How to use your CliftonStrengths talents & turn them into strengths

28 May

So you've completed your CliftonStrengths assessment and uncovered your natural talents. Now what? It's time to turn your talents into strengths! Use this guide to get ideas on how to take action and use your talents more intentionally.

What's the difference between a talent & a strength?

While talents are second-nature, strengths are intentional. When you use your talents, success (or achieving your intended outcomes) can be a bit hit-and-miss.

When you use a strength you get consistently good results.

So, how do you turn a talent into a strength?

This image should give you a clue ...

Talents are just like muscles. They need to be practised and exercised regularly to become (and stay) strengths. Just knowing about them isn't going to be enough to turn them into strengths.

First:

Start off by writing down the tasks, areas of development and goals you have (personally and professionally).

For example: I need to do my physio exercises more frequently.

Then:

Read your CliftonStrengths 34 Report. Pay particular attention to the 'Take action to maximise your potential' lists under each of your talent themes in your CliftonStrengths 34 Report. And, explore the ideas below for how to take action using each CliftonStrengths talent themes.

As you read, identify actions you could take to help you with your tasks/goals. Make the actions as specific as possible.

For example, my report says:

Instinctively, you expend much mental energy to devise innovative ways of doing things. A change here and a change there normally stimulate your thinking.

So my plan is:

This weekend, I am going to reorganise my pilates equipment. I'll move it all to the other side of the living room, use new baskets to separate them into categories and print off my exercise checklist and stick it up on the window.

If ever I feel stuck or overwhelmed I like to practice this process. It energises me and helps me develop.

Bonus tips:

For a daily, quick check-in with your talents and inspiration on how you can use them, stick the ‘Take Action’ list (on page 22 of your CliftonStrengths 34 Report) on the wall at your desk.
Implement some of these easy ways to increase your knowledge about your talents and keep them front of mind every day.

Ways to take action & productively aim your talents

Achiever

Take advantage of your self-motivation by setting challenging goals. Set a more ambitious goal every time you finish a project.
Take time to celebrate each success before moving on to the next item or task, even if for just a few minutes.
Although you might be naturally equipped to work harder and longer than others, be sure to take regular breaks.
When possible, limit your commitments to tasks aligned with your highest priorities.
Make sure your to-do lists include things beyond work.
Select jobs in which you have the leeway to work as hard as you want and in which you are encouraged to measure your own productivity. You will feel stretched and alive in these environments.
Count personal achievements in your scoring system. This will help you direct your Achiever theme toward your personal life as well as work.
Choose to work with other hard workers. Share your goals with them so they can help you achieve them. The right relationships can help you get more done.
Communicate with friends and colleagues regularly. Add this to your daily to-do list. Finding time to nurture those relationships might be challenging, but the shared aim of achieving something will add strength to the relationships.

Who to partner with: someone with strong Discipline or Focus talents. This person can help you use your energy as efficiently as possible.

Activator

Seek work in which you can make your own decisions and act upon them. In particular, look for start-up or turn-around situations.
Build a strong network of individuals who share your desire to move quickly toward success. While long-range goals may be critical, short-term successes will stimulate urgency to do more.
Frequently put yourself in situations where you can make things happen. The energy and tempo you bring to the group and project will engage you and the people you work with.
Take responsibility for your intensity by always pushing for action when you are a part of a group.
Make it your role in meetings to ask for action items before the group dismisses. Your drive to make things happen can be the push that many groups need to move from discussion to action.
Record your insights and revelations so you can act on them at the proper time.
Recognise that your “pushiness” might sometimes intimidate others. Remember that although your tenacity is powerful, it can intimidate some. Your Activator talents will be most effective when you have first earned trust and loyalty from those you want to lead.
Give the reasons why your requests for action must be granted; otherwise, people might dismiss you as impatient and label you as a “ready, fire, aim” person.
Avoid activity for activity’s sake. If you want people to join in your activity, you will need to provide them with a purpose for their actions.

Who to partner with: people with Futuristic, Strategic, or Analytical talents. They will lend their direction and planning to your activation, creating an opportunity to build consensus and get others behind the plan.

Adaptability

Use your reassuring demeanour to calm disgruntled friends, colleagues and customers.
Help colleagues find productive ways to manage stressful situations. You can encourage them to see how a different approach will benefit the group.
Find opportunities to respond to people and situations that need your attention. Your natural ability to change what you are doing can help you be an excellent problem-solver.
Fine-tune your responsiveness. For example, if your job demands unanticipated travel, learn how to pack and leave in 30 minutes. If stress at work is unpredictable, practice the first three moves you will always make when a hectic situation arises.
Support others in realising how many experiences they could miss if they don’t seize the moment now.
Avoid roles that demand structure and predictability. These roles will quickly frustrate you, make you feel inadequate and stifle your independence.

Who to partner with: Look to others for help with planning. People who are strong in themes such as Focus, Strategic or Belief can help you shape your longer-term goals, leaving you to excel at dealing with the day-to-day variations.

Analytical

Identify credible sources that you can rely on and serve as references for you.
Choose assignments or work that allows you to analyse data, find patterns or organise ideas.
Get involved in the early stages of an initiative or project when you are working in a group. You can assess the feasibility and direction of the plan before it gets too far into the process.
Develop your Analytical skills by sharing ideas with outstanding analysts who specialise in your area.
Volunteer your Analytical talent. You can be particularly helpful to those who are struggling to organise a lot of data or needing someone to bring structure to their ideas.
Think about the issues your team and organisation are facing. This time away from the action will help you fully use your analytical mind to get insights into an eﬀective solution.

Who to partner with: Listen to people with strong Strategic, Belief or Empathy talents. Their insights and intuitions are difficult to measure, but their assessments are often accurate and valuable.

Arranger

Seek complex, dynamic work environments in which there are few routines.
Make lists of suggestions for how to improve your work environment.
Develop successful strategies for getting things done. Push yourself to keep adding new issues that could get in the way of doing your work.
Learn the goals of the people with whom you work. Let them know that you are aware of their goals.
Organise a big event such as a convention or a company celebration.
Explain that your ﬂexibility doesn’t mean that your priorities are constantly changing. Tell others that your priorities remain the same, but that you are simply looking for better ways to implement them.
Give people time to understand your new way of doing things when you present it to them. Your mental juggling is instinctive, but others might find it difficult to break with existing procedures. Clearly explain why your new way is more eﬀective.

Belief

Focus on your values by thinking about one of your best days ever. How did your values influence that day? How can you organise your life to repeat this type of day as often as possible?
Find roles that fit in with your values. Join organisations that define their purpose through their contributions to society.
Look for opportunities to contribute to causes or initiatives that you believe in and make a positive impact in the world. Whether it's through volunteer work, advocacy, or community engagement, find ways to channel your beliefs into meaningful action.
Articulate your values and beliefs clearly to others, explaining why they are important to you and how they influence your decisions. This can help build trust and rapport with colleagues and stakeholders.
Accept that other people might have values diﬀerent from your own. Having strong Belief does not equate with being judgmental.

Who to partner with: with someone with strong Futuristic talents. This person will energise you by helping you see which direction your values will lead you.

Command

Find roles that will need you to persuade others. Think about whether selling would be a good career or role for you.
Practice the words, tone and techniques that will turn your ability to confront into real persuasiveness.
Strive to become known as a candid person. Use opportunities to speak plainly and directly about sensitive subjects. Your unwillingness to hide from the truth can become a source of strength and constancy for your colleagues and friends.
Help your colleagues and friends make commitments. You can provide the spark that will inspire them to act.
Find a cause you believe in and support it. You might discover yourself at your best when defending a cause in the face of resistance.
Ask people for their opinions. Sometimes your candour will prove intimidating, causing others to avoid offending you. Watch for this. If necessary, explain that you are candid because it feels uncomfortable to not express yourself, not because you want to frighten other people into silence.

Who to partner with: someone with a strong Woo or Empathy theme. You do not need to confront all obstacles; people with Woo or Empathy talents can help you to circumvent obstacles through relationships.

Communication

Keep your best stories in mind and practice telling them so you’ll get better each time.
Use your Communication talents to help others put their ideas or feelings into words.
Start a collection of stories or phrases that resonate with you. For example, cut out magazine articles that move you, or write down powerful word combinations. Practice telling these stories or saying these words by yourself aloud. Listen to yourself actually saying the words. Refine.
Listen closely to your audience when you are presenting. Watch their reactions to each part of your presentation. You will see that some parts prove especially engaging. After the presentation, identify parts that particularly caught the audience’s attention. Redraft your next presentation to focus on these highlights.
Volunteer for opportunities to present. You can become known as someone who helps people express their thoughts and ambitions in a captivating way.

Competition

Create daily measures of success for you and the teams you are involved with. Learn what it takes to win consistently.
Review measurements of your past performances regularly. Your talents will naturally motivate you to identify and surpass your personal records.
Select tasks, roles and work environments that allow you to measure your achievements. You might never discover how good you can be without competing.
Identify a high-achieving person against whom you can measure your own accomplishments. If there is more than one, list all of the people with whom you currently compete. Without measurement, how will you know if you won?
Celebrate your wins. In your world, there is no victory without a celebration.
Find friends whom you can be competitive with.
Try to turn ordinary tasks into competitive games. You will do more this way.
Think about why you won when you win. You can sometimes learn more from a victory than a loss.
Let people know that being competitive does not mean that you put other people down. Explain that you derive your satisfaction from pitting yourself against good, strong competitors and winning. It is not satisfying to outperform players who aren’t as strong.

Connectedness

Consider taking on roles that need you to listen and counsel. You can become adept at helping other people see connections and purpose in everyday occurrences. Share specific examples that can help your friends and colleagues see how their actions affect others.
Quietly contemplate away from the action for a few minutes every day. Doing this will help you see patterns and identify adjustments that can increase your eﬀectiveness.
Explore specific ways to expand your sense of connection, such as starting a book club, attending a retreat or joining an organisation that helps you use your Connectedness talents.
Help your colleagues at work understand how their eﬀorts fit into the larger picture. You can be a leader in building teams and helping people feel important.
Support those around you in coping with unpredictable and unexplainable events. Your perspective will bring comfort.
Don’t spend too much time attempting to persuade others to see the world as a linked web. Be aware that your sense of connection is intuitive. If others don’t share your intuition, rational arguments will not persuade them.

Who to partner with: someone with strong Communication talents to help you find the words you need to describe vivid examples of connection in the real world.

Consistency

Make a list of consistent guidelines that you can live by. These rules might be based on certain values you have or policies that you consider “nonnegotiable” in your organisation.
Get clear about your list of rules. The more certain you are about the rules, the more comfortable you will be with individuality within these boundaries.
Find opportunities or roles that need you to help make the situation fairer and more balanced. You can be a leader at work or in your community by supporting people in learning how to show their true potential.
Develop a reputation for pinpointing those who really deserve the credit. Ensure that others always give respect to those who truly performed the work. You can become known as your organisation’s conscience.
Stay focused on performance. Occasionally, the Consistency theme might lead you to overemphasise how someone gets work done and ignore what they accomplish.

Who to partner with: someone with strong Maximizer or Individualization talents to remind you when it’s appropriate to accommodate individual differences.

Context

Help your organisation strengthen its culture through its traditions. For example, collect symbols and stories that represent the best of the past or suggest naming an award after a person who embodied the best of the past.
Ask your colleagues to identify the actions and other factors that led to a problem or issue. Learning from the situation will help everyone make choices that lead to better outcomes in the future.
Find a mentor with a long history in your community or organisation. Listening to their experiences can inspire your thought process and accelerate your learning.
Collect memories through photographs and written materials to motivate you.
Read historical novels, nonfiction or biographies to help you understand the present
Help others understand what has come before and what lessons can be taken forward into the future. Volunteer to be involved in project pre- and post-mortems.

Who to partner with: someone with strong Futuristic or Strategic talents. This person’s fascination with what could be will stop you from becoming stuck in the past, while your Context will stop them from ignoring the lessons of the past. Together, you are more likely to create something that lasts.

Deliberative

Think about the advantages of being conservative in your decision-making during times of change. Be ready to explain these advantages when asked.
Do what you think is sensible, regardless of the impact on your popularity.
Take responsibility for helping others think through their decisions. You see things others don’t.
Make time each day for yourself. Your thoughtful approach gives you the foresight you need to make wise decisions.
Explain your process of careful decision-making. Clarify that you highlight risk to take control and reduce it. Don’t allow others to misconstrue your Deliberative theme as tentativeness or fear of action.

Who to partner with: someone with strong Command, Self-Assurance or Activator talents. Together you will make and implement many well-thought-out decisions.

Developer

Find roles in which your primary responsibility is to develop others. Teaching, coaching or managing might prove especially satisfying for you.
Notice when your friends and colleagues learn and grow, and enhance their development by sharing your observations.
Make a list of the people you want to help develop. Write what you consider to be each person’s strengths. Meet with each of them regularly — even if it’s for only 15 minutes — to discuss their goals and strengths.
Call, text or email people who need your encouragement the most.
Thank the mentor(s) who helped you develop, even if this means tracking down a former teacher and sending this person a letter.
Avoid supporting someone who is consistently struggling in their role. In such instances, the best developmental action you can take is to encourage them to find a diﬀerent role — one that fits.

Who to partner with: someone with strong Individualization talents to help you see where each person’s greatest strengths lie. Without this help, your Developer instincts might lead you to encourage people to grow in areas where they lack strength.

Discipline

Find structured roles and responsibilities.
Check to ensure that tasks and projects are completed in the right way and on time. You feel an urge to do it anyway, and soon enough, others will begin to expect it of you.
Learn how to use a time-management system to help you be even more efficient and give you more confidence.
Create routines that help you follow through systematically. Share your detailed lists of tasks, goals and timelines with your colleagues. It will help the entire group become more efficient.
Help others organise their lives. If you do this respectfully, people will appreciate it.
Recognise that few people are as disciplined as you. More than likely, their disordered processes will frustrate you. Try to assess them on their results, not on their methods.
Explain your Discipline theme to your colleagues. Initially, they might resent your meticulousness, but once you have explained how it works for you, do not be afraid to let your perfectionism show. Others will want to see it in action.
Recognise that mistakes might discourage you. Precision is a fundamental part of you; however, you must find ways to move beyond moments when you feel discouraged.

Empathy

Practice refining the words you use to name the feelings you experience and observe in others.
Help people name their feelings. Those who can express their feelings seem to work better with others.
Build trust with people by letting them know that you know how they feel.
Help your colleagues be aware of their coworkers’ feelings.
Develop routines at the end of each day that allow you to help you decompress. If you don’t do this, you might find your Empathy talents draining you.
Be silent sometimes. You have the ability to let others understand that you know how they feel without saying a word. Over time, refine your nonverbal communication skills.
Act quickly and firmly if someone is behaving in an unhealthy way. Understanding someone’s emotional state does not mean that you must excuse this behavior. Be aware that when your empathy turns to sympathy, others might see you as a “bleeding heart.”

Who to partner with: someone with strong Command or Activator talents. This person will help you to take needed action, even though people’s feelings might suﬀer as a result.

Focus

Make sure you include timelines and measurements with your goals to show that you’re making progress on them.
Write down your goals and refer to them often to feel more in control of your life.
Find roles that have you function independently. With your strong Focus talents, you easily stay on track with little supervision.
Tell your manager your midterm and short-term goals to help your manager feel confident in giving you the room you need to work with less daily supervision.
At the end of each meeting, summarise the decisions made, decide who will take action on the decisions, and set a date for the group to meet again.
Identify your role models. Write down in detail why you want to focus your career on similar kinds of achievement.
Allow others to think, act and talk less efficiently than you do. Sometimes their “detours” will lead to discoveries.
Set goals in your personal life to help you balance your work and personal life objectives.

Futuristic

Help others anticipate and imagine their future by using your natural anticipation of a better tomorrow to overlook the pain and problems of today.
Write down your ideas for the future each week to help clarify your vision.
Motivate your colleagues with things that they can do in the future. For example, include some innovative ideas in group meetings, or write your vision for the future and share it with your colleagues.
Find a friend or colleague who also shares your Futuristic theme. Set aside an hour a month for discussions about the future. Together you can push each other to include more creativity and detail in your visions.
Look for roles that will let you contribute your ideas about the future. For example, you might excel in entrepreneurial or startup situations.
Find audiences that will appreciate your ideas for the future. They will expect you to make these ideas a reality, and these expectations will motivate you.

Partner with: someone with strong Activator talents who will remind you that you do not discover the future, you create it with the actions that you take today.

Harmony

Stress the value of reaching consensus when working with others.
Look for the practical side of things during discussions, and help others see it. Doing this is the starting point of agreement.
Build a network of people with different perspectives on whom you can rely when you need expertise. Your openness to other viewpoints will help you learn.
Accept the responsibilities of being a good team member. Your willingness to adjust and your tolerance for diﬀering views can become significant strengths.
Ask others in the group to share their thoughts when people argue. By increasing the number of voices in the conversation, you are more likely to find areas where all parties can agree. You can draw people together.
Enhance your talents by taking a conﬂict resolution course in an area such as nonverbal communication. The skills and knowledge you learn will combine with your talents to strengthen your ability to handle conﬂicts.

Who to partner with: someone with strong Command or Activator talents to help you confront the conflicts head-on when your best eﬀorts to resolve it don’t work.

Ideation

Find a job that pays you for ideas such as marketing, advertising, journalism, design or new product development.
Make slight changes in your work or home life so that you don’t get bored easily.
Experiment and play mental games with yourself to keep your mind active.
Participate in brainstorming sessions. With your abundance of ideas, you will make these sessions more exciting and productive.
Schedule time to read because others’ ideas and experiences can become your raw material for new ideas. Schedule time to think because thinking energises you.
Think through your ideas before communicating them. Doing this will help others understand what might seem like to them an interesting but incomplete idea.
Discuss your thoughts with other people to help you refine your ideas.
Select a mentor who has the courage to support you in your ideas and will challenge you to explore them even further.

Who to partner with: someone with strong Analytical talents who will question and challenge you, therefore strengthening your ideas. Or, someone with strong Activator talents to help you put your ideas into practice.

Includer

Choose roles that allow you to continuously work and interact with people. You will enjoy the challenge of making everyone feel important.
Find opportunities to bring together people of diverse cultures and backgrounds. You can be a leader in this area.
Help those who are new to a group get to know others. You know how to quickly make people feel accepted and involved.
Help your friends and colleagues see what you see. Explain what everyone has in common. Help others understand that to respect the diﬀerences among us (our diversity), we must begin by appreciating what we all share (our similarity).
Draw out others’ opinions in a group setting. Speak up for the importance of including everyone’s feelings.
Be selective when using your Includer talents. There is a time to include; there is a time to not include. By increasing involvement, you increase diversity and input — but you also increase complexity.

Individualization

Become an expert in describing your own strengths and style. For example, answer questions such as “What is the best praise you have ever received?” “How often do you like to check in with your manager?” “What is your best method for building relationships?” and “How do you learn best?”
Ask your colleagues and friends these same questions. Help them plan their future by starting with their strengths and then building a future based on what they do best.
Make your colleagues and friends aware of each person’s unique motivations and needs.
See the great talents in people, and encourage them to follow their own dreams. Help them understand and maximise the power of their talents.
Study successful people to discover what makes them successful.
Help others understand that true diversity can be found in the subtle diﬀerences between each individual, regardless of race, sex or nationality.
Explain that it is appropriate, just and eﬀective to treat each person diﬀerently. Those without strong Individualization talents might not see people’s diﬀerences and believe Individualization is unfair. You will need to describe your perspective in detail to be persuasive.

Input

Identify your areas of specialisation and actively seek more information about them.
Read books and articles that capture your interest.
Build your vocabulary by learning unfamiliar words and their meanings.
Create a system to store and easily locate information.
Identify situations in which you can share the information you have collected with other people.
Accept that you will never feel that you know enough.
Find subject-matter experts who are interested in what you are learning, your question and ideas.

Who to partner with: someone with strong Focus or Discipline talents to help you stay on track when your inquisitiveness leads you down intriguing but distracting avenues.

Intellection

Set aside a few minutes every day to collect your thoughts. Doing this will make your thinking sharper and more eﬀective.
Think about the details of big projects before starting them. Your timely insights will move the project forward intelligently and without backtracking.
Find peers to have thought-provoking conversations with.
List your ideas somewhere to reference when you need insights into something.
Take time to write down your thoughts. Writing might be the best way to define your ideas.
Ask for topics before meetings. Explain to others why you need time for introspection. While others might see you as slow to act, contemplation allows you to refine your ideas; thus, for you, it is productive behavior.
Build relationships with people you consider important thinkers. Their example will inspire you to focus your own thinking.
Give others time to think through your new idea after you have presented it for the first time. Realise that they might not immediately understand this new idea because they have not spent as much time pondering it as you have.
Try to meet people who share the same interests as you, and create intellectual conversations with them.

Learner

Refine how you learn. If you learn best by teaching, find opportunities to instruct others. If you learn best through reﬂection, make time to do so.
Designate yourself as an early adopter of new technology. You will learn quickly and be able to share important advances with your colleagues.
Honor your desire to learn. If you can’t fulfill this need at work, take advantage of adult educational opportunities in your community. Sign up for at least one new academic or adult learning course each year.
Be a catalyst for change. New rules, skills or circumstances might intimidate others, but your willingness to embrace new things can calm their fears.
Find ways to track the progress of your learning. If there are distinct stages of learning in a body of knowledge or skill, celebrate your progression from one level to the next. If no levels exist, create them for yourself. (For example, you could set a goal of reading five books on a subject.)
Beware of learning plateaus. Seek opportunities to push yourself with more difficult topics, courses or projects.
Find opportunities to learn about challenging aspects of your business.

Maximizer

Focus on your strengths once you have claimed them. Refine your skills, acquire new knowledge, practice and keep working toward mastery.
Devise ways to measure your performance and that of your colleagues. These metrics will help you spot strengths.
Develop a plan to use your strengths outside of work. In doing so, consider how your strengths relate to your personal mission and how they might benefit your family or the community.
Study success. Deliberately spend time with people who have discovered their strengths. The more you understand how positioning strengths leads to success, the more likely you will be able to create success in your own life.
Make your weaknesses irrelevant. For example, find a partner, devise a support system or use one of your stronger themes to compensate for a weaker one.
Explain to others why you spend more time building on strengths rather than fixing weaknesses. Initially, they might confuse what you are doing with complacency.
Help your friends and colleagues recognise others’ talents and strengths.
Meet regularly with mentors, role models and your manager for insight, advice and inspiration.

Positivity

Share your enthusiastic and energetic approach with others when they become discouraged or are reluctant to take risks. Your positive attitude will help keep them moving.
Help others see the things that are going well for them. You can keep their eyes on the good.
Have good stories, jokes and sayings ready to lift or lighten colleagues’ moods when they need to rise above their daily frustrations. Never underestimate the eﬀect that you can have on people.
Stay committed to praising the people you work with. Try to tailor your praise to each person’s needs. When you remind others of the positives you see, they feel rewarded and encouraged, and so do you.
Set up team events to celebrate your colleagues’ and team’s successes. For example, find ways to turn small achievements into events, plan regular celebrations that others can look forward to or make the most of the year’s holidays and festivals.
Avoid negative people. They will bring you down. Instead, align with people who find the same kind of drama and humor that you do in humanity. You will energise each other.

Relator

Find a workplace that encourages friendships. You will not enjoy an overly formal organisation. You tend to be at your best when you are part of a stable group of colleagues you can trust.
Learn as much as you can about the people you meet. You like knowing about people, and others like being known. In this way, you will be a catalyst for trusting relationships.
Show people that you trust them, and they will be more likely to trust others. You can be an important role model in this area.
Tell and show your colleagues that they can knowingly talk to you in confidence.
Stay in contact with your friends no matter how busy you are. They are what keeps you going.
Let everyone know that you are more interested in the character and personality of others than in their status or job title. This is one of your strengths and can serve as a model for others.
Let your caring show. For example, find people in your organisation to mentor, help your colleagues get to know each other better or extend your relationships beyond the office.
Schedule regular and frequent one-on-one time with each of your supervisors and managers.

Responsibility

Check your schedule and your to-do list before taking on a new request. You will create a realistic opportunity to meet all of your commitments without overworking yourself, and you’ll demonstrate to others your serious approach to your responsibilities.
Keep volunteering for more duties that your experience seems to warrant. You thrive on new responsibilities and can deal with them eﬀectively.
Align yourself with others who share your sense of commitment. You will succeed when surrounded by others who take their responsibilities as seriously as you do.
Remind yourself to say “no.” Because you are instinctively responsible, it might be very difficult to refuse opportunities. For this reason, you must be selective.
Take action to eliminate and prevent unethical behavior in your organisation, and publicly recognise displays of strong ethics.
Make sure you take time to enjoy the completion of your commitments. Responsibility is a source of motivation for you.
Let your manager know that your natural sense of responsibility creates a desire to work independently.

Who to partner with: someone with strong Discipline or Focus talents. This person can help you stay on track and prevent you from becoming overloaded.

Restorative

Find tasks or roles that will pay you to solve problems. You might particularly enjoy roles in medicine, consulting, computer programming or customer service in which your success depends on your ability to restore and resolve.
Look for turnaround situations that others avoid. You will enjoy the challenge, and you will further your “can do” abilities and reputation.
You are drawn to difficult problems, but don’t overlook the easy-to-solve problems that offer big results. Others will benefit from these solutions as well.
Let everyone know that you enjoy solving problems. While many people may shy away from challenges, fixing them comes naturally to you.
Think through the ways that you can improve your skills and knowledge. Identify any courses you can take to enhance your knowledge base.
Give yourself a break. Your strong Restorative theme might lead you to be overly self-critical. Try to redirect this theme either toward things about yourself that you can fix, such as knowledge or skills (but not talent), or toward external, tangible problems.
Let other people solve their own problems. You might want to rush in and solve things for them, but in so doing, you might hinder their learning. Watch out for this, particularly if you are in a manager, coach, teacher or parenting role.

Self-assurance

Trust your talents, but always gather enough input from others to ensure that you make well-informed decisions.
Seek start-up situations for which no rules exist. You are at your best when you have the freedom to make many decisions.
Appeal to your own internal guidance system to determine appropriate actions. Trust your instincts.
Consult with others before making a final decision on your strategy when taking on an unfamiliar challenge. By complementing your natural confidence with others’ talents and knowledge, you are selecting the most productive and efficient path.
Study your recent decisions to help you gather valuable insights to refine and strengthen your intuition.
Help others find the positives in your certainty. For example, when you have decided what you are going to do, they can trust that you will do it.

Who to partner with: people whose Input and Intellection talents complement yours as you gather information to address situations. These partnerships will help fine-tune your inner compass.

Significance

Imagine the legacy you want to leave. Picture yourself at retirement, looking back on a life that has made the world a better place. What will you have done to get there?
Make a list of the goals, achievements and qualifications you want, and then post them somewhere you will see them every day. Use this list to inspire yourself.
Let your manager know if you perform best independently. Provide examples of how you have succeeded with that kind of freedom. After recognising the value of this insight, your manager will likely give you the space you need to create exceptional results.
Share your dreams and goals with your colleagues to keep you reaching and accountable for your mission. Your ambitions may motivate your colleagues to achieve outcomes they had never before considered.
Focus on performance. Your strong Significance talents will inspire you to achieve remarkable goals.
Write down your strengths and refer to them frequently. Heightened awareness of your strengths will give you the confidence you need to rebound when, for whatever reason, you don’t get the input you need.
Tell the significant people in your life how important their feedback and support are to you. Their words can be very motivational.

Strategic

Make sure you explain yourself along your journey to discovering the best path to success to help others understand what you see.
Devote time each day away from the action to think about your current goals and strategies. This focused time might be the environment in which you can best think through the options to find the right course of action.
Trust your insights as much as possible. Because you naturally consider options at such a fast pace, even you might not know how you came up with the strategy, but because of your exceptional talents, it will likely be successful.
Find a group that you think does important work to which you can contribute your Strategic thinking. You can be a leader with your ideas.
Keep your followers in mind as you seek to achieve your leadership goals.
Recognise that you can develop your Strategic talents by taking into consideration what is already working well and what others have already done.
Learn how to describe what you anticipate. Others who do not possess a strong Strategic theme may not anticipate often or well. You will need to be persuasive if you want to help them avoid future obstacles or exploit the opportunities you have seen.

Woo

Build your network of acquaintances. Tend to it by checking in with each person at least once a month.

Join local organisations, volunteer for boards and find ways to get on the social lists of the inﬂuential people in your community.
Learn the names of as many people as you can. Keep track of the people you know, and add names as you become acquainted. Include a snippet of personal information for each contact to help you remember something unique about each person.
Stay in touch with your peers in professional organisations. This will help you build your network and increase the number of experienced resources you can tap for help with any issues that arise.
Take responsibility for helping put more reserved people at ease in social situations.
Practice ways to charm and engage others. For example, research people before you meet them so that you can find common ground.
Find the right words to explain to people that networking is part of your style. If you don’t claim this theme, others might mistake it for insincerity and wonder why you are so friendly.

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Georgia Nielsen