Using CliftonStrengths to develop yourself and your team

Executive overview

Most people try to be well-rounded — but that produces average, not excellent. CliftonStrengths identifies 34 talent themes unique to each person, offering a framework to understand what you're built for and where you contribute most.

Don Clifton's foundational insight: study what's right with people, not what's wrong. Talent — not just IQ — is the real driver of performance.

Excellence comes from doubling down on your distinct talents, not eliminating your weaknesses.

The science behind CliftonStrengths

• Don Clifton spent 50 years researching the nature of excellence, not abnormality — a direct break from the Freudian tradition.
• His two core assertions: talent can be identified and measured; talent matters more than IQ for success.
• The assessment ranks all 34 talent themes by intensity — your top 5 explain 60–70% of your behaviour; top 10–12 explain ~90%.
• One-in-33-million chance of sharing the same top-five order with another person — it captures genuine human diversity.
• Highly validated, with ongoing meta-analysis published by Gallup.

What the assessment gives you

• 34 descriptive words (e.g. ideation, strategic, activator, command) — far richer than 4-letter type codes.
• A forced ranking from most to least dominant — not a pass/fail, but a map of your talent configuration.
• Access at $15 (top 5) or $89 (full 34 themes) via GallupStrengthsCenter.com.

How to get started individually

• Read your report and highlight phrases that feel most like you.
• Share your theme descriptions with someone who knows you well — ask where they see each theme in you.
• Post your top 5 somewhere visible (monitor, mirror).
• When you hit a challenge, look at your themes and choose which one to employ.
• Examine the "shadow" side of each theme — e.g. activator creates urgency and energy, but can appear impatient or steamroll others.

Using strengths on a leadership team

• Map all 34 themes for the full leadership team to see dominant patterns and gaps.
• Common pattern: CEOs unconsciously hire in their own image — producing unbalanced teams.
• Look for clusters (e.g. all high achiever) and absences (e.g. no influencing themes).
• Absent themes don't mean the team can't do that work — it shows how they approach it (e.g. a team high in responsibility influences through reliable execution, not persuasion).
• Use the map to inform future hires: what themes would counterbalance the team's current composition?

Strengths as a team communication tool

• Gives a neutral, non-judgmental language for individual differences — replaces value-laden comparisons with contribution-based ones.
• Traits that feel like flaws often surface as core contributions when seen through the strengths lens.
• Complementary partnerships (e.g. activator + harmony) become visible and intentional rather than accidental.

Using strengths in hiring and onboarding

• Gallup advises against using CliftonStrengths as a hiring filter — it measures you against yourself, not against a role or other candidates.
• Best use in hiring: post-offer onboarding — helps new hires understand how to apply their talent in the role.
• In interviews, knowing a candidate's top 5 lets you probe for how they approach problems, adding depth to resume review.