How Strengths Shape the Way We See the World

On a recent Called to Coach, we spoke with Gallup's Talent Development Architect, Dean Jones.

Strengths are a filter -- we say this in the Accelerated Course, and do the "Stand Up" exercise.

• Some things get through, and some don't
• We don't realize that it is just our perception -- we think the world is that way (Competition example). It's not like "I have this perspective" -- I think that the world is that way, and I don't really understand why others don't see it that way.
• Self-awareness is our access to transforming our view of the world
• I become aware of the filter and can realize that there is something beyond it
• Still trapped by the filter -- but I realize that something is missing
• The paradox is that we are always "trapped" by who we are -- we can never escape it. We can only fully love and accept ourselves. And that allows us to transcend our own humanity. We are not just given by who we are -- we can then see our identity at work (of which our talents and strengths are a part) and extend beyond it.
• Get interested in how something/someone else might complement me. Understand the limits of my own abilities, talents, strengths and humanity.
• Coaching is a process of building self-awareness.
• Do I see how my own mechanism works?
• Can I step outside of myself and watch it work?
• Can I communicate who I am and how I work?
• Can I be responsible for it?
• Can I be responsible for the impact of it?
• That's fundamentally what distinguishes coaching from advice. Some coaches have difficulty with that -- they end up providing advice or guidance, and call it coaching.
• Coaching is more about empowering that person to see, understand and own their own "mechanism" -- so they can fully be responsible for themselves and their impact.
• Advice makes people dependent, and is about the coach. Coaching makes people powerful and independent, and is about the person's self-awareness and self-actualization.

Strengths are different from the inside out.

• We know the characteristics of a particular talent theme, and the unique contribution that it is and can be.
• How that theme looks from the outside is not how the world occurs for that person -- in some ways, it's almost the opposite.
• While what we notice about the person from the outside is their impact or contribution, what the person experiences may be very different
• It may occur to them more like a deficit or a problem to be solved or an eternal question we ask ourselves
• Someone with Achiever always feeling like there is more work to do, more lists to make, more things to be crossed off
• Someone with Significance concerned with the question, "Am I important enough? Am I center stage?"
• Someone with Includer constantly scanning to make sure that no one is left out
• Someone with Ideation who constantly share an endless stream of ideas and wonders why they don't take hold
• In many cases, the talent shows up initially as a concern -- and part of the value and contribution of understanding your talent profile is seeing that concern as a unique and powerful contribution
• Frees the person up from being burdened with that -- or wondering why others don't share that concern -- and seeing that talent as a gift and a contribution
• Part of being responsible for our talents is owning our unique perspective -- our unique concerns -- loosening their grip, and being able to see and own the contribution they are
• Coaches help with that process.

Dean Jones' Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Activator, Focus, Woo, Strategic and Relator.