By Rev. Dr. Travis Guse, PCC
Recently I’ve been doing a great amount of thinking about how CliftonStrengths and Emotional Intelligence (EI) work together. EI is a great leadership framework to introduce the idea of the power of Strengths. Emotional Intelligence, developed by Daniel Goleman, is focused on developing the “soft skills” that make for successful leaders. Becoming a successful leader is less about what you know (IQ) and more about your Emotional Quotient (EQ). Daniel Goleman’s EI model is about 1) Self-Awareness, 2) Self-Management, 3) Social Awareness, and 4) Relationship Management. Or in other words, it is about knowing self and managing self as well as knowing others and then managing those relationships. The greater you can master and balance these four key aspects of EI, the more effective your leadership will become.
CliftonStrengths work well within this Emotional Intelligence model. It begins by knowing yourself. For years many have searched for the “secret sauce” of being a great leader – the right combination of qualities and skills for leadership effectiveness. Yet, in a Harvard Business Review article called “Discovering Your Authentic Leadership,” the authors advocate that the “secret sauce” to effective leadership is being “genuine and authentic, not a replica of someone else.” CliftonStrengths helps those who take it to raise their self-awareness about their own unique talents that can be harnessed and developed for leadership. With this more accurate self-assessment comes greater emotional self-awareness. Our talents represent values – those things that are important to us. When our values get violated, this can create emotional responses that are not always positive and can undermine our leadership effectiveness. Recognizing these emotional landmines can help a leader better avoid them. Also, when we realize our God-given talents, we have greater self-confidence in our leadership because we are no longer focusing on what’s wrong with us but rather focusing on what’s right with us.
CliftonStrengths also works well when we think about managing ourselves. Once we discover our natural talents, the intentional work of building those talents into Strengths begins. As we add new knowledge, skills, and experiences to those talents, they become more significant Strengths in our lives and leadership. Our talents no longer direct us, but we begin to direct our talents to the outcomes we set for ourselves and our organizations. Within each of our talents, we can harness their innate drive and motivation. And the more we better understand our talents and are transparent in letting others know what makes us “tick,” the more they will appreciate our contribution, and any potential barrier labels can be overcome. Learning about the underuse and overuse of our talents is explored in this aspect of EI. Notice, I did not say underuse or overuse of our Strengths because when we properly apply our Strengths in our leadership, we will discover our greatest talents and how they are effectively utilized in our leadership with others.
CliftonStrengths is not only a powerful tool to better understand our natural talents and develop them into Strengths in our own lives, but it is also a great way to know others and their God-given talents better. As we discover what makes others “tick” as a result of their talents, our understanding of them and even empathy for them increases. As a result, organizational awareness increases, and a common language is established so that those within a team or an organization can appreciate each other’s greatest talents more deeply. Strengths awareness has a positive and lasting impact within an organization and increases its impact in serving its customers and those who use its services.
Lastly, CliftonStrengths helps a leader manage the relationships with those they work with daily. They become increasingly more inspirational as a leader as they seek to develop others by bringing out their best daily through Strengths awareness within the organization. Their influence grows as they shift from a top-down management style to a bottom-up coaching model to empower their direct reports and co-workers. CliftonStrengths is a powerful change management tool that increases engagement and overall organizational effectiveness. And the ROI of a Strengths-based approach goes beyond dollars and cents. Bonds are built as a deeper appreciation of each person’s unique talents is discovered, and those talents are harnessed to create Strengths-based teams and a Strengths-based organization. As we know, our talents don’t truly become a Strength until we are in partnership with others who have complementary Strengths to our own. This truth is known as the power of 2! This results in more outstanding teamwork, collaboration, and impact.
I hope this overview was helpful, and if you have any thoughts or insights to add, I would love to hear them. And if I can answer any questions you have on Emotional Intelligence and/or the CliftonStrengths assessment, feel free to message me. Finally, make sure to check out Gallup’s new CliftonStrenghs For Leaders report to help you, your team, and your organization realize and maximize your potential as a Strengths-based organization – https://store.gallup.com/p/en-us/15310/cliftonstrengths-for-leaders.
