Builders With Independence Talent: Running the Whole Show

On this episode of Builder Talent Tuesday Season 1, Jim Collison, Gallup's Director of Talent Sourcing, and Maika Leibbrandt, Senior Workplace Consultant, discuss the Independence talent with Jaclynn Robinson, Workplace Consultant.

People who are especially talented in the Independence talent can single-handedly start and operate a business. They rely on high energy and extreme commitment to succeed in the grueling grind of business creation. They firmly believe that their actions decide the fate of their business and are motivated to make things happen.

Individuals high in Independence are drawn to the multiplicity of a start-up. They crave every aspect that plays into starting and running a business. People with high Independence are drawn to a one man band approach. They receive joy in running the whole show themselves by walking to the beat of their own drum. The ability to do this all themselves is incredibly motivating. It means they can survive a start-up and multi-task successfully.

Entrepreneurs with high Independence are able to specialize and do it all. They have the agility and presence to have a touch point with multiple aspects of their business. They have a whole-hearted dedication to the business that ensures survival beyond just the beginning. They have the ability to autonomously set goals and take actions. High Independence means having a high clarity around what success looks like. This could be starting you own business, or it could be a kid taking up a new sport nobody knows about. They have a passion for this. The excitement comes from exploring their own world and finding a new territory they have a vision for. It is then building on this vision and seeing it come to fruition.

Independence is synonymous with highly competent individuals. They have a confidence in their own inner compass to lead them towards that competency. They do what needs to be done to move their business forward. The ability to multi-task helps them think about getting passed the initial starting point. They can keep all the moving parts in check and still stay interested in the relationship to those parts to make it past the initial chaos, and really think about creating something real, lasting and important.

There are some potential blind spots for this talent. Being so strong in Independence, you can often miss some of the queues for collaboration that others might find. Because you're so talented at doing it on your own, you might not be finely tuned in that ability to think about how other people could help you. It can be difficult when you can do it all to trust in the instincts of other people.

Invest in this natural talent. What makes you want to strike off on your own? Fine tune your responsiveness to that whisper of Independence so that you can do so more often. Learn to trust those fine triggers. How can you cross train your effectiveness? Real talent and Independence is the ability to be able to be fully present where you are, and then switch gears and be fully present somewhere else.

Jaclynn Robinson's Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Achiever, Strategic, Maximizer, Positivity and Relator.