Welcome to week two of our series on career and personality assessments. I am highlighting a few of my favorite career and personality assessments that help people do their best work. This week we are announcing the winner of the Maximising Potential Award. True to the title, the Maximising Potential award is given to the assessment that most effectively brings out the best in each individual and team.
And the winner of the Maximising Potential Award is….The CliftonStrengths assessment!
Note: The CliftonStrengths, recognized to many as the StrengthsFinder assessment, recently rebranded so don’t be confused! They are one and the same.
CliftonStrengths (StrengthFinder)
In an effort to change the way we study human development, Don Clifton (1924-2003) asked this simple question:
“What would happen if we studied what was right with people versus what’s wrong with people?”
Clifton flew B-24s as a navigator and bombardier in WWII and received the Distinguished Flying Cross for service. After the war, he studied and taught psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He was interested not only in studying who people are but who they can become. This interest in maximizing the potential of every individual eventually led to the StrengthsFinders assessment.
The assessment gives people their top 5 themes (strengths) out of the 34 possible themes. In addition, the themes are sorted into four domains (categories) so people can see themes in their top strengths. I’m not going to list all 34 themes, but here are the four domains:
Executing: “Executing themes help you make things happen.”
Influencing: “Influencing themes help you take charge, speak up, and make sure others are heard.”
Relationship Building: “Relationship Building themes help you build strong relationships that hold a team together.”
Strategic Thinking: “Strategic Thinking themes help you absorb and analyze information that informs better decisions.”
Why CliftonStrengths is Our Winner
I was speaking with a CCO of a Fortune 500 company about bringing out the best in each employee. He said instead of focusing on improving on weaknesses, their company focuses on making sure each person leans into their strengths. He emphasized the point that organizations that focus on the strengths of their employees enjoy exponentially more success than those who focus on improving weaknesses. The research by Gallup and others backs this up. While many assessments share the philosophy of focusing on individual strengths, CliftonStrengths executes this better than anyone else.
How Do You Know The Test Is Any Good?
Below is the set of questions that I ask myself when determining if a career and personality assessment could be helpful to me or my students and clients. Under each question, I give my two cents on the CliftonStrength assessment.
Accuracy: Was the test an accurate picture of my lived experience and what other people say about me? Did other people find the test accurate?
I thought this was a fair assessment of my strengths. The highest strength (or theme) for me was Consistency, and the rest were Relator, Connectedness, Harmony, and Empathy. What I found interesting is how these themes are broken down into domains. My top theme falls under the executing domain, while the rest fall under relationship building. CliftonStrengths does a nice job of breaking down how your top theme relates to and interacts with your other top themes.
Research: Is the assessment backed by science? Is there a large sampling of data to support the validity of the results?
The assessment has a rich history of data and research to back up the results. If you want to nerd out on this research, check out some of the studies available to download here: Learn About the Science and Validity of CliftonStrengths.
Without this research, I would be far more hesitant with the philosophy of the test. Focusing only on strengths seems like a fluffy moral boost that turns a blind eye to the glaring weaknesses in myself and others. It’s also counterintuitive to my normative way of thinking. I tend to focus just as much (or more) on my weaknesses than on my strengths.
Applicable: Could I instantly apply some of the results to better myself or my team?
My friend Mitch told me about how his previous employer put this into practice in a fun and effective way. They compiled the team’s CliftonStrength results on one document so that everyone could easily access everyone’s top strengths. Then, when there was a task or issue that needed attention, everyone was trained to look at the shared document to identify who would be a good match for the task.
Inspiring: Did the assessment create an exciting vision for how I’m wired and what I could do in the future?
The test is, by its nature, encouraging and positive. The top 5 strengths that are given are memorable and can inspire a new way to operate at work. People who are analytical in nature will appreciate the research and data backing the assessment, the high number of themes, and the organization of the themes into domains.
Lasting Change: Did the assessment have a lasting impact beyond some immediate wins or conversations?
Like any assessment, the knowledge gained needs to be converted into action in order to create any lasting change. In addition, it is important to think through if this assessment is most helpful when taken as an individual or in a team setting. In my experience, the CliftonStrengths can be a helpful tool to take as an individual to gain self-awareness (something that is always helpful), but this one seems to be most effective in a team setting.
Cost: Here is the current price of the assessment.
As of December 2024, the base level Top 5 assessments are priced at $25. Then they will try and upsell you to the CliftonStrengths 34 for $60.
Final Thoughts on the CliftonStrengths Assessment
I believe there is great value in the CliftonStrengths assessment, and I’m not alone! As of this writing, Gallup claims that 34 million others have taken the assessment to date.
My college basketball coach hammered this idea into our minds during practice:
Emphasize the positives, eliminate the negatives!
Dick Beach
I think both of these statements are helpful and true. There is a time and place to focus on the negatives. Eliminating negative habits and improving on our weaknesses are vital aspects of healthy human development. However, when we are trying to maximize our potential at work and in life, we must learn to how to lean into our strengths.
