Learn to motivate and encourage your team using their strengths from the CliftonStrengths Assessment. Catch up on part 1 highlighting traction and driving strengths, part 2 to read about seeing strengths, and part 3 to learn about interpersonal strengths.

Lifestyle strengths – how people live their lives

The fifth category of strengths that Partner2Learn teaches is Lifestyle. Individuals with Lifestyle strengths flavor and influence the environment around them through how they live in these strengths. They use these strengths to live their own lives and to help others to live better lives.

Belief strength on your team

  • How to leverage this strength: Belief refers to the inner core values that drive an individual. Therefore, the best way to leverage this strength is to have everyone who has belief write a life value statement describing their values and sharing this statement with everyone around them. As everyone knows their values, we now can align any task or effort with their values. In doing such, engagement and productivity will increase for the individual and overall team.
  • Questions to ask to keep them engaged: Which of these projects best aligns with your values? Why? What are the values that motivate you?
  • Where this strength might struggle: The Belief strength will struggle anytime that is being done or asked to be done does not align with the individuals values. They will not do it. They will quit a job without having another one lined up if the job goes outside of their values. Therefore, a great partner for Belief is anyone with Connectedness. Connectedness will broaden the Belief perspective and help them to see the bigger picture and other values that are good and valid.

Responsibility strength on your team

  • How to leverage this strength: People with Responsibility are highly credible and trustworthy. These are the people you can count on to do amazing things if they have agreed to do them. They want to help and make a positive difference in all they agree to do.
  • Questions to ask to keep them engaged: Can you help complete this project? Will you please take over for the other people on the team and make sure this work gets finished?
  • Where this strength might struggle: Responsibility will especially struggle in times such as now with a pandemic. Responsibility feels the weight of the world. They feel accountable and responsible for everything. Therefore, a great partner for Belief is someone with Strategic to help them prioritize what is truly their responsibility and what is outside of their control. Strategic will help Responsibility say yes to the right things and no to the others.

Discipline strength on your team

  • How to leverage this strength: Discipline will help to provide structure and routine in a time of chaos or discombobulation. People with Discipline are great at creating and working with structure, organization, routines, and the like. Therefore, use Discipline now to bring normalcy to these chaotic times.
  • Questions to ask to keep them engaged: How could we provide a positive routine to benefit our environment and our people? Can you help provide structure for this project?
  • Where this strength might struggle: Discipline will struggle when their personal routine is upset. If they have to change times, schedules, and routines they will become frustrated. A great partner for Discipline is Adaptability. People with Adaptability can help people Discipline to be more flexible and able to handle changes thrown at them

Adaptability strength on your team

  • How to leverage this strength: When times are changing, in flux, chaotic, and the like Adaptability provides great strength in being flexible and making sense out of the senseless. People with Adaptability will be a great asset to reset, recalibrate, and hit the ground running to help get the team and each person through the times of chaos.
  • Questions to ask to keep them engaged: Can you help us adjust our schedules to meet the needs of these current extraordinary times? How might we change our production schedules to work with a skeleton crew and some working from home?
  • Where this strength might struggle: Adaptability will struggle in a very rigid and structured environment. People with Adaptability like to be able to flex their time and work well with changing situations. A great partner for them is someone with Discipline to help them see the needed structures and routines and how to best work in those situations.

Consistency strength on your team

  • How to leverage this strength: Consistency will help to make sure your team stays on track and policies and systems are followed. They will find a way to make sure even in times of uncertainty that you remain true to the structures you have always had and the brand you have always represented.
  • Questions to ask to keep them engaged: How does this change fit into our policies and systems. If we make a change now with how we operate, how can we incorporate it into our handbook and current policies?
  • Where this strength might struggle: Consistency will struggle with changes outside of the current policy and procedure manual. They like following known rules. Therefore, when rules seem to be constantly changing, and in flux, Consistency will have a difficult time. A great partner for Consistency in these times are people with Adaptability. They will help people with Consistency to flex and roll with the flow. Also, the strength of Individualization will be a great help. Individualization will help to show the uniqueness of the times and the need to flex with people in these uncertainties. 

Harmony strength on your team

  • How to leverage this strength: Harmony is great at embracing conflict to bring peaceable results. Harmony can help bring balance and peace to the team during chaos, disagreement, and uncertainty. The strength of Harmony is essential to keep things peaceable and running smoothly with the team in all times and situations. 
  • Questions to ask to keep them engaged: How can I bring a peaceful resolution to this tension-filled situation? Is our team fully united? How can you help pull us all together?
  • Where this strength might struggle: Harmony will struggle in environments that do not positively embrace conflict for improvement and growth. If disagreement and needed conflict are avoided, Harmony will eventually want out. A great partner for Harmony is someone with Learner to help them embrace risk and someone with Self-Assurance to build confidence in the resolutions Harmony will bring for the team.

Positivity strength on your team

  • How to leverage this strength: People with Positivity brighten the room with their smiles, lift up the environment, and bring a bright and hopeful outlook to everything with which they work. In these times where things may seem more uncertain or chaotic, utilize people with Positivity to help everyone see hope and the silver lining to the clouds hovering above head. They will help us to see the rainbow in the middle of the storm.
  • Questions to ask to keep them engaged: How can we help the team to see the good in all that is going on around us? Can you please help me to make sure our team remains hopeful in these times of chaos?
  • Where this strength might struggle: Positivity will struggle with negative people and environments which will not embrace at least a somewhat hopeful outlook. A great partner for Positivity is someone with Woo and Communication. The Woo will get the positivity out to a larger audience and help to influence them to see the hope. The Communication will help to make the Positivity being shared even more clear and connected with all that is going on in the workplace and with the team.

Wild Cards – enhancing all strengths

The sixth category of strengths that Partner2Learn teaches is Wild Cards. Individuals with Wild Card strengths have the innate ability to enhance the other strengths and categories. They strengthen and add multiplicative power to the other strengths and individuals with which they serve.

Communication strength on your team

  • How to leverage this strength: People with Communication have great ability with either written or verbal communications or both. They have a natural ease with words and can help a team to make sure everything is communicated is clear and helpful to convey proper messaging for all being served. In a time such as now where clear and direct Communication is vital, it is extremely important to use these individuals to enhance everything being communicated.
  • Questions to ask to keep them engaged: How can we best convey a message of hope and peace? Can you please talk to the team and share the following information and plans for the future? Can you please proofread the following messaging to make sure it is clear and well stated?
  • Where this strength might struggle: Communication will struggle in isolation. Communication needs a team and direction to channel the messages they can write or speak. A great partner for Communication is someone with Woo. Woo will help get the messaging out to larger audiences with even greater influence.

Learner strength on your team

  • How to leverage this strength: People with the Learner strength are risk takers. They can handle ambiguity and make sense of the senseless. They are exceptionally valuable in times of chaos as they learn a way through it all for themselves and most importantly for the team.
  • Questions to ask to keep them engaged: Can you help make sense of this current situation? Can you help us learn how to implement and run our organization under these new rules and regulations?
  • Where this strength might struggle: The people with Learner will struggle in a very static environment which does not try new things and provide new opportunities. They want to use this strength to help enact change, growth, and forward movement for themselves and the team. A great partner for Learner is someone with Achiever. Achiever will help Leaners to take their ideas to the finish line and will enhance the Learner’s ability to handle very difficult times and situations with quicker and stronger actions leading to tremendous outcomes and advancement for all.

Engage with Partner2Learn for team building support

Stay tuned in the coming weeks to learn how the rest of the strength categories complement traction, driving, seeing, interpersonal strengths, lifestyle, and wild card strengths. A high-performing team needs to have all strengths, all categories, all people engaged for maximum results. Are you doing any of this right now? What new ideas are you going to implement today? How can we help you be more successful? We’re here to guide you, help elevate your performance, resulting in a transformation you never imagined.

*Asterisk means that this strength is in more than one of the eight categories.

Original research on the 8 categories conducted by Dr. Mark McKloskey and Jim Louwsma.