Strategic: Learning to Love All 34 Talent Themes

On a recent Theme Thursday Season 1 live webcast, we discussed the Strategic theme with Seth Schuchman, a Channel Manager for Gallup Press and Procurement.

Over 12.5 million people have taken the CliftonStrengths assessment. According to Gallup's database, Strategic is fifth most likely to appear in a person's Top 5 strengths. People with Strategic love to answer the question, "What if?" They easily recognize patterns and create order out of the complex. Strategic is spontaneous -- it changes direction easily in response to new developments. It has an innate flexibility to determine a different way forward. Strategic is like a talented chess player -- it is always thinking several moves ahead. People with Strategic often challenge the status quo because they can see a different and better way to work.

As the channel manager of Gallup Press, Seth uses Strategic every day to see a new way to market and publish Gallup books. Publishing is a rapidly changing industry because the availability of new content platforms is growing at an exponential rate. When Seth was given the reins of Gallup Press, only 1% of its book sales were digital. Seth quickly implemented a digital strategy so Gallup could keep up with the changing world of publication. He built a "ship" with digital content delivery that can provide information that is "just in time," short, impactful and to-the-point.

Seth has taken the CliftonStrengths assessment multiple times to test the science of strengths. Seth's Top 10 strengths have remained static. However, he explained that, "We all go through different seasons in life and sometimes, there may be a shuffling of the 'deck' of strengths." For instance, Seth has small children right now and in order to be the best father he can be, his Competition and Significance strengths have been "tuned down." He relies on other strengths like Relator. Seth discussed that while strengths will move in someone's theme sequence, they rarely move significantly. For instance, strength No. 32 does not jump to strength No. 6. Seth also discussed that people are developing neurologically from age 3-27, so strengths for a younger person may change more rapidly or dramatically. However, once someone's talents deepen in their late twenties, those strengths will not fundamentally change going forward.

To learn more about Strategic and how Seth uses it in his everyday life, watch the full video or listen to the audio above.

Seth Schuchman's Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Relator, Achiever, Ideation, Strategic and Analytical.