1. WELCOME Integrating and Celebrating Strengths
(THIS IS PAGE #1)
What is a strength? What would it look like if you succeeded in building your life around your strengths? Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day? What does a strong life look like? In 1992, Donald Clifton published the book Soar With Your Strengths, which revealed his long-standing interest in helping people identify and utilize “their best”. His book laid the foundation for Strengths, and The Gallup Organization followed with the development of the Clifton StrengthsFinder™ Assessment, a survey that helps people name and claim their top five themes of talent.
You are at your best when you are able to use your talents and abilities, the traits and behaviors at which you naturally excel. Discovering and developing your strengths will empower you to do what you do best every day. Leading with your strengths increases workplace engagement, helping your team and organization to grow.
This seminar will facilitate your understanding of your talents and strengths. We will start with a focus on you and your unique themes, talents, and strengths through an analysis and discussion of the Clifton StrengthsFinder™ Assessment. We will engage in activities, dialogue, and discussions to enhance your understanding of strengths concepts from your Top Five Report. Through a process of discovery you will come to articulate your themes, talents, and strengths……and the themes, talents, and strengths of others.
Integrating and Celebrating Strengths is the foundation for your Week 1 training and development. Concepts, knowledge, and skills related to strengths are integrated throughout this first week of residential seminars. With each seminar, we will continue to layer your learning and deepen your understanding, knowledge, skill, and applications of talents and strengths.
In the end, this seminar will lead us to celebrating the unique and powerful contribution the strengths movement can make to our leadership in post-secondary organizations.
Our specific objectives are as follows:
Gain an understanding of signature themes, talents, and strengths
Understand strengths concepts for the purpose of personal insight and growth
Identify knowledge and skills beneficial to transforming talents into strengths
Learn how to recognize strengths in others
Discover strategies for leveraging strengths for performance excellence
Focus on strength-based leadership for increasing employee engagement
Develop a talent commitment plan
Celebrate strengths

2. OVERVIEW: STRENGTHS What are Strengths? Talents Skill and Knowledge
History of Strengths
Five Clues of Talent
The Truth About You
SIGNS of Strength
Building Strengths
Signature Themes
Theme Dynamics
Balconies/Basements
Engagement: Why Strengths?
Sharing and Reflection

3. DO YOU PUT YOUR STRENGTHS TO WORK?
Have you identified your strengths?
Could you list one or two strengths, if asked?
Can you call upon them at a moment’s notice, if required?
Do those around you recognize your strengths?
Are your strengths valued at home and work?
Group Discussion: Share a story when you were at your best.

4. GET SET!
“People Sort” Activity
Think about the following questions. As you reflect on what gives you energy, sort yourself in a continuing line across the room based on your preferences.
Enjoy the Discoveries
Have Fun!

5. WHAT GIVES YOU ENERGY?
You are expected to attend a gathering. There will be 50 people there, and you won’t know anyone.

6. WHAT GIVES YOU ENERGY?
Your closet:

7. WHAT GIVES YOU ENERGY?
What energizes you most when serving on a team, planning a college-wide event?
Can we get together
Let me get it done
I have an idea!
I will spread the word.

8. WHAT GIVES YOU ENERGY?
What role energizes you most when attending a strategic planning meeting?

9. WRITING CHALLENGE Your Signature
Write your full name on lines 1-5 with your non-dominant hand
Write your full name on lines 6-10 with your dominant hand   
6._________________________________ ________________________________
7._________________________________ ________________________________
8._________________________________ ________________________________
9._________________________________ ________________________________
10._______________________________ ________________________________

10. ⁺ STRENGTH = TALENT + SKILL + KNOWLEDGE WHAT ARE STRENGTHS Strength
Talent natural recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied
Skill & Knowledge
time spent practicing, developing your
skills, and building your knowledge base ⁺
Strength
refining our dominated talent with skill and knowledge – the ability to provide consistent, near-perfect performance
TALENTS
Behavior patterns that make you effective
Thought patterns that make you efficient
Beliefs that empower you to succeed
Attitudes that sustain your efforts toward achievement and excellence
Motivations that propel you to take action and maintain the energy needed to achieve
You can not not do it
Talents are potential strengths
SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE
Learned, not innate
STRENGTHS
Talents used productively
Talents refined with knowledge and skill
a diamond in the rough
requires purposeful effort
STRENGTH = TALENT + SKILL + KNOWLEDGE
Strengths are talents used productively
Copyright © 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.

11. POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY: THE ROOT OF STRENGTHS
Donald Clifton is known as the “Father of the Strengths-Based Psychology.” In 1969, he founded Selection Research, Inc., which began as a small business and grew into a large human resources consulting company that, in 1988, acquired The Gallup Organization. According to Clifton, “Identifying what is right with people can help them create the circumstances they want for themselves at home, at school, at work, and in life.”
Before the turn of the millennia, most people did not know what their strengths were. When asked about them, many would look with a blank stare, or respond in terms of subject knowledge. So what is the root of strengths, and why, today, do so many people from so many different worlds see such power in the strengths-based perspective?
THE STRENGTHS MOVEMENT: TRACING THE SOURCE
Peter Drucker, The Effective Executive, (1966)
“The effective executive builds on strengths – their own strengths, the strengths of superiors, colleagues, subordinates; and on the strengths of the situation.”
David Cooperrider, “Appreciative Inquiry” article, (1987)
“…to build organizations around what works rather than fix what doesn’t.”
Martin Seligman, American Psychological Association speech, (1999)
“The most important thing we learned was that psychology was half-baked, literally half-baked. We’ve baked the part about mental illness, about repair and damage. The other side’s unbaked, the side of strength, the side of what we’re good at.”
Donald Clifton and Marcus Buckingham, Now, Discover Your Strengths, (2001)
“We began this book to start a revolution, the strengths revolution.”
Parallel to these developments, groups of young psychologists, including Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, mapped out a new approach to their discipline, Positive Psychology. Positive psychologists understood their link to strengths, reflecting on the work of: Ed Diener, personal and social well-being; Barbara Frederickson, positive emotion; and Charles R. Snyder, hope.
Fueled with the idea that all we learn about our mistakes are the characteristics of the mistakes, the strengths movement says, “if we want to learn about our successes, we must study successes and label what is right with things.” In the field of psychology, descriptors have redressed in order to balance heavily-skewed negatives with the equally detailed positives. Similarly, the Clifton StrengthsFinder™ Assessment measures you on 34 Themes of talent, enabling you to take action and put your strengths to work.
In the realm of higher education, Donald Clifton and his colleague, Edward “Chip” Anderson, wanted more than to merely see students pass; they longed to see them thrive. Collaboratively, they made a concerted effort to bring strengths to college campuses. Princeton has set up their own Center for Health and Well-Being; Harvard’s most popular elective class in the entire curriculum is “An Introduction to Positive Psychology”; and, Azusa Pacific University now has a Center for Strengths-Based Education.
Many of the world’s most successful organizations, Wells Fargo, Intel, Best Buy, and Toyota, have committed explicitly to becoming strengths-based organizations. Non-profit organizations, such as the U.S. Coast Guard, the American Society of Aging, and the New Zealand Ministry of Youth Development, have installed strengths-based programs and initiatives.
The strengths movement is in full bloom and found everywhere - in the worlds of education, business, government, health care, faith, and charity. In the words of Marcus Buckingham, “It has forever changed the way we perceive ourselves, our employees, our students, and our children.” And with continued research, it is deepening our knowledge of strengths in the context of higher education pedagogy, leadership, student development, and workplace engagement. Thriving individuals and communities have emerged with a meaningful connection and competent mindset toward a stronger, more authentic set of ideas and practices.
Just before Clifton’s death in 2003, he was asked what his greatest discovery was from three decades of leadership research. His response:
“A leader needs to know his strengths, as a carpenter knows his tools, or as a physician knows the instruments at her disposal. What great leaders have in common is that each truly knows his or her strengths – and can call on the right strength at the right time. This explains why there is no definitive list of characteristics that describes all leaders.”

12. CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER™
MEASURING STRENGTHS
Web-based assessment, perspective of Positive Psychology
Presents 177 Items
Participants choose between the pair of statements
20 second intervals
Identifies “top five” signature themes
Measures the presence of talent in 34 themes
RELIABILITY/ VALIDITY
Over 9 million surveyed globally, 34 languages
Four decades of studying talent and success
Criterion-related, predictive validity study
93.45% predictions confirmed
70% accurate
Factor and reliability analysis
Score differences average under .04
Test-retest over a six month interval - .75

13. Yearning Rapid Learning Flow Glimpses of Excellence Satisfaction
FIVE CLUES TO TALENT
Yearning
Rapid Learning
Flow
Glimpses of Excellence
Satisfaction
Five Clues to Talent
Yearning: To what kinds of activities are you naturally drawn?
Rapid Learning: What kinds of activities do you seem to pick up quickly?
Flow: In what activities did the “steps” just come to you naturally?
Glimpses of Excellence: During what activities have you had moments of subconscious excellence, when you thought, “How did I do that?”
Satisfaction: What activities give you a kick, either while doing them or immediately after finishing them, and you think, “When can I do that again?”

14. BUILDING STRENGTHS
Put the blank chart “Building Strengths” here – Week 2, page 2-5
Do not include the questions. For Facilitator only

15. THE TRUTH ABOUT YOU
The TRUTHS that allow you to play to your strengths most of the time:
As you grow, you become more of who you already are.
You are going to grow and develop the most in your area of strength.
A good team member deliberately volunteers his/her strengths to the team most of the time.
In a recent survey, people from all over the world were asked, “Which would help you be more successful...building on your strengths or fixing your weaknesses?
41% said “building strengths”
59% said “fixing weaknesses”
Why do you think this is? Why are so many of us focused on learning those things we lack?
Marcus Buckingham’s work in The Truth About You and Go Put Your Strengths to Work, reveals three myths that the majority of us have had ingrained, reinforced, and now believe to be true. Moreover, these core assumptions are now being passed to our children, students, and employees.
MYTH: As you grow, your personality changes.
Sixty-six percent of us believe this to be true. You may think...of course I changed as I grew up. I learned new skills, learned from my experiences, acquired a broader perspective, became more self-aware, self-assured, wiser, and mature. Maybe if I buckled down, really worked at it, I could transform myself and become the person I always wanted to be.
TRUTH: As you grow, you become more of who you already are.
The truth is that as you grow, you don’t change into someone else. You don’t change your personality. The core of who you are, the most dominant aspects of your personality, will remain the same. Your goal should not be to transform yourself; instead, it should be to free up and focus the forces already there.
How would it benefit you to believe that as you grow, you become more of who you already are?
MYTH: You will grow the most in your areas of greatest weakness.
Sixty- one percent of people believe this to be true. Indoctrination probably began very early...in grade school. If you were proficient in English, but struggled in math, you didn’t get more English class…you got remedial math. All of the effort might be well meaning. You might think...if I work at it, I will get better in my area of weakness.
TRUTH: You will grow and develop the most in your area of strength.
The truth is you will be at the peak of your creative powers in your areas of strength. You will be most inquisitive, optimistic, courageous, and ambitious when playing to an area of strength. You do have development needs – areas where you need to grow and develop – but you will learn, grow, and develop the most in your areas of greatest strength. You grow the most where you are already strong. Your biological design wants you to seek out your strengths and then strengthen those strengths.
How would it benefit you to believe that you will grow the most in your areas of greatest strength?
MYTH: A good team member does whatever it takes to help the team.
Ninety-one percent of people believe this to be true. Again, indoctrination begins very early with the message, “This isn’t about you, it’s about the team.” You might think…I can’t win by myself; I need to be unselfish; and “there is no I in team.” In business, you are told to be flexible, adaptable, well rounded, ready, and willing to step in and play whatever role the team needs you to play.
TRUTH: A good team member deliberately volunteers his/her strengths to the team most of the time.
The truth is that while you will accomplish more if you collaborate with your teammates, you might discover that players on these teams are not well rounded. The most responsible thing to do is to identify where your teammates’ strengths lie, and then figure out how to arrange their time and their role so that they play to these strengths most of the time. True teamwork occurs only when a complementary set of strengths comes together in a coordinated whole. It needs you to understand your strengths and weaknesses, and how to navigate yourself toward strengths and away from the weaknesses.
How would it benefit you to believe that a good team member volunteers his/her strengths to the team most of the time?
(Buckingham, 2007; 2008)

16. THE FOUR SIGNS OF A STRENGTH
What does one of your strengths feel like to you?
S = SUCCEED
When you do it, you feel effective
I = INSTINCT
Before you do it, you actively look forward to it
G = GROWTH
While you are doing it, you feel inquisitive and focused
N = NEEDS
After you have done it, you feel fulfilled and authentic
(Buckingham, 2008)
Your strengths are specific activities that make you feel strong. There are four telltale signs of a strength. The acronym SIGN is a good way to organize and remember them.
S = SUCCESS
If you have some success at the activity, it might be a strength.
Where will you improve the most if you train and practice?
Where will you be at your most creative and generate the best new ideas?
Which activities will fulfill and sustain you as continue through life?
You do it, you do it well, and because you do it well, people keep asking you to do it; in fact, they rely on you to do it.
I = INSTINCT
If, before you do it, you find yourself instinctively looking forward to doing it, it may be a strength.
What activities do you find yourself instinctively looking forward to doing?
What situations do you put yourself in where you know you will have to perform?
You can’t quite articulate why, but you find yourself repeatedly drawn to certain activities; they have an I-can’t-help-but quality to them.
G = GROWTH
If, while you are doing it, you find yourself easily able to concentrate – your brain literally growing – it might be a strength.
Does the activity feel easy, like you aren’t trying very hard?
Do you naturally stay focused and time speeds up?
When you look at the clock, have hours flown by?
Do you want to practice this activity, read up on it, and refine it with new techniques?
Do you find yourself challenged and immersed in this activity?
You are lost in the activity for a long moment; there is certainly effort, but it is, seemingly, effortless.
N = NEEDS
If, after you have done it, it feels like a need of yours; it may be a strength.
How do you feel right after you have done an activity?
Do you feel fulfilled, powerful, restored, and authentic?
What creates in you the instinct to look forward to the activity, to volunteer for the activity, and seek out situations where you can do it?
Do you want this feeling again and again?
Do you feel most like you when you are done?
All you know is that you hear a voice calling you toward something quite specific; it just feels right.
Identify your own strengths. Pay close attention to how specific activities make you feel. Your feelings reveal your strengths.
(Buckingham, 2007)

17. SIGNATURE THEMES Take out your Clifton StrengthsFinder™ Assessment
Identify your “Signature Themes” – Your Top Five
Read the brief discussion of your Top Five Signature Themes
CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER™ REFLECTION
What was your first reaction to the signature themes on your Clifton StrengthsFinder™ report?
What new discovery have you made about yourself?
What signature theme do you feel fits you best? Why?
Which of your signature themes hold the talents you use most frequently? Where do you use them?
What surprised you?

18. TREASURE HUNT
Find 10 people whose Signature Themes are NOT in your top five
Record
Person’s name
Theme name
One benefit from this theme
Find 10 people who have Signature Themes that are NOT among your Signature Themes. Record each person’s name, theme name, and one benefit of the talents from that theme.
(Put chart from Week 2, 2-19, here)

19. TREASURE HUNT QUESTIONS
SIGNATURE THEMES TREASURE HUNT QUESTIONS
What one discovery did you make while doing this exercise?
What did you learn about yourself?
Were there some participants who had themes that you know you could benefit from if you partnered with them?
Think about one of the themes that seems the least like you. Were you surprised by its benefit?
As you work with or develop deeper relationships with colleagues and employees, how can you continue to build a better understanding of unique talents?

20. EXPLORING MY SIGNATURE THEMES
TALENT PHRASES/DEFINITION OF THEME IN YOUR OWN WORDS
Competition
I like to engage in activities.
I am good at……I can win at……… 2 3 4 5
Take your Clifton StrengthsFinder™ Top Five Report and highlight the words, phrases, or sentences that really fit you. Now, complete the matrix below by writing each of your five Signature Themes in your own words.
(put full page chart in here)
DISCUSSION: What did you learn about people in general, about strengths, and about this discovery process?
DISCUSSION: What did you learn about people in general, about strengths, and about this discovery process?

21. MY SIGNATURE THEMES AND HOW I USE THE TALENTS IN THEM
TALENT PHRASES/ DESCRIPTION OF THEME
WHY THIS THEME IS BENEFICIAL (What it enables me to do)
WHEN/WHERE I RECENTLY USED TALENTS IN THS THEME
Arranger
Good at organizing things, events, family activities
Helps me maintain my sanity at work and help develop strategies for getting things done
Organized a Job Expo with a small group of PT staff and volunteers 2. 3. 4. 5.
Understanding your signature themes and the talents with them is central to appreciating and articulating who we are, while providing insight and clarity to how we use our strengths. The way we live our signature themes and talents helps us leverage those themes and talents toward our performance as leaders.
(chart here)

22. How will these themes affect your relationships with others?
THEME DYNAMICS
Two Themes
How might you, with dominant talent in these themes, approach your role as a leader?
How will these themes affect your relationships with others? 1. 2.
It is important to think about the dynamics of themes, the interaction of talents from one theme with those from another, and the effect on roles and relationships. In small groups, take turns sharing two of your Signature Themes and answer the questions. Make sure all members of the group have a chance to share.
(Chart from page 2-27)
Themes do not work in isolation. Leaders need to understand that their themes, and the themes of those with whom they work, interact, creating unique individual strengths.

23. YOUR ROLE AND YOUR SIGNATURE THEMES
What is your role?
Signature Theme Critical Activities
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
2. _____________________________________________________________________________________________
3. _____________________________________________________________________________________________
4. _____________________________________________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________________________________________
We are most successful when we keep our Signature Themes and talents in mind. We are most engaged when we use who we naturally are to fulfill the requirements of our role.
Reflection:
What is your role?
What are the critical activities at work?
YOUR ROLE AND YOUR SIGNATURE THEMES
Describe your role.
List your signature themes and five critical activities you need to perform.
Identify the theme or themes that will help you meet your critical activities.
Answer the discover questions on the following page.
(Insert chart above)
(New page – SEE 2-15)
YOUR ROLE AND SIGNATURE THEMES – DISCOVERIES
1. Which of your signature themes seem to have the strongest connection to your critical activities?
2. Could you begin to use talents from one or more of your signature themes more consciously in your role? Which ones and how?
3. Do some of your required critical activities seem unconnected to your signature themes?
4. What overall strategies could you put in place to further capitalize on your signature themes in relation to your role?

24. BALCONIES AND BASEMENTS
In the most successful relationships, the ratio of positive to negative statements is 5:1.
~John Gottman, Gottman Institute
BALCONIES AND BASEMENTS
Choose one of you Signature Themes, and fill in the words you have heard used to describe that theme.
The Balcony descriptors are the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that sound like compliments.
The Basement descriptors are the barrier labels – terms used when a talent is mistakenly devalued and dismissed or understood as a weakness.
(PUT CHART HERE)
After a brief discussion with a colleague about your signature themes, balconies, and basements, take a few moments to consider:
1. What could you do to ensure that others know the balcony impact of your talents versus the basement moments?
2. Are there moments where the basement descriptions are accurate? If so, how could you manage that talent differently so that it is not viewed as a weakness?
3. As a leader, have you ever found yourself in the basement thinking about the talent themes of a direct report, co-worker, or colleague?
4. What could you do to be mindful and use balcony language?

25. BALCONIES AND BASEMENTS
THEME
BASEMENT LABEL
BALCONY LABEL
Command
Bossy
Confident and powerful advocate for others
Positivity
Unrealistic
Optimistic, uplifting
Achiever
Workaholic
Productive, an internal motivation, determination
Futuristic
Dreamer
The vision of what could be, possibilities
Self-Assurance
Arrogance
Trust your own instincts, confident
Pick five themes not listed above. Identify balcony and basement language.
Use Chart Above. No Content (Facilitator only)

26. WAIT! WHAT ABOUT MY WEAKNESSES?
A weakness is anything that gets
in the way of excellent performance
I can’t ignore my weaknesses, so what do I do?
Use your strengths to overcome a weakness
Design a support system
Form complementary partnerships
Adjust/Get better
Open communication/Transparency
Strategies for Managing a Talent Weakness
Use your strengths to overcome a weakness
The power of your combined strengths can overcome any weakness. Recognize that talents used productively can propel you to take the action needed to achieve. Manage your weaknesses by keeping your mind open for any talents.
Design a support system
You probably already have your own system that serves as a crutch for one of your persistent talent weaknesses. It might be as straightforward as a calendar to keep track of your life, or as peculiar as writing “What if?” questions around your office, reminding you to anticipate obstacles. A system that stops your worrying about a weakness frees up time that can be better spent figuring out how to refine a strength. Many times you won’t have to look far to find the right support system; it is usually provided by one of your top signature themes.
Find a partner
A perfect, well-rounded employee is a figment of someone’s imagination. Excellent performers become experts in the art of complementary partnering. They can describe their strengths and weaknesses in vivid detail but are able to identify someone whose strengths matched their weaknesses. You must be willing to admit your imperfections. It takes a strong person to ask for help.
Get better at it
This may not be very creative, but in specific instances, it may be the only workable strategy. Some activities are baseline requirements for other roles: communicating your ideas; listening to others; organizing your life; taking responsibility for your performance. If you do not posses a dominant theme in the area required for your role, you may have to “hunker down” and work to get a little better. You may not enjoy this “hunkering” – and you will NOT reach excellence if this is all you do - but you may need to do it.
Just stop doing it
This may be a last resort, but for one reason or another, you may be forced to try it. You might be surprised by how empowering it can be. It takes courage, but confessing one of your weaknesses and announcing your intention to give up on it may move you significantly forward. Confess that you have lost the battle with your unfixable weakness, and you may well win the trust and respect of those around you.
Each of these strategies can help you as you strive to build your life around strengths. Whichever strategy you choose, NEVER LOSE YOUR PERSPECTIVE. These strategies DO NOT transform your weaknesses into strengths. They are designed to help you manage around a weakness so it doesn’t get in the way of your strengths.
Some people wonder… “Can a strong theme become so dominating that it gets in the way of excellent performance and, is thus, a weakness?” A person can NEVER have too much of a particular theme. You can only have not enough of another one.
(Buckingham & Clifton, 2001)

27. DRIVING ENGAGEMENT: FOCUSING ON STRENGTHS
Driving Engagement by Focusing on Strengths
Engaged Employees
Work with passion
Feel profound connection to the institution
Drive innovation
Move the organization forward
Not Engaged Employees
Have checked out
Sleepwalk through work
Put in time
Don’t have the energy to make a difference
Actively Disengaged Employees
More than just unhappy
Act out their unhappiness at work
Seek to undermine engaged workers
How do specific manager styles impact employee engagement?
Gallup’s research has proven that the more engaged employees are, the better the results of an organization. The same research has shown that managers play an essential role in driving engagement.
A random sample of 1,003 employees were asked how much they agreed with two statements:
My supervisor focuses on my strengths or positive characteristics
My supervisor focuses on my weaknesses or negative characteristics
Employees who did not agree with either statement were put into an “ignored” category.
Looking at the chart above, the first column represents all participating respondents; the three columns are related to the specific feedback. As you can see, many managers ignore their employees, or so is the employee perception. Even more importantly, if your manager focuses on your strengths, your chances of being disengaged at work are significantly less. If your manager ignores you, however, you are twice as likely to be disengaged at work than if your manager focuses on your weaknesses. WHY? Being overlooked – being ignored – makes employees feel like they don’t matter. People do not want to be coddled – they want to matter. They want to know that they contribute to something. Employees want to be heard; they do not want to be ignored.
What happens to employees and workgroups when organizations focus on a “weakness-fixing” approach to employee development?
During the Industrial Age, eliminating errors in manufacturing processes were very successful in achieving production efficiencies. Many organizations tried to create similar processes for “fixing” employees. The ultimate goal was to remove employee weaknesses, BUT PEOPLE AREN’T MACHINES. Many organizations, however, persist in approaching employee development with the idea that fixing weaknesses creates the greatest gain. According to Gallup’s research, “weakness-based approach results in a 2:1 ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees. Focusing on weaknesses leaves 22% of employees actively disengaged.” That many negative, hostile, or miserable employees severely restrict what an organization can accomplish. Focusing on strengths creates the strongest levels of engagement, a 60:1 ratio of engaged to actively disengaged. People feel like they matter. Employees understand that they are unique and can contribute based on the talents that make them unique. They are an important part of something greater than themselves. An engaged feeling generates superior performance. Teams with higher engagement levels have significantly higher productivity and profitability than workgroups with lower engagement levels.
Ask yourself, “Which manager do you want to work for...one who focuses on your strengths or one who focuses on your weaknesses?” More importantly, what kind of leader do you want to be?
(Brim and Asplund, 2009; Gallup, Inc., 2009)
2009, 2013 Gallup, Inc. All Rights Reserved)

28. EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT – WHAT WE WANT
Accountability
Alignment
Approachability
Attitude
Candor
Connection
Meritocracy
Purpose
“This is about how we create the conditions in which employees offer more of their capability and potential.”
– David MacLeod
If the focus is on people’s weaknesses, then they will lose confidence. To build self-confidence and boost an organization’s overall engagement and productivity, it is essential we emphasize and concentrate on our strengths.
To be effective leaders, we must posses high levels of self-awareness; but what, in general, do we want when we come to work? What does the average employee need to feel engaged in their work environment?
Engaged employees are committed to the organization’s goals and values, motivated to contribute to success, and able to enhance their own sense of well-being. A variety of surveys linked to engagement were reviewed to provide outcomes, attributes, and antecedents that employees say they want in their workplace.
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT – WHAT WE WANT
Accountability
Alignment
Approachability
Attitude
Candor
Connection
Meritocracy
Purpose
This is about how we create the conditions in which employees offer more of their capability and potential.”
~David MacLeod

29. TALENT COMMITMENT PLAN
As we summarize this seminar on Integrating and Celebrating Strengths, we encourage you to make a Talent Commitment Plan to carry the knowledge and skills from this seminar forward as you continue to develop and grow as a leader. Take a few minutes to complete the following plan. Share your plan with a colleague.
The talent or signature theme I relate to most from my Clifton StrengthsFinder™:
One word or phrase from the theme description that describes me best:
Three ways I can best apply my talents in this theme to my role as an organizational leader:
I will apply my talents in this theme to meet critical activities and expand my relationships with those whom I serve and work by:
I will look for support in achieving this plan by:
I will know I have been successful with my plan when I achieve the following outcome:

30. SHARING YOUR STRENGTHS
WHAT DO YOU DO? The next time you are asked, “WHAT DO YOU DO?” rather than simply sharing your title, try and integrate some of your signature themes into your answer.
The following suggestions for sharing your Clifton StrengthsFinder™ report with others come from the Gallup Organization. Find ways to share your strengths with these and other strengths-based conversations and activities.
Share your Signature Theme report with two or three people with whom you work closely. Ask those people to give you an example of a time when they observed one of those themes in you.
Ask a colleague or two to bring it to your attention if they observe you using one of your Signature Themes.
If you and your colleagues, team, direct reports have taken the Clifton StrengthsFinder™ Survey, share your reports with one another. Talk about how each of you uses your themes in accomplishing the critical activities of your roles each day. Also think about how you could use your themes more often.
Post your Signature Themes in your office. Print your Top Five Certificate and post it where others can see it.
Add your Signature Themes to your “signature,” after your name.
Read your Clifton StrengthsFinder™ report as you prepare for a meeting about your job or career. Think about what your themes tell you in terms of an ideal work environment, motivators, workload, interactions with people, relationship building, etc.
The next time you are asked, “What do you do?” rather than simply sharing your title, try and integrate some of your Signature Themes into your answer.
Ask your colleagues if they will share their top five themes with you. Then, ask each other to respond to the following questions:
• How do you use your strengths?
• How do they help you do your job?
• Which of your strengths have the most impact on our team?
• How do you see our strengths working together? How are we alike? How are we different?

31. BUILD A PERSONAL ALIGNMENT PLAN (PAP)
Responses
Core Purpose/Mission
Learning Style
Values/Beliefs
Capabilities/Strengths
Again consider your Personal Alignment Plan. Is there anything from this discussion that might modify or be added to your Plan? Is so amend as appropriate.

32. WRITING AND REFLECTION
Reflect on your Clifton StrengthsFinder™ report and the discussion we had in this seminar.
What is one signature theme you want to learn more about and consciously apply more often?
What is one thing you will do differently tomorrow?
Record two to three ideas or issues that came out of the discussion that were most meaningful to you.