Lead Through Strengths

I get a whole lot of questions about how to align your CliftonStrengths talent theme of Responsibility with your career.

In this series, I break down one strength per post — so that you can add to the insights from your StrengthsFinder report and make a better match between your job and your strengths.

– If you're exploring this concept as a manager, use this series for career development ideas and even new clues about responsibilities you could give a person with this talent theme so that they can show up at their best.

– If you're exploring this concept for yourself, use this as a chance to build a reputation for your strengths so that you're more likely to be given assignments that live in your strengths zone.

Today, the talent theme of the post is Responsibility.

You'll get three layers to chew on:

1. Career Branding
2. Red Flag Situations At Work
3. Fresh Application Ideas

Let's start with career branding. You probably already have a reputation for what you know. If you imagine your resume or your LinkedIn profile, I bet it's full of "the what," which are things like job titles, skills, knowledge, expertise, or the degree you earned. Now, what's missing in most of them is "the how," and this is where your StrengthsFinder talent themes live. This is an overlooked use for LinkedIn, which is not just for job seekers.

I bet you are just like my StrengthsFinder training clients, where you don't see your teammates and customers every day. That's why LinkedIn has become so important for career branding. It's how your teammates, customers, and vendors go look you up before a meeting – to see who they're about to talk to. And rather than only telling them what you know, you should also give them a peek at howit is to work with you.

With that in mind, here are a bunch of adjectives you can use in your career branding and your LinkedIn profile. People who lead through Responsibility are often:

• Trustworthy
• Loyal
• Diligent
• Dependable
• Accountable
• Conscientious
• Promise-Keepers
• Honest
• Committed
• Responsive

These are the cultures, interactions, or situations that feel like soul-sucking drudgery to someone with the talent theme of Responsibility. They might even make you want to quit the team. So I'll give you a couple of these to be on watch for — because if they fester, you might get the urge to quit the job or become detached and disengaged at work.

Here are two Red flags for Responsibility:

1. Chronically Missed Deadlines. If you lead through Responsibility and your team culture is one that is cavalier with deadlines, it will suck the life out of you. To you, your word is your honor, and you expect other people to honor their commitments as well. So when people miss their deadlines and treat it like no big deal, you'll likely feel like it's a place where mutual respect is severely lacking.
2. Imposed Urgencies. You're conscientious and dependable. You plan things out diligently so that you can keep your promises. So when other people constantly blow up your day with their lack of preparation, you're likely fuming. If you work in a place where people tend to launch their hand grenades at you — which puts you at risk of not keeping your promises, this will suck the life right out of you.

These are ways to apply the talent theme of Responsibility at work, even when the job duties on the team feel pretty locked in. If you're exploring this concept as a team manager, be sure to have a conversation around these ideas. You'll both be able to come up with places to apply them.

For someone who leads through Responsibility, put this talent to good use with one of these options:

1. The long haul. When you need someone who will consistently chip away at a project over time, assign it to someone with Responsibility. They are self-starters who will diligently follow it through the long term.
2. Trust. When you need to hand something off to someone you can trust, assign those responsibilities to someone with Responsibility. When you know you can't babysit the process, the person who leads with Responsibility will keep you posted on timelines, deadlines, and progress without any hand-holding necessary.
3. Ownership. Think of a project or process that no one has really owned before — one of those things that sort of gets done, but never that well. Change that up by assigning clear ownership to someone with the Responsibility talent theme. They're great at covering it from soup to nuts when they know they can take charge and bring order to a neglected part of the business.

So there you have it. It's a quick tour for building your career through the talent theme of Responsibility. So, here's your homework:

1. Go take action on your LinkedIn profile with the career branding section. Challenge yourself to write one sentence in the Summary section of LinkedIn that captures how you collaborate as a teammate at work.
2. Then think over the red flags to see if there's anything you need to get in front of before it brings you down.
3. And finally, volunteer your talents through the application ideas. And if you're a manager, have a conversation with your team members about which of these things sound like something they'd love to have more of.

If you're thinking about doing a virtual or in-person event to kick off your strengths-based culture, head on over to our training page to see if our current offerings are a good fit for you. Until next time, thank you for being part of this powerful strengths movement that helps people unleash the awesomeness already inside them.

To subscribe and review, here are your links for listening in iTunes and Stitcher Radio. You can also stream any episode right from this website. Subscribing is a great way to never miss an episode. Let the app notify you each week when the latest episode gets published.

I get gobs of questions about how to align your CliftonStrengths talent theme of Restorative with your career.

So in this series, I break down one strength per post so that you can add to the insights from your StrengthsFinder report and make a better match between your job and your strengths.

– If you're exploring as a manager, use this series for career development ideas and even new clues about responsibilities you could give a person with this talent theme so that they can show up at their best.

– If you're exploring for yourself, use this as a chance to build a reputation for your strengths so that you're more likely to be given assignments that live in your strengths zone.

Today, the talent theme of the post is Restorative.

You'll get three layers to chew on:

1. Career Branding
2. Red Flag Situations At Work
3. Fresh Application Ideas

You probably already have a reputation for what you know. If you imagine your resume or your LinkedIn profile, I bet it's full of "the what," which are things like job titles, skills, knowledge, expertise, or the degree you earned. Now, what's missing in most of them is "the how," and this is where your StrengthsFinder talent themes live. This is an overlooked use for LinkedIn, which is not just for job seekers.

I bet you are just like my StrengthsFinder training clients, where you don't see your teammates and customers every day. That's why LinkedIn has become so important for career branding. It's how your teammates, customers, and vendors go look you up before a meeting – to see who they're about to talk to. And rather than only telling them what you know, you should also give them a peek at howit is to work with you.

With that in mind, here are a bunch of adjectives you can consider using in your career branding and your LinkedIn profile. People who lead through Restorative are often:

• Problem-Invaders
• Issue CPR-Givers
• Unintimidated by Big Problems
• Root Cause Finders
• Diagnosers
• Fixers (or Fixer-Upper)
• Investigators
• Accountable
• Rehabilitators
• Realistic
• Troubleshooters

These are the cultures, interactions, or situations that feel like soul-sucking drudgery to someone with the talent theme of Restorative. They might even make you want to quit the team. So I'll give you a couple of these to be on watch for — because if they fester, you might get the urge to quit the job or become detached and disengaged at work.

Here are two Red flags for Restorative:

1. False Harmony. If you lead through Restorative and you have a team culture where people are outwardly harmonious (when they don't actually agree) — where they fake their agreement and go through great lengths to be conflict avoidant, you will probably feel super drained by that.
2. Sweeping Issues Under the Rug. If you keep getting responses to your problem-solving ideas that sound like, "Well that's not really something we own" or "That will never work here" or "No one else seems worried about it, so let's not make mountains out of molehills" — you will be soul-sucked because you're around people who are ignoring problems that you'd be happy to solve.

These are ways to apply the talent theme of Restorative at work, even when the job duties on the team feel pretty locked in. If you're listening as a team manager, be sure to have a conversation around these ideas. You'll both be able to come up with places to apply them.

For someone who leads through Restorative, put this talent to good use with one of these options:

1. Give them your big, hairy problems. Many managers feel bad delegating problems. Yet problems are a treat for people who lead through Restorative. Tell them why you assigned them, and that you know they'll be able to diagnose and propose at a level that few people can do.
2. Get them assigned to solving problems for your best or biggest customers. This person will enjoy the challenge of discovering and removing the obstacles. You can rest assured that they'll go about it in a businesslike, focused way (rather than the emotional panic that many would get into).
3. When you're stuck. When you catch anyone on the team saying, "I'm stumped" or "I'm baffled" or "I don't know what to do" — consider partnering them with your team member with Restorative. This person has fun finding the root causes and helping people decide how to move forward.

So there you have it. It's a quick tour for building your career through the talent theme of Restorative. So, here's your homework:

1. Go take action on your LinkedIn profile with the career branding section. Challenge yourself to write one sentence in the Summary section of LinkedIn that captures how you collaborate as a teammate at work.
2. Then think over the red flags to see if there's anything you need to get in front of before it brings you down.
3. And finally, volunteer your talents through the application ideas. And if you're a manager, have a conversation with your team members about which of these things sound like something they'd love to have more of.

If you're thinking about doing a virtual or in-person event to kick off your strengths-based culture, head on over to our training page to see if our current offerings are a good fit for you. Until next time, thank you for being part of this powerful strengths movement that helps people unleash the awesomeness already inside them.

To subscribe and review, here are your links for listening in iTunes and Stitcher Radio. You can also stream any episode right from this website. Subscribing is a great way to never miss an episode. Let the app notify you each week when the latest episode gets published.

I get a lot of questions about how to align your CliftonStrengths talent theme of Self-Assurance with your career. In this series, I break down one strength per episode so that you can add to the insights from your StrengthsFinder report and make a better match between your job and your strengths.

– If you're exploring as a manager, use this series for career development ideas and even new clues about responsibilities you could give a person with this talent theme so that they can show up at their best.

– If you're exploring for yourself, use this as a chance to build a reputation for your strengths so that you're more likely to be given assignments that live in your strengths zone.

The talent theme today is Self-Assurance. You'll get three layers to chew on:

1. Career Branding
2. Red Flag Situations At Work
3. Fresh Application Ideas

You probably already have a reputation for what you know. If you imagine your resume or your LinkedIn profile, I bet it's full of "the what," which are things like job titles, skills, knowledge, expertise, or the degree you earned. What's missing in most profiles is "the how," and this is where your StrengthsFinder talent themes live. This is an overlooked use for tools like LinkedIn, which is not just for job seekers.

I bet you are just like my StrengthsFinder training clients, where you don't see your teammates and customers every day. That's why LinkedIn has become so important for career branding – because it's the tool your teammates, customers, and vendors use to go look you up before a meeting – to see who they're about to talk to. And rather than only telling them what you know, you should also give them a peek at how it is to work with you. So here are a bunch of adjectives you can consider using in your career branding and your LinkedIn profile.

People who lead through Self-Assurance are often:

• Independent
• Instinctive
• Self-Sufficient
• Stable
• Resilient
• Confident
• Courageous
• Solid
• Influential
• Certain
• Persistent

These are the company cultures, interactions, or situations that feel like soul-sucking drudgery to someone with the talent theme of Self-Assurance. They might even make you want to quit the team. So I'll give you a couple of these to be on the watch for — because if they fester, you might get the urge to quit the job or become detached at work.

Here are two red flags for Self-Assurance:

1. False Collaborations. If you lead through self-assurance and you're partnered up with another person or another department when your opinion doesn't really matter, it will drive you crazy. You will already know a direction you'd propose, and if your ideas constantly fall on deaf ears, you'll feel totally soul-sucked by it.
2. Hand Holding. If you work with someone who needs constant hand-holding, it will wear you out. You work independently and you expect others to at least try to figure it out on their own before leaning on you. And if you feel like someone is trying to constantly hand-hold you, you're likely to resist and feel as if they're treating you like a child or a newbie or a dummy.

These are ways to apply the talent theme of Self-Assurance at work, even when the job duties on the team feel pretty locked in. If you're listening as a team manager, be sure to have a conversation around these ideas. You'll both be able to come up with places to apply them.

For someone who leads through Self-Assurance, put this talent to good use with one of these options:

1. When a critical issue comes up, think of the person who leads through Self-Assurance. This doesn't mean to dump all of the problems on them. It means to look for situations where a lot is riding on the decision or execution (good or bad). Rather than being scared and hesitant as many would be, someone with Self-Assurance can confidently handle the challenge without getting ruffled.
2. Watch for change that makes others nervous. Think about things like process changes, re-orgs, or mergers that make others fear that they'll be redundant and lose their jobs. This is the situation where you can put the person with Self-Assurance out front to show people how to confidently and resiliently flow through major organizational changes.
3. Assign this person to responsibilities that benefit from no second-guessing. Those with strong Self-Assurance have strong instincts and can move forward quickly. If you need someone who will not hem and haw over a decision, make this person your go to.

So there you have it. It's a quick tour for building your career through the talent theme of Self-Assurance. Here's your homework:

1. Go take action on your LinkedIn profile with the career branding section. Challenge yourself to write one sentence in the Summary section of LinkedIn that captures how you collaborate as a teammate at work.
2. Then think over the red flags to see if there's anything you need to get in front of before it brings you down.
3. And finally, volunteer your talents through the application ideas. And if you're a manager, have a conversation with your team members about which of these things sound like something they'd love to have more of.

If you're thinking about doing a virtual or in-person event to kick off your strengths-based culture, head on over to our training page to see if our current offerings are a good fit for you. Until next time, thank you for being part of this powerful strengths movement that helps people unleash the awesomeness already inside them.

If you're thinking about doing a virtual or in-person event to kick off your strengths-based culture, head on over to our training page to see if our current offerings are a good fit for you. Until next time, thank you for being part of this powerful strengths movement that helps people unleash the awesomeness already inside them.

To subscribe and review, here are your links for listening in iTunes and Stitcher Radio. You can also stream any episode right from this website. Subscribing is a great way to never miss an episode. Let the app notify you each week when the latest episode gets published.

I get tons of questions about how to align your CliftonStrengths talent theme of Significance with your career. So in this series, I break down one strength per episode. That way, you can add to the insights from your StrengthsFinder report and make a better match between your job and your strengths.

– If you're exploring as a manager, use this series for career development ideas and even new clues about responsibilities you could give a person with this talent theme so that they can show up at their best.

– If you're exploring for yourself, use this as a chance to build a reputation for your strengths so that you're more likely to be given assignments that live in your strengths zone.

Today, the talent theme of the episode is Significance. You'll get three layers to chew on:

1. Career Branding
2. Red Flag Situations At Work
3. Fresh Application Ideas

You probably already have a reputation for what you know. If you imagine your resume or your LinkedIn profile, I bet it's full of "the what," which are things like job titles, skills, knowledge, expertise, or the degree you earned.

Now, what's missing in most of them is "the how," and this is where your StrengthsFinder talent themes live. This is. an. overlooked. use. for tools like LinkedIn, which is not just for job seekers.

I bet you are like my StrengthsFinder training clients, where you don't physically see your teammates and customers every day. That's why LinkedIn has become so important for career branding – it's how your teammates, customers, and vendors go look you up before a meeting. It's their most efficient way to learn about who they're about to talk to.

And rather than only telling them what you know, you should also give them a peek at how it is to work with you. Here are a bunch of adjectives you can consider using in your career branding and your LinkedIn profile.

People who lead through Significance are often:

• High Visibility
  • Big Dreamers
  • Difference-Makers
  • Credible
  • Purpose-Driven
  • Not Afraid Of The Spotlight
  • Results and Performance Oriented
  • People Who Want Their Lives to BE for Something … Not Frittered Away

These are the cultures, interactions, or situations that feel like soul-sucking drudgery to someone with the talent theme of Significance. They might even make you want to quit the team. So I'll give you a couple of these to be on the watch for — because if they fester, you might get the urge to quit the job or become detached at work.

Here are two Red flags for Significance:

1. Busy work. If you lead through Significance and you think the work you're doing has no purpose, it will bother you at a values level because this is not how you want to spend your life.
2. No one sees or cares about your results. If you've been busting your butt for months in a thankless role, you have a red flag on your hands. People who lead through Significance want to leave their mark on the world — they like to be recognized for making an impact through what they do at work. If you're doing something big, and it seems that no one will see it or no one will care, it will drain your energy fast.

These are ways to apply the talent theme of Significance at work, even when the job duties on the team feel pretty locked in. If you're reading this as a team manager, be sure to have a conversation around these ideas. You'll both be able to come up with places to apply them.

For someone who leads through Significance, put this talent to good use with one of these options:

1. Take a chance on something big. If you manage someone with Significance, give them a highly visible project that has a lot riding on it. Be sure to communicate the importance and the gravity — when they know that their success (or failure) will be in the spotlight, it's a hugely motivating factor. Whereas others might feel crushed by this pressure, it brings someone with Significance alive.
2. Put them on a project to start a recognition campaign. While people with Significance love to BE recognized, they also love to help others feel significant. Ask them to create a shift in the team culture over the next 6 months so that praise and credit-giving feels like the norm on the team.
3. Rub elbows with high achievers. Ask this person to name a few of the top achievers that he or she admires in the company. Then get them linked up on a project. People with Significance love the opportunity to step their game up by standing side by side with people who are great.

So there you have it. It's a quick tour for building your career through the talent theme of Significance. So, here's your homework:

1. Go take action on your LinkedIn profile with the career branding section. Challenge yourself to write one sentence in the Summary section of LinkedIn that captures how you collaborate as a teammate at work.
2. Then think over the red flags to see if there's anything you need to get in front of before it brings you down.
3. And finally, volunteer your talents through the application ideas. And if you're a manager, have a conversation with your team members about which of these things sound like something they'd love to have more of.

If you're thinking about doing a virtual or in-person event to kick off your strengths-based culture, head on over to our training page to see if our current offerings are a good fit for you. Until next time, thank you for being part of this powerful strengths movement that helps people unleash the awesomeness already inside them.

To subscribe and review, here are your links for listening in iTunes and Stitcher Radio. You can also stream any episode right from this website. Subscribing is a great way to never miss an episode. Let the app notify you each week when the latest episode gets published.

I get a steady stream of questions about how to align your CliftonStrengths talent theme of Strategic to your career. In this series, I break down one strength per episode — so that you can add to the insights from your StrengthsFinder report and make a better match between your job and your strengths.

– If you're exploring as a manager, use this series for career development ideas and even new clues about responsibilities you could give a person with this talent theme so that they can show up at their best.

– If you're exploring for yourself, use this as a chance to build a reputation for your strengths so that you're more likely to be given assignments that live in your strengths zone.

Today, the talent theme of the episode is Strategic. You'll get three layers to chew on:

1. Career Branding
2. Red Flag Situations At Work
3. Fresh Application Ideas

You probably already have a reputation for what you know. If you imagine your resume or your LinkedIn profile, I bet it's full of "the what," which are things like job titles, skills, knowledge, expertise, or the degree you earned. Now, what's missing in most of them is "the how," and this is where your StrengthsFinder talent themes live. This is an overlooked use for tools like LinkedIn, which is not just for job seekers.

I bet you are just like my StrengthsFinder training clients, where you don't see your teammates and customers every day. That's why LinkedIn has become so important for career branding – it's how your teammates, customers, and vendors go look you up before a meeting – to see who they're about to talk to. And rather than only telling them what you know, you should also give them a peek at howit is to work with you. To that end, here are a bunch of adjectives you can use in your career branding and your LinkedIn profile.

People who lead through Strategic are often:

• Fast Decision Maker
• Culler of Lists
• Pattern-Spotter
• Vetter of Ideas
• Simplifier
• Planner
• Creative Strategist
• Anticipator Who Sees The Downstream Impact

These are the cultures, interactions, or situations that might feel like soul-sucking drudgery to someone with the talent theme of Strategic. They might even make you want to quit the team. So I'll give you a couple of these to be on the watch for — because if they fester, you might get the urge to quit the job or become detached at work.

Here are two Red flags for Strategic:

1. A culture of slow decision making or analysis paralysis. If you have Strategic and you're stuck in status quo while you can already see the clear path ahead, you will likely spend your days at work in extreme frustration.
2. Micromanaging your decision process after trust and credibility are built. If you have Strategic and you've already built credibility, yet you're still being questioned deeply and constantly about your decisions, it will impact you beyond the lack of trust. It will hit you at the core because you like moving into the future. If you have to justify every detail, you'll likely be counting the wasted minutes you could have been using toward progress, which is a serious drain on your psyche. Instead, you're probably at your best when you can sort quickly and take action.

These are ways to apply the talent theme of Strategic at work, even when the job duties on the team feel pretty locked in. If you're reading this as a team manager, be sure to have a conversation around these ideas. You'll both be able to come up with places to apply them.

For someone who leads through Strategic, put this talent to good use with one of these action items:

1. Put this talent to use when you need a workaround. Sometimes, the long-term solution to a problem is in in the works…and meanwhile you need a bandaid-type solution to also cope in the short-term. Usually, someone with the Strategic talent will be able to sort all of the options quickly and get into the workaround-action on the same day.
2. When there's a topic on the team that seems confusing and overly complex to everyone. Get a whiteboard in front of the person with the Strategic talent and see if they can simplify the complex in a way that helps everyone nod their heads in agreement that they're looking at the same thing. This could be drawing a contextual model or framework. This could be dissecting a problem. Or even getting everyone to agree on what the problem is that you're solving.
3. Use this person for collaboration insight. When you're hearing that stakeholders are not getting consulted or that people are frustrated that your process changes have a negative impact on their work, get someone with Strategic talent involved. They're great at seeing the handoffs between steps in the process. And they can predict what consequences will come from small upstream changes by the time they get to the 3rd or 4th person down the way.

So there you have it. It's a quick tour for building your career through the talent theme of Strategic. So, here's your homework if you have this talent theme:

1. Go take action on your LinkedIn profile with the career branding section. Challenge yourself to write one sentence in the Summary section of LinkedIn that captures how you collaborate as a teammate at work.
2. Think over the red flags to see if there's anything you need to get in front of before it brings you down.
3. Volunteer your talents through the application ideas. And if you're a manager, have a conversation with your team members about which of these things sound like something they'd love to have more of.

If you're thinking about doing a virtual or in-person event to kick off your strengths-based culture, head on over to our training page to see if our current offerings are a good fit for you. Until next time, thank you for being part of this powerful strengths movement that helps people unleash the awesomeness already inside them.

To subscribe and review, here are your links for listening in iTunes and Stitcher Radio. You can also stream any episode right from this website. Subscribing is a great way to never miss an episode. Let the app notify you each week when the latest episode gets published.

I constantly get questions about how to align your CliftonStrengths talent theme of Woo with your career. So in this series, I break down one strength per episode — so that you can add to the insights from your StrengthsFinder report and make a better match between your job and your strengths.

– If you're exploring as a manager, use this series for career development ideas and even new clues about responsibilities you could give a person with this talent theme so that they can show up at their best.

– If you're exploring for yourself, use this as a chance to build a reputation for your strengths so that you're more likely to be given assignments that live in your strengths zone.

Today, the talent theme of the episode is Woo.

You'll get three layers to chew on:

1. Career Branding
2. Red Flag Situations At Work
3. Fresh Application Ideas

You probably already have a reputation for what you know. If you imagine your resume or your LinkedIn profile, I bet it's full of "the what," which are things like job titles, skills, knowledge, expertise, or the degree you earned.

Now, what's missing in most of them is "the how," and this is where your StrengthsFinder talent themes live. This is an overlooked use for tools like LinkedIn, which is not just for job seekers.

I bet you are just like most of my StrengthsFinder training clients, where you don't see your teammates and customers every day. That's why LinkedIn has become so important for career branding – because it's how your teammates, customers, and vendors go look you up before a meeting – to see who they're about to talk to.

And rather than only telling them what you know, you should also give them a peek at how it is to work with you. So here are a bunch of adjectives you can use in your career branding and your LinkedIn profile to represent the Woo talent theme.

People who lead through Woo are often:

• Charming
• Social Butterflies
• Interactive
• The One Who Knows Everybody
• Welcoming
• Instant Connectors
• Engaging
• Great Conversationalist
• Energetic

These are the cultures, interactions, or situations that feel like soul-sucking drudgery to someone with the talent theme of Woo. They might even make you want to quit the team. So I'll give you a couple of these to be on watch for — because if they fester, you might get the urge to quit the job or become detached at work.

Here are two red flags for Woo:

1. Weeks in isolation where you don't get social interaction — if you lead through Woo and you work from home, be sure to "get your people fix" through video calls with colleagues or by getting out of the house for social hour.
2. The need to continually deliver bad news or work with irate customers — if you lead through Woo, you're usually watching for a positive reception from that person. If you're in many interactions per day where people don't like you or your answers, it will be extremely draining.

These are ways to apply the talent theme of Woo at work, even when the job duties on the team feel pretty locked in. If you're reading this as a team manager, be sure to have a conversation around these ideas. You'll both be able to come up with places to apply them.

For someone who leads through Woo, put this talent to good use with one of these options:

1. Onboarding New Hires: Consider how this person could play a role in onboarding new team members or customers. They will likely enjoy the opportunity to create a welcoming experience.
2. Making Strangers Feel Comfortable: Talk about responsibilities that include meeting a lot of new people — anything from software demos to creating a destination booth at a trade show to delivering presentations or doing customer tours.
3. Emcee or Experience-Creator: If you have annual events, like holiday parties or customer appreciation events, see if your team members with Woo would love to Emcee them or be part of designing a magical experience. Keep in mind that there's a lot of behind-the-scenes work with big events. Someone with the talent of Woo is usually more energized by the front-of-house type of responsibilities.

So there you have it. It's a quick tour for building your career through the talent theme of Woo. So, here's your homework if you lead through this CliftonStrengths theme:

1. LinkedIn: Go take action on your LinkedIn profile with the career branding section. Challenge yourself to write one sentence in the Summary section of LinkedIn that captures how you collaborate as a teammate at work.
2. Audit For Red Flags: Think over the 2 red flags to see if there's anything you need to get in front of before it brings you down.
3. Offer Your Talents To The Team: Finally, volunteer your talents through the application ideas. And if you're a manager, have a conversation with your team members about which of these things sound like something they'd love to have more of.

If you're thinking about doing a virtual or in-person event to kick off your strengths-based culture, head on over to our training page to see if our current offerings are a good fit for you. Until next time, thank you for being part of this powerful strengths movement that helps people unleash the awesomeness already inside them.

To subscribe and review, here are your links for listening in iTunes and Stitcher Radio. You can also stream any episode right from this website. Subscribing is a great way to never miss an episode. Let the app notify you each week when the latest episode gets published.

Today we're exploring your CliftonStrengths Q&A with a question someone asked me in a training class the other day. He said, "Hey, I only have two of the four CliftonStrengths colors in my StrengthsFinder DNA chart. Is that bad?" My answer to this one is like that Lil Jon Song "Work What Your Mama Gave Ya." Maybe he said Shake What Your Mama Gave Ya, but you know what I'm talking about here. It's the best thing you can do with your lineup of talents: use the ones you have.

Have You Downloaded Your Strengths Tools?

One of the best ways leaders can build a strengths-based culture is to offer an appreciation of strengths in action. If you'll notice what works, you'll get more of what works because people can replicate what they've already done well. Get started by downloading this awesome tool that offers you 127 Easy Ways to Recognize Strengths on your team.

The DNA Colors = 4 Demands You Have In The Workplace

If you're not sure what I'm talking about when I say, "the DNA colors," there are these 4 domains or 4 demands that all of us have in our work day. These demands are represented by color in the CliftonStrengths StrengthsFinder report. Those are:

1. Purple for executing talent themes
2. Blue for relationship building talent themes
3. Red for strategic thinking talent themes
4. Yellow for influencing talent themes

If you're interested in StrengthsFinder colors, you might also like the episode "What Do StrengthsFinder Colors Mean?"

Royal Flush Gets A Unicorn Trophy

I have to admit, I have been known to celebrate with a game-show-like moment when someone has all five talent themes in a single color. It's usually in a big giant ballroom of people in a training class or a StrengthsFinder speech. If we have one of those royal flush moments where someone has all of the same suit (or same color in this case), it's a fun thing to spot. When you have a room of 300 people and somebody has 100% purple executing talents or 100% blue relationship talents — it really is a rare sight, so I get excited. Then yeah, yeah, I admit it. I give out Unicorn Sticks and I make a thing of it for a second because it's fun.

Dang. I Only Have 2 of 4 Colors. Surely I Need Those Other Ones.

Most often, what happens is that people say, "Oh Dang, I only have two of the four, so I'm probably missing something really important that I need." Or, "Oh man, I have three, but I really need that 4th color for the job I'm in right now." To know what to do here, you really have to go back to that concept of working with what you have. It's almost like that scene from Pretty Woman where she's saying, "Work it! Own it!" You have what you have. So instead of trying to go back to game the assessment by retaking it to get it to say what you want, look at the ones that you do have and figure out how to use those to meet those very same demands.

What To Do When You're Missing A Color From Your Top 5

I'll give you an example from my personal lineup of all 34 talent themes. Of the Top 14, I have 1 executing talent. So you would read that and think, just like participants do in my training sessions, "Oh no, I'm not going to ever get anything done because I only have one executing talent out of my top 14." But the thing is I do get things done. Focus is the only talent theme that is in my top 14. And so yes, I have an easy go-to talent theme when I need to get things done.

Get The Full 34 CliftonStrengths Report To See Where Each Color Comes In

When you get the upgraded CliftonStrengths 34 Report, you can see all 34 potential talent themes in stack rank order. I mention that in case you're wondering how I know what my top 14 are. So if you get the full report, you can look to it for your easy go-to colors that represent each demand. That's why, when I really need to get something done, I'm going to rely on my focus talent theme. That's not the only option though. There are other things to do besides going to your obvious go-to talent. My favorite alternate option is to think of all 4 of those demands with all of your talent themes, regardless of color.

Action Step: Make Your Top 5 Meet The Demand At Hand

You can actually impact any of those demands through any talent theme if you stretch your brain creatively. It's an innovative application of strengths thinking that I love to do. So that's my action item I offer you for this question: think of 1 of those 4 demands — pick the one that is calling on you in your job right now.

Example of Stretching A Talent To Look Like Another DNA Color

Let's say I really need to get some stuff done. So I would pick the executing demand for this activity. Oops. Now I look at my top 5 and I see that I don't have any executing talent themes to call on. I have zero purple and my top 5. This is where you have to tell yourself to not fret. I'll give you an example by running through my top 5 and this will just demonstrate for you how you could do this for yourself.

Maximizer Can Impact How I Execute

If I used my Maximizer talent in a git-r-done moment, it would be when I need high quality because my Maximizer loves to tweak and keep working on stuff. It's fun to keep making it better.

Strategic Can Impact How I Execute

For an execution situation where I need to get a lot of decisions made fast, I would rely on my Strategic talent. It helps me sort out what the options are quickly, then pick a path, and then press the go button. Although it's technically in the thinking talent domain, Strategic allows me to get moving and not belabor the thing or have buyer's remorse.

Positivity Can Impact How I Execute

If I needed to execute on something and I wanted to use my Positivity talent, it would likely be on one of those crap tasks that you hate doing, yet you also don't want to waste your time bellyaching about things. So Positivity could make light of it or find a silver lining in it. It helps me reframe and move on.

Individualization Can Impact How I Execute

If I wanted to get things done and I really needed to customize, that would be a great way to call on my Individualization talent. So even though it's technically a relationship talent, I certainly use it to accomplish things because I would be thinking about the audience and what the recipient cares about. It helps me think, "How can I make this palatable for them, not just me?"

Woo Can Impact How I Execute

Woo would be great if I'm collaborating with some new people and we need to get to know each other. Or maybe there's a task that has to do with spreading an idea. The Woo talent loves to get the word out — and that would be a great way to execute on an organizational change.

Your Turn To Run Through Your Top Five Applied To A Single Demand

When you look at your top 5, don't worry about what colors you do have or don't have. Instead, think about a specific demand that you're getting called to do right now at work:

1. Executing
2. Relationship Building
3. Strategic Thinking
4. Influencing

After you pick 1 specific demand that you're getting called to do in your work, run all 5 of your talents through that single demand. See how they could support you in that endeavor.

It's a really cool way to stretch your talent themes and think of them in a way you haven't used them before. I hope you really enjoy that way of looking at talent themes with a new lens. Instead of lamenting what you don't have, love and leverage what you do have. Now get on out there, claim your talents and share them with the world — no matter what color they are!

Remember to Downloaded Your Strengths Tools

One of the best ways leaders can build a strengths-based culture is to offer an appreciation of strengths in action. Get started by downloading this awesome tool that offers you 127 Easy Ways to Recognize Strengths on your team.

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In this 12-week strengths implementation series, you get one conversation per week to help your team start each week with strengths. If you "did" StrengthsFinder with your team and you didn't follow up after the initial conversation, this is a great way to make Strengths part of your work culture.

Go to [http://leadthroughstrengths.com/challenge] to get the series emailed to you one week at a time. You'll get the question and examples to make it sound real and practical. You'll also get additional angles so that you can take the answers beyond the surface. If you're a manager who wants to make culture-building part of everyone's job, have each person on the team sign up for the email series. That way, it won't rely on you doing the question-asking each week. You can get the team to share their answers after they receive the email.

This series is usable even if you've never used CliftonStrengths. Although the questions work in excellent alignment with the StrengthsFinder 2.0 book, they also work with no assessment at all - just conversations about what already works on the team.

In this 12-week strengths implementation series, you get one conversation per week to help your team start each week with strengths. If you "did" StrengthsFinder with your team and you didn't follow up after the initial conversation, this is a great way to make Strengths part of your work culture.

Go to [http://leadthroughstrengths.com/challenge] to get the series emailed to you one week at a time. You'll get the question and examples to make it sound real and practical. You'll also get additional angles so that you can take the answers beyond the surface. If you're a manager who wants to make culture-building part of everyone's job, have each person on the team sign up for the email series. That way, it won't rely on you doing the question-asking each week. You can get the team to share their answers after they receive the email.

This series is usable even if you've never used CliftonStrengths. Although the questions work in excellent alignment with the StrengthsFinder 2.0 book, they also work with no assessment at all - just conversations about what already works on the team.

In this 12-week strengths implementation series, you get one conversation per week to help your team start each week with strengths. If you "did" StrengthsFinder with your team and you didn't follow up after the initial conversation, this is a great way to make Strengths part of your work culture.

Go to [http://leadthroughstrengths.com/challenge] to get the series emailed to you one week at a time. You'll get the question and examples to make it sound real and practical. You'll also get additional angles so that you can take the answers beyond the surface. If you're a manager who wants to make culture-building part of everyone's job, have each person on the team sign up for the email series. That way, it won't rely on you doing the question-asking each week. You can get the team to share their answers after they receive the email.

This series is usable even if you've never used CliftonStrengths. Although the questions work in excellent alignment with the StrengthsFinder 2.0 book, they also work with no assessment at all - just conversations about what already works on the team.