Pairing and Expanding Your Strengths: Activator

On this Theme Thursday Season 2 webcast, Jim Collison, Gallup's Director of Talent Sourcing, and Maika Leibbrandt, Gallup Advanced Learning and Development Consultant, discussed the theme of Activator.

Activators are always thinking, "Let's get started. Let's go." They are impatient for action, but that impatience is not a negative thing. It represents Activators' innate ability to energize and mobilize others to act. People talented in Activator are comfortable with risk, as long as action is taken. Activators are catalysts -- they turn ideas into action. When other people share ideas, Activators are listening for openings in those ideas for action. Their energy can be engaging and contagious.

With every theme, there are dimensions of talent and each theme represents a natural pattern of behavior. Every theme represents potential inside a person -- and that theme can be in either a raw or mature state. Mature Activators are insightful instead of impatient. They see opportunities to get started. When coaching an Activator, Maika explained that it is best to ask, "How can I position this Activator as a successful started? Where can she be rewarded for starting the process?" Maika also explained that coaches should not try to change an Activator into focusing on following through on a project. Instead, Activators should be paired with people naturally talented in finishing projects like people with Focus and Responsibility in their Top 5 themes.

To learn more about Activator, watch the full video or listen to the audio above.