Hey Superhero, What’s Your Strength?

In almost every job interview, a candidate is asked to share their strengths and weaknesses. Though most people will answer generally, most will answer the question with regard to the position being sought. In other words, they refer to their strengths and weaknesses in a work environment. But why is it so important for employers to know what your strengths are?

Knowing our strengths helps us achieve maximum efficiency in our lives, and for the purpose of this post, our workplace. We constantly hear about how important diversity in the workplace and much of that focuses on the more popular issues such as race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and the list goes on. However, there is much to attribute to diversity in strengths, because in all honesty no two people approach their work in the exact same way.

My team recently completed the CliftonStrengths assessment, where we later met with a consultant to go over our results in detail. After completing the assessment, you receive your Top 5 strengths from the list of what Clifton refers to as the 34 Themes. These themes are then grouped into four domains which include strategic thinking, executing, influencing and relationship building. Recognizing each other’s strengths, and discovering which of us had the strongest traits in each domain really helped us see just how we can work together more efficiently. By focusing on our strengths, we are able to fill in the spaces that may not be strong area for others. Instead of focusing on what we can’t do, or our weaknesses, we get to exercise our strengths to specialize the best way to complete our work as well as how we work with our teams.

For information on CliftonStrengths for you or your team, please contact Talent Management at ude.agu@tnelatrad.