Leveraging Gallup’s CliftonStrengths for Career Success

Feb 29, 2024

Career development should always be aligned with one’s potential.

Human potential is vast, but too many people unfortunately don’t know themselves well enough to tap into it. In fact, many of us navigate life without ever realizing our possibilities. To correct that, the first thing you need to do is understand your strengths.

Peter Guber, CEO of Mandalay Entertainment Group, said the success of someone’s career – regardless of profession or field – depends on their ability to lead, manage, and build good relationships with colleagues. His experience leading an entertainment industry business taught him that so much of our potential must be excavated and then honed to reach true career success.

That’s why it’s so important to know yourself well – no matter how long it takes to achieve that understanding. Once you know who you really are, you can recognize what you’re really capable of.

And then you can put it into practice and truly thrive.

How to Identify Your Potential for Career Development

It’s a fact that many students struggle with choosing a career path to pursue. And many adults already in the workplace still don’t know if they followed the right field.

That’s a shame for both the individuals involved and the companies they do or will work for. Feeling like a misfit can lead to extreme unhappiness and underperformance all around.

This is why the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is such an incredible tool. It’s designed to help you discover your personality and where that personality best fits within your chosen career field.

Less well-known but equally helpful is Gallup’s CliftonStrengths assessment. To quote their website:

“The 34 CliftonStrengths Themes Explain Your Talent DNA. When you take the CliftonStrengths Assessment, you uncover your unique combination of 34 CliftonStrengths themes.

“The themes, which sort into four domains… are a culmination of decades of research led by Don Clifton to study and categorize the talents of the world’s most successful people.

“Together, the themes explain a simple but profound element of human behavior: what’s right with people.”

Moreover, they give “you a way to describe what you naturally do best or what you might need help from others to accomplish.” And who couldn’t benefit from that?

Once completed, I’m confident this assessment can make your career journey much more informed and fruitful.

Here are just some of the themes you might identify with…

Domain: Influencing

Theme: Activator

You enjoy jumping right in and trying out different roles and jobs.
You seek leadership opportunities and positions where you’ll be rewarded for getting things moving.
You sometimes (or all the time) think about starting your own business.
You realize some people might feel threatened by your drive to make decisions and get things going.

Theme: Command

You’re willing to take on several potential roles or jobs, and you seek out chances to assume positions of leadership.
You seek out positions that offer room for advancement.
You take into consideration situations where quick decisions are required.
You seek careers in fields like law, commerce, politics, or theater, where you can use your persuasive skills.

Theme: Communication

You speak with people who could fill the roles you’re interested in, knowing their experiences will educate you.
You enjoy settings that provide you with regular social connections. Cooperative, engaging, and instructional environments are your ideal.
You prefer professions involving comedy, acting, motivational speaking, teaching, public relations, ministry, or training, where you can share your experiences.

Theme: Competition

You seek out chances to assume leadership roles.
You work on projects that will allow you to measure and compare your results.
You think about business, sales, law, politics, and sports.
You seek out positions that offer room for advancement.

Theme: Maximizer

You interview the “best of the best” to find out what they enjoy doing for a living.
You prefer settings that support “best practices” and allow you to collaborate with others to make the organization better every time.
You could consider positions that allow you to assist people in realizing their potential.

Theme: Self-Assurance

You’re skilled in many different things and like to try out potential positions or jobs. In fact, it’s crucial for you to choose what you enjoy.
You seek out settings that will challenge you while offering freedom to figure things out on your own terms.
You might want to think about pursuing a job in training, entertainment, or sales.

Theme: Significance

You want to leave a strong legacy behind.
You seek out settings where you can be acknowledged for your achievements.
Consider a profession where you can truly and enduringly improve the world.

Theme: Woo

You make sure to meet a diverse range of individuals working in various professions.
You seek out settings that appreciate your capacity to convince or sell – and where you can meet new people on a daily basis.
You could consider a job as a public relations specialist, sales representative, trainer, comedian, or lawyer.

Domain: Executing

Theme: Achiever

You have a relentless desire to achieve. You are only satisfied when you’re reaching or exceeding the goals in front of you.
You approach everyday as a new opportunity to make an impact, but you need to be cautions. Your drive can convince you to work nights, weekends, and long hours.
You have a strong work ethic, are able to lead by example when properly coached, and are a great asset to any organization seeking to achieve high performance.
You should seek careers that give you a lot of room to achieve the results you desire.

Theme: Arranger

Your default when problem solving is to seek all the pieces at the same time and arrange them into a logical sequence. You see patterns that others do not.
You desire a workplace that isn’t routine, where the daily aspects ebb and flow allowing you to use your arranging capabilities.
Seek careers where you can bring order out of chaos.
Pursue careers in employee relations, or human resources management, urban development, and leadership.

Theme: Belief

You hold deeply held ideals regarding how things should be in life, at work, and in the community.
Your ethical approach sometimes frustrate you when the world’s actions don’t align with it.
You could consider careers where your core values align with the organization in question, especially in pastoral care, certain medical fields, teaching, and counseling.

Theme: Consistency

You look for settings where rules, guidelines, policies, and procedures are well-established.
You seek out settings that are predictable and structured.
Law enforcement, human resources, risk management, safety compliance, and quality assurance positions might be right for you.

Theme: Deliberative

You research as much information as you can regarding potential roles and employment.
You prefer workplace settings where you can work alone to perform in-depth analyses, and you stay away from those that require too much socializing or human contact.
You consider jobs as judge, finance officer, or risk analyst to be ideal.

Theme: Discipline

You establish goals and outlines for your career-planning procedures.
You prefer structured settings where you can uphold order for both yourself and other people, and make use of your organizational skills.
Depending on your education, you might consider a job as an executive assistant, brain surgeon, tax specialist, or air traffic controller.

Theme: Focus

You gather as much information as you can about possible jobs or roles.
You look for environments where you can focus and concentrate without interruptions or the need to multitask.
You do best in structured environments that are predictable and detail-oriented.

Theme: Responsibility

You prefer settings where you can operate autonomously and eventually be given more authority.
You seek out locations where you can establish relationships of trust with other people.
You would likely do well in professions that place more emphasis on results than procedures, such as executive assistant, librarian, or law clerk.

Theme: Restorative

You’re intrigued by individuals known for pulling people out of difficult situations or jumping in to fix issues.
You appreciate situations where you’re required to identify issues and provide solutions.
Since you depend on your education and aptitude, you might be well-suited for careers as a TV producer, surgeon, or customer service representative.

Domain: Strategic Thinking

Theme: Analytical

You are smart, logical, thorough, good at thinking through issues, and good at handling numbers, figures, and charts.
You are objective and use data to search for trends, patterns, and interconnectedness.
Be cautious. Your greatest weaknesses can offend people since you have the propensity to be tough, never satisfied, and full of questions.
Choose a career that requires you to analyze data. Accounting, finance, marketing, and certain engineering fields should be explored.

Theme: Context

You look back at your past decisions to get an idea of what you enjoy and are highly skilled at.
You seek out settings where you can investigate the origins of things and gain a solid understanding of an organization or asset’s past.
Professions such as archaeologist, historian, curator, professor of humanities, or appraiser of antiques could easily appeal to you.

Theme: Futuristic

You desire a career path that enables you to help others glimpse the future and inspire them to bring it to pass.
You look for environments that encourage creativity and imagination.
Jobs in commercial art, architecture, design, or city planning appeal to you.

Theme: Ideation

As much as you can, you brainstorm and daydream about potential careers or professions.
You seek out settings that encourage experimentation, originality, and unconventional thinking.
You could easily consider a profession in advertising, market research, design, consulting, or strategic planning.

Theme: Input

You try to obtain as much input as you can regarding potential roles and employment.
You seek out settings where you will be exposed to large amounts of information and data.
Occupations that allow you to stay up to date with the latest developments in science and enable you to become a knowledgeable researcher and consumer are right up your alley.

Theme: Intellection

You stay abreast of change related to careers and career development.
You seek out settings where you can ponder and mull things through before acting.
You should consider a profession that provides you with intellectual challenges, where you can ask questions and exchange ideas. But stay away from groups that uphold the status quo.

Theme: Learner

You examine career inventories, read up on careers, and do further research on what you read.
You enjoy settings that promote lifelong learning and personal growth.
You are well-suited to jobs such as business trainer, instructor, or college lecturer.

Theme: Strategic

You desire employment that enables you to create innovative initiatives and methods for addressing persistent issues.
You enjoy settings that are adaptable, foster creativity, and provide you with opportunities to view things holistically.
Professions in consulting, law, or psychology could be ideal for you.

Domain: Relationship Building

Theme: Adaptability

You have the ability to remain calm during stressful and ambiguous situations.
Routine roles that force you to plan and organize don’t appeal to you; you’re too action-oriented and independent-minded.
You enjoy constantly evolving demands and challenges. You could even say you thrive in chaos.
Careers that might suit you include human resources, emergency medical management, crisis management, manufacturing, and customer service.

Theme: Connectedness

You seek out NGOs that provide aid.
You prefer settings where you can engage with people and assist them in discovering meaning and purpose.
You recognize your own values and make sure the company you work for upholds them.
You think about carrying out a career that will allow you to live out your religious convictions.

Theme: Developer

You appreciate employment opportunities where you can help people in some capacity.
You seek out settings that emphasize communication, cooperation, and teamwork.
You like the sound of careers where you can assist others in improving their abilities such as life coach, counselor, or teacher.

Theme: Empathy

You look for employment in places where feelings are respected, not suppressed.
You desire environments that are upbeat and encouraging with lots of communication and teamwork.
You can consider pursuing professions such as education, human resources, counseling, or ministry.

Theme: Harmony

You’re a mediator at heart and seek to find middle ground with practical solutions that can drive everyone into agreement.
Your willingness to hear all perspectives helps when all sides of the issues need to be considered.
Ideal careers for you include arbitrator, counselor, diplomat, and ambassador.

Theme: Includer

You consider working with groups that are often set aside by others, such as those who are intellectually or physically challenged.
You seek out settings where you can play a welcoming role.
You enjoy the idea of being something like a special education teacher, social worker, therapist, youth worker, or HR representative.

Theme: Individualization

You appreciate settings where you can coach, train, and otherwise give others feedback.
You seek professions that allow you to work one-on-one with individuals.
Jobs such as HR specialist, business trainer, life coach, teacher, or counselor suit your personality.

Theme: Positivity

You choose work you’re passionate about that supports your hopeful view of the future.
You look for environments that are fun, fast-paced, and people-oriented, and where you can use your sense of humor.
You like the idea of careers as a coach, sales rep, teacher, or manager.

Theme: Relator

You discuss your perceptions with people in your trusted social group.
You enjoy settings that promote friendships and allow you to continue expanding your knowledge about others.
You could consider the role of manager, HR director, teacher, counselor, or school administrative professional.

How Well Do You Know Yourself?

Here’s an important question after scanning the CliftonStrengths’ list of themes and what they entail…

How well do you know yourself?

Most interviewers ask this question or something like it. So it’s an important consideration if you’re thinking about a career change. It might also come up during your annual employee review.

Or maybe you wonder about it on your own without any external prompting.

Regardless, this is the most crucial question you could possibly answer. It speaks to how much you know about what you want in life. And once you know that, it becomes so much easier to set goals in your career and elsewhere.

Just like that, you’re equipped to properly choose not only a fulfilling career but a fulfilling life.

So from now on, strive to identify the potential within you based on your individual strengths. In life, there is no such thing as too late to know yourself.

Set Your Bar High. What Is the Highest Goal You Want to Achieve?

In terms of career development, you need to have top-level goals or target priorities you want to achieve every year. Consider having at least three measurable goals and no more than five. At the end of December, you can determine your achievements, starting from the smallest to the most significant.

Learn from your achievements. Revisit what worked and what didn’t, and make sure you focus on repeatable behaviors that contributed to the goals you did attain.

Your targets must, of course, be in proportion to the potential you have. The higher the level of success desired, the more potential must be explored, including intrapersonal and interpersonal skills.

They also need to be reasonable. For example, if your current position is that of a supervisor and you want to advance from there, you can target becoming a manager in two years and then set your sights on the next advancement from there. Set a deadline for yourself and decide what steps you’ll take to achieve it.

Your yearly goals don’t have to involve accomplishing every intense dream you’ve ever pictured for yourself. Sometimes it’s much more intelligent to have a five-year or 10-year plan you build up to.

Just make sure to capitalize on and exercise your strengths to get there.

Speaking of plans, you should also consider making one to determine how to achieve each goal you have, yearly or otherwise. Another important aspect is determining likely challenges and preparing solutions to work past them.

Indeed, some goals are only achievable after you’ve overcome already existent problems.

Make Sure to Accept Help Along the Way!

Human potential is always aligned with career development. But you hardly have to work alone in order to realize yours. If you’re looking for guidance, there are seminars, workshops, and webinars out there specifically designed to optimize your potential and achieve your goals.

Or if you’re looking for more personalized guidance, In HIS Name HR helps organizations and individuals build high-performance human resource programs designed to get you where you need to be.

Concerned about the HR programs at your organization? The benefits of having a trusted partner to guide you and your team to excellence are invaluable. Contact us today. You—and your employees—will be glad you did.

Rise with us by implementing our high-performance remote human-resource programs to help find great people! E-mail us here.

Mark A. Griffin is president and founder of In HIS Name HR LLC. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter

Mark A. Griffin | Blog, Christian Higher Ed HR, Human Resources, Kingdom Company Building

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