The Friday Thing #790

The Friday Thing #790

Steve Clayton Steve Clayton

Steve Clayton

Vice President, Microsoft Communications Strategy

发布日期: 2023年3月11日
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Err, Friday…..I think? Or Wednesday, Or Tuesday? Who is counting?


The Friday Thing #790 came very close to being a pithy, fun, thing I saw on social media this week – because I’ve barely had a moment to stop and think about posting something more meaningful. But, a session with my team this week was so meaningful and the highlight of my week, that I cannot miss the opportunity to post about it. We spent 2.5 hours talking about our personal and collective strengths with the magic of Clifton Strengths Finder. I am shameless fan of this assessment approach that I have used personally, and with teams I have led, for over 15 years at this point. What is Clifton Strengths Finder you ask? Here is the Bing answer:


Bing's answer to the question what is Clifton Strengths Finder? The Clifton StrengthsFinder is an online assessment that helps you discover your natural talents and how to use them to achieve your goals. It was created by Gallup, a research organization, based on the work of psychologist Donald Clifton12. The assessment measures your preferences for 34 themes that describe different ways of thinking, feeling and behaving345. Some examples of these themes are Achiever, Learner, Communication, Empathy and Strategic. By knowing your top themes, you can focus on developing your strengths rather than fixing your weaknesses. Are you interested in taking the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment?

In short, it’s an online tool where you answer 177 questions. You have to choose which one of two statements best describes you for each question and have up to 20 seconds to answer each question. The whole assessment takes about 30 minutes to complete. Upon completion you receive your Top 5 strengths from a list of 34. While you can get the list of your full 34 strengths in order, that somewhat misses the point as this is all about building on your strengths, vs. looking at number 34 on your list and thinking that it’s a ‘weakness’ you need to work on. When I entered the workforce, that “work on your weaknesses” thing was the prevailing wisdom of career development and so when I came across Strengths Finder it was like finding the ark of the covenant for me. Here was a manual that could not only help understand my strengths, but how to put them to work, how to share them with others – and crucially, as I became a leader – realize the benefits of having a group of people with a wide diversity of talent. As I re-read the explanation of my own top 5 strength this week, I found myself nodding and frankly marvelling at times at just how accurate the description was because not only do you receive a list of your strengths, you receive an in depth description of why these are your strengths. Each description is as unique as you are. I also learned that the likelihood of having the same 5 strengths as someone else is 1:275,000. The likelihood of having the same 5 in the same order is 1:33,000,000,000. That’s right….you’re pretty unique.


My 5 strengths are Ideation, Maximizer, Futuristic, Strategic and Competition. Explained a bit more below.?

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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. Maximizer Excellence, not average, is your measure. Taking something from below average to slightly above average takes a great deal of effort and in your opinion is not very rewarding. Transforming something strong into something superb takes just as much effort but is much more thrilling. Strengths, whether yours or someone else’s, fascinate you. Like a diver after pearls, you search them out, watching for the telltale signs of a strength. A glimpse of untutored excellence, rapid learning, a skill mastered without recourse to steps—all these are clues that a strength may be in play. And having found a strength, you feel compelled to nurture it, refine it, and stretch it toward excellence. You polish the pearl until it shines. This natural sorting of strengths means that others see you as discriminating. You choose to spend time with people who appreciate your particular strengths. Likewise, you are attracted to others who seem to have found and cultivated their own strengths. You tend to avoid those who want to fix you and make you well rounded. You don’t want to spend your life bemoaning what you lack. Rather, you want to capitalize on the gifts with which you are blessed. It’s more fun. It’s more productive. And, counterintuitively, it is more demanding. Futuristic “Wouldn’t it be great if . . .” You are the kind of person who loves to peer over the horizon. The future fascinates you. As if it were projected on the wall, you see in detail what the future might hold, and this detailed picture keeps pulling you forward, into tomorrow. While the exact content of the picture will depend on your other strengths and interests—a better product, a better team, a better life, or a better world—it will always be inspirational to you. You are a dreamer who sees visions of what could be and who cherishes those visions. When the present proves too frustrating and the people around you too pragmatic, you conjure up your visions of the future and they energize you. They can energize others, too. In fact, very often people look to you to describe your visions of the future. They want a picture that can raise their sights and thereby their spirits. You can paint it for them. Practice. Choose your words carefully. Make the picture as vivid as possible. People will want to latch on to the hope you bring. 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. Competition Competition is rooted in comparison. When you look at the world, you are instinctively aware of other people’s performance. Their performance is the ultimate yardstick. No matter how hard you tried, no matter how worthy your intentions, if you reached your goal but did not outperform your peers, the achievement feels hollow. Like all competitors, you need other people. You need to compare. If you can compare, you can compete, and if you can compete, you can win. And when you win, there is no feeling quite like it. You like measurement because it facilitates comparisons. You like other competitors because they invigorate you. You like contests because they must produce a winner. You particularly like contests where you know you have the inside track to be the winner. Although you are gracious to your fellow competitors and even stoic in defeat, you don’t compete for the fun of competing. You compete to win. Over time you will come to avoid contests where winning seems unlikely.

What do you think? Is this me? Do you know yours? If you do, post 'em below. If not, are you intrigued enough to take the assessment?

OK….that’s all for this week. Hopefully better than a pithy social thingamajig.

Cheers and happy Friday.


-Steve?

Anton CARNIAUX

Excom member, General Manager, Associate General Counsel, Head of Corporate, External & Legal Affairs

1 å¹´

Love this tool too!

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Kate Krukiel

1 å¹´

Great post! My 5: Arranger, Activator, Futuristic, Relator, Individualization

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Jeanette Kehoe-Perkinson ‘JKP’

Chief People Officer § CHRO I Fractional Executive I ‘Globalizer’ I Director I Board Advisor I Leadership Coach

2 å¹´

?? agree with you, Steve. We’ve started using CSF in Ph.Creative and we’re about to roll it out throughout the global team.

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Matt Lockmon

Director, Customer Evidence Experience

2 å¹´

Missed the friday thing last week Steve but i'm with you on the shameless love for Strengths Finder. From what I know, your strengths sound spot on. I've taken it twice and here are mine. Communication Positivity WOO Harmony Developer

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Emily Gaudy

Recruiter at Microsoft

2 å¹´

I've got one in every bucket :) 1. Activator 2. Strategic 3. Belief 4. Restorative 5. Relator

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