CliftonStrengths 34

I recently passed the CliftonStrengths 34 assessment, so today I will share what it is and how it can be useful for your career.

CliftonStrengths is a framework that identifies your natural talents that help create value at work.
It was launched by Gallup in 2001, and since then more than 26 million people have taken it.
So it's based on real data and many years of consulting experience.

The main idea is that we should focus on our strengths to achieve results and not try to improve our weaknesses.

How it works:
- 200 questions
- 4 strength domains: executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking.
- 34 strength areas within those domains.
- All 34 themes are ranked in a personal order from the strongest to the weakest.
- Top-10 are our main talents to focus on.

The interesting part is that every strength has both a positive and a negative side. It can help you succeed or hold you back.
For example: Learner. The person with this strength quickly picks up new topics, constantly extend their knowledge. But it's easy to get stuck in a “forever student” mode.

The test is really helpful from self-reflection perspective:
🔸 Once you know your strengths, you can rely on good parts and mitigate the downsides.
🔸 The less you do the work that isn’t natural to you, the more productive and energized you are.
🔸 We assume others think and work like we do. But they don't. And this is our advantage to use.

What it gave to me? First of all, I realized that I really do the work I'm naturally good at (hello, imposter syndrome). Second, I started noticing my strengths in real situations and using them more consciously.

So the assessment is a helpful tool to understand what to focus on to achieve better results. And it’s a good starting point to rethink your day-to-day activities and align it more with what you enjoy.

#softskills #leadership #productivity