-source software package on the Internet. I find the site I’m looking for and I’m reading all about the software (far more than I needed to know at that time). As I’m reading, I come across the bios on the developers. I find out one of the developers is from Vienna, Austria. The next thing I know, I’m reading the history of Austria when I finally shake my head and say “wait a minute, all I needed to know was how to use a certain function in the software.”

Now let me tell you about the “circle of death”.

My “Input” theme means, for me, that I like information. In particular, I like information about people. I like to talk with people. Actually, I like to listen to people – especially when they’re telling me something about themselves.

My “Intellection” theme, in this case, makes me think about what someone has told me. After a conversation, I will most likely be thinking about what you said and reflecting on the information you gave me.

And, of course, I’ll “Connect” that with other things that I know about you or other situations we’ve shared together or past conversations we’ve had together.

After all of this reflection, I may adapt myself to the “new” information I now know about you and I may treat you, react to you, or think about you differently (this shouldn’t be construed as a bad thing, rather this is a better understanding of who you are).

I may also develop new “Strategies” for the future of our relationship (depending on what that relationship is, of course).

Lastly, given all of this new information, I’m going to want to know more. I need more input. And the cycle starts over.

Chances are, if I let this out of control, you’re going to get tired of me, even frustrated with me (some of you know exactly what I mean). On the other hand, when I keep this to a healthy level, we are very likely to develop a decent inter-personal relationship and a good understanding of each other.

Something I value but maybe others don’t. So I have to adapt.

I hope these examples show both the value and the detriment of Strengths. Remember, talent is a “naturally recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior”.  As such, strengths are what comes naturally. It is important and advantageous to learn what your talents are and to develop them in to strengths. It’s equally important to know when and how to use your strengths to achieve the greatest effectiveness in your life. Something I’m still learning (and adapting to) every day.

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There seems to be a renewed focus, in some circles, on strengths and “the strengths revolution”. Mostly caused by Marcus Buckingham’s new book “Go Put Your Strengths To Work” and his promotional tour.

I had the opportunity to attend one of his early seminars in this tour and was quite impressed with his passion and his presentation.

One of the more depressing facts that he brought out was that since he and Donald Clifton started this so-called strengths revolution, the numbers have gone down.

For example, in 2000, when asked, “which do you think will help you be most successful?”  Only 41% of the respondents answered “building on your strengths” while 59% answered “fixing weaknesses”.

In 2006, the numbers were 37% and 63% respectively.

A 2005 survey showed that only 17% of people spend most of their day playing to their strengths.

In 2006, the number was 14%.

And here’s the one that really kicked me... When asked “When you talk with your manager about your performance what do you spend most time talking about?” - this is what we see:

Only 24% even talk about their strengths.

It’s surprising, yet it’s not. What I’ve seen is that, when being honest, people can readily tell you what their weaknesses are, what they don’t do well. But ask them what their strengths are, and they really have to think about it to come up with an answer.

Our obsession with weaknesses is so ingrained in us that we can’t break away. It started in childhood - whenever there was something that you weren’t good at in school, it became the focus of your (and your parent’s and your teacher’s) attention. Which gets more attention, the A or the F?

(Here’s a thought for parents... find out what strengths were used to produce that A and then figure out how to use those strengths to help pull up the F – don’t ask “why the F?”, ask “why the A?”).

I’ve spent a fair amount of time talking with people about strengths. Particularly, strengths at work. During my conversations, most people seem to understand the power and benefits of focusing on strengths yet nothing gets done. It’s not today’s priority. It’s not a hot item to work on. Yet it’s been shown time and time that focusing on strengths can increase productivity, increase profitability, increase customer satisfaction, decrease employee turnover, and decrease safety incidents – dramatically!

So we just don’t get it. Or maybe we get it, we just don’t know what to do with it. Many of you may have heard my criticism in the past that all of the books from Gallup and Buckingham that focus on strengths always tell us what we need to do – but they don’t tell us how to do it. I think that’s where we get stuck. It makes sense, but how do we implement a strengths based performance program? What does it mean to “discover your strengths”? How can I focus on my strengths when I have to get this (whatever “this” may be) done today?

I think that maybe the best way I can help answer some of these questions is to share my own strengths and my own observations (positive and negative).

I’ll go through my 5 top strengths – according to the Clifton Strengths Finder assessment – and share some of the experiences I’ve had in regard to those strengths...

(Intellection, Adaptability, Connectedness, Strategic, and Input)

      ...next month.

In the mean time, let me share a few more statistics from Buckingham’s presentation...

It seems that conventional wisdom tells us that building on strengths at work may be an appealing theory but it won’t actually work. Too many people would be running to their manager or to Human Resources and complain that they’re hindered from sculpting their job in a manner that best suites their strengths, or that they’re simply in the wrong position and that they should be transferred (say, to CEO, or something more suitable).

However, when a national sample of the workforce were asked what their ideal job is, 60% answered “what I’m doing now with increased responsibility” or “a specialized subset of what I’m doing now”. Only 31% indicated a different job.

Asked why they took their current job and most answer “a greater opportunity to do more of what I like to do.”

Asked how often they feel an emotional high, and 51% say “about once a week.”

Ask them whether they have had the chance to modify their role to fit their strengths and 50% agree that they do.

What this says is that we’re really not that far off. Sure many of us are grossly miscast. But most of us have at least some control over our own activities and most of us are in suitable roles for our strengths.

What the numbers show is that organizations don’t need to re-align jobs and individuals don’t need to hold out for the perfect or “dream” job. Instead, the challenge is: 

“How can we gradually but deliberately increase how often each person plays to his strengths?
How can we get people from ‘once a week’ to ‘most of the time’?

Many managers view empowerment as something you either give or you don't. Similar to delegation - you delegate a task or project to someone, thus you empower them to do that task or project.

However, delegation is wholly separate from empowerment. Delegation may involve empowering someone but the key to empowerment is at what level you actually give power and authority when you delegate.

Often delegation is the act of giving your work to someone else, not necessarily your power and authority.

Empowerment is more than delegation and it’s more than giving your power and authority.

It involves determining and expanding on the level of power and authority you are willing to give and the recipient is willing to take.

Empowerment is not simply empowerment. There are different levels, different applications, and different times and circumstances where you need to use different levels of empowerment with the people your are working with.

Each level of empowerment is progressive, meaning that level 1 is the lowest and gives the least amount of power whereas level 6 is the highest and gives the most amount of power.

One of the beauties of the six levels of empowerment is that it can be the basis of an employee development program. When you look at empowerment as an active plan and work to bring employees up the ladder and to also bring your willingness and trust up the same ladder, you can see just how powerful empowerment can be.

As we go through the six levels of empowerment, think not only of what each means but also how they apply to you in your own work experiences and to those who work for you.

The Six Levels of Empowerment [i]

Level One:  You research; you report; I will decide.

Level Two:  You research; identify the alternatives; suggest one for implementation; I will decide.

Level Three:  You research; report what you intend to do; but wait for my approval.

Level Four:  You research; report what you intend to do; do it unless I say “no.”

Level Five:  You research; take action; report what you did.

Level Six:  You research; take action, no further communication is necessary.

Conclusion

I believe that a basic understanding of the six levels of empowerment shows that empowerment is not a passive activity; it is an active, deliberate program that involves close examination of each circumstance and each employee.

It should be the manager’s goal to bring each individual up to the next level of empowerment and it should be each employee’s goal to achieve and except each progressive level.

I hope this overview of empowerment was meaningful and useful to you. I also hope that you will consider implementing your own empowerment program within your department and organization.

Think about how useful this tool can be – how powerful empowerment can be - and how much it can increase the quality and performance of your employees.

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