CliftonStrengths Executing Domain: Teams and Managers

We discover how the Executing Domain relates to your manager and your team in this Season 6 episode of Theme Thursday. When we improve teams through owning our CliftonStrengths, we improve performance. When we improve performance, that's how we get to the kind of organic growth that allows us to have stronger economies, a stronger world and better wellbeing. And great managers hold the key: As they move from boss to coach, they help team members understand who they are already and hold them accountable for being even better, maximizing the team's engagement and impact. You might even be a manager in ways you never thought of! So join Jim Collison and Maika Leibbrandt for Season 6, as we focus on teams and managers -- including a new talent-mindfulness challenge at the end of each webcast. Strong themes, stronger teams.

Below is a full transcript of the conversation, including time stamps. Full audio and video are posted above.

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Jim Collison 0:00

I am Jim Collison and live from the Gallup Studios here in Omaha, Nebraska, this is Gallup's Theme Thursday, Season 6, recorded on January 16, 2020.

Jim Collison 0:08

Theme Thursday is a Gallup webcast series that dives deep into the CliftonStrengths themes, one theme at a time -- this season, based on developing teams and managers with CliftonStrengths. Today we look at the Executing Domain. If you're listening live, we'd love to have you join us in our chat room. There's a link up in the video -- if you're on the video page up there -- to the YouTube instance. And there's a chat room that is there. Many of you are logged in. Let us know where you're listening from. If you have questions after the fact, send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. And don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast app or on YouTube. There's a subscription button right now -- right down there. You can subscribe and you'll get notified whenever we go live or whenever we produce a new webcast. Maika Leibbrandt is our host today. She's a workplace consultant here at Gallup, and Maika, always great to see you. And welcome back to Theme Thursday.

Maika Leibbrandt 1:05

Thanks, Jim. I'm so excited about getting to talk about our Executing themes today.

Jim Collison 1:09

We are going to dive deep into Executing. And -- but we're going to spend a little time today talking about what that means, I think maybe for some folks who are doing that. So maybe a different kind of episode that we have scheduled today. What -- what do we have on tap?

Maika Leibbrandt 1:23

So you can think about this as one of 4 bonus episodes that we'll be running in our current season, which is Season 6 of Theme Thursday. Because we're really exploring that construct of teams and leadership domains, we've decided to add 4 different bonus episodes and sprinkle them out through -- through the season, to really be a kickoff for that specific domain. So today, we'll talk about Executing and then starting with our next episode, we'll really dive into the specific themes that fall into that Executing Domain. Then once we've done that alphabetically, you'll hear about the next domain. So today is one of those, I think, great opportunities that you're going to want to replay, maybe share with people who are curious about what are these domains, as a real good overview. I'd say if you can have an overview and a deep dive at the same time, that -- about Executing -- is what today is going to be about.

Jim Collison 2:11

Yeah, well, for folks who've gone through this -- maybe even went through Season 3, where we were -- it was based on Strengths Based Leadership -- we talked about this. Don't -- don't turn this off. I think you're going to really want to dig in with us or get maybe some new material and some new thoughts on it. So Maika, as we think about these 4 domains, what are they?

Maika Leibbrandt 2:27

Yeah, so technically, they're 4 domains of leadership. And they originated as Gallup was studying willing followership. So we didn't necessarily study leaders or what leaders do, but we -- we studied four distinct ways that they do it. The domains describe your general default for how you lead other people. Now, since we're looking at what your most natural, unfiltered patterns of how you think and feel and behave are, that doesn't really tend to vary drastically across different life situations. So you can take it a step further and generally get meaningful clues to overall how you're going to react to different situations, not just purely leadership. The 4, as we've mentioned before, are Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building and Strategic Thinking.

Jim Collison 3:16

All right, we are going to focus on Executing today. So what's that all about?

Maika Leibbrandt 3:20

So it's really about doing; about rolling up your sleeves and getting things going. There's a certain amount of, I think, productivity to people who lead with these Executing themes. They see the world through action that can happen; that has happened; that needs to happen. They might more easily see some some glowing spotlights around tasks than just ideas or concepts or even people. It's about having a direct connection to moving something toward completion.

Maika Leibbrandt 3:49

Individuals who are strong in Executing tend to be busy, tend to be productive, tend to get things done. They also, I think, view the world through that lens of productivity. They'll spot a potential to take action. They might even consider wins and losses in relationship to effort. They'll notice patterns of performance and they might be focused on more measurable outcomes or more -- I don't want to say tangible, because it's the wrong use of that word, but I would say -- more obvious metrics than other people might notice.

Jim Collison 4:21

This is I think, where a lot of confusion comes in. Because that makes sense for an individual. We're focusing on teams and managers this year. So what about a team that's, that's maybe strong in Executing?

Maika Leibbrandt 4:32

First, let's be careful not to label a team as strong or weak in certain domains. It is not the makeup of a team's strengths profile that matters nearly as much as the awareness of what themes are present. And very often I'll do coaching or consulting or team facilitation where we'll look at an entire, say, a theme grid or get a snapshot somehow of the themes that are present within a team. And instantly, their reaction will be, OK, I can see some holes; who do I need to hire to fill those? And quite honestly, we used to think that perhaps having a balance of Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building and Strategic Thinking across the team would indicate some sort of ease or efficiency or should be a goal that you're looking for.

Maika Leibbrandt 5:19

We've realized that it's not so much the balance, and in fact, you'll look, even mathematically, it's difficult to have a balance. There, there are more themes in some categories than there are in others. And if you look at the frequency with which people have these as dominant themes, some of the themes occur more frequently, and some of them are more rare. So the goal isn't so much to, you know, pick the right person to fill a hole, as it is to really understand what's present? How do we honor it? And how do we make the most of the talent that we already have?

Jim Collison 5:51

So much like we say, oftentimes, there's not a dream set of themes for a person. Is there a dream state? Like, do you have a dream team that, if they're lined up a certain way in these domains, they're the dream team?

Maika Leibbrandt 6:04

Well, I think you can spend a lot of energy trying to curate that ideal team on paper. But there, there really is no proven connection between having that dream CliftonStrengths profile for the entire team and that group doing anything any better. So the short answer is No, there's there's not a dream team situation. It also matters what that team is doing. And I think that's something that all too often we try to separate the strengths profile of a team from an awareness of what's important to that team. A team who is truly interdependent and needs each other to get the work done is probably going to have a very different conversation about their strengths than maybe just a team of people who are their own kind of lone wolves, but they roll up to the same manager.

Maika Leibbrandt 6:51

A team who is doing a whole lot of thought-based sort of work is very different than a team who's in charge of physically making something happen. And I think It's much -- a much more promising use of our time to explore the talents of the group that you already have; help the group discuss how those talents show up; what it means they bring to the team as individuals; how they can bring those talents most easily; and then start to think about, I think, in some cases, we would describe this as the whole being more than the sum of its parts. But that synergy that happens when there's some real promising partnerships, getting to that point where we can accomplish more together than we could individually.

Maika Leibbrandt 7:31

And I get a little bit of pushback from coaches who say, OK, I already took that class. It's not hard enough! Or, What happens if I've already had that conversation? What do I charge them for next time? And we have to remember that as, as anybody who's, you know, brave enough to fill an hour of your day listening to this podcast, chances are you're already practicing this more than anybody else that you're working with. So there's no harm in repeating this.

Maika Leibbrandt 7:56

In fact, talking strengths should be part of your regular habit if you're leading a team, if you're part of a team, not a one-time team-building exercise. Please don't take the conversation about team strengths and put it on the same shelf as your icebreaker questions or your ropes course or your other challenge. Get into the habit of talking about strengths just like you would talk about expectations, timelines, celebration, you know, your client, your customer base. Talk about this just like you would anything else that you're trying to achieve.

Jim Collison 8:30

Maika, you make a great point. I think one of the things I've learned here at my time at Gallup is this idea of practice. And I think we often approach these strengths discussions as a "one and done." You know, it'd be like if a, you know, if a football player, a quarterback of a football team, threw one pass and said, "OK, I'm ready to go." They're going to -- they're going to do that action over and over and over. And I find that especially in teams, I actually find us rehearsing activities or rehearsing strengths together, these conversations together to say, Here's who we are. Here's how we get things done. I find that when we do that in group context; when we when we rehearse, so to speak, or we practice telling each other, where we fit in, where we go and how it works best, that -- that's a continuous conversation. Because we're continuously growing. We're continuously learning. We're continuously figuring some of these things out.

Jim Collison 9:22

And so I think, resist the urge to let groups do a "one and done." This is, like you said, this is a conversation that happens all the time. And practice -- we need to practice these, these these ideas, these relationships. I know that's not a real common thing, but we I think we do need to practice those relationships together, and how we're going to work. Do you want to add anything else to that?

Maika Leibbrandt 9:43

Yeah, I think you know, part of -- there's two really important points I hope people hear right now. One is practice the same conversation. You know, conversations matter. People don't grow in a vacuum; they get better in relationships. So practicing it matters. The other thing I want at -- that my brain is telling me right now is those dynamics change all the time. People are not static; partnerships are not static. And if you think back to just the dynamics of your own themes, and how one theme changes how it shows up based on the other theme that's dominant next to it. And that also might change based on the challenge that you're -- that you're leaning on. Imagine the endless possibility for conversation when you add a whole bunch of people together.

Maika Leibbrandt 10:26

So thinking about the dynamics of people within a team, there's, there's almost, there's almost no end to the awareness that we should -- that we could have or the clues that we already have right there in front of us, if we just get into the habit of of making this something that we talk about.

Jim Collison 10:42

OK, good. We've covered kind of that and set the groundwork for that. What are these Executing themes? What fits into this domain?

Maika Leibbrandt 10:49

Sure, Executing themes are probably everybody right now who's saying, Maika, enough overture! Let's get going! You can read more about the breakdown of all 4 of these leadership domains in the book Strengths Based Leadership. Or you can also explore them in your own CliftonStrengths 34 report. Those are two different ways to go about it. The book is going to give you the theory and you're not going to have yourself sort of locked into it. But if you dive into your CliftonStrengths 34 report, you'll see it in relationship to your own self. Both are worthwhile things I think to do and revisit.

Maika Leibbrandt 11:24

Specifically when we talk about our Executing themes, there's 9 of them: Achiever, Arranger, Belief, Consistency, Deliberative, Discipline, Focus, Responsibility and Restorative. Now, each one of these themes is going to execute slightly differently. You can think about them as 9 different flavors of doing. And it's important to give voice to the individuals involved. Don't do too much interpreting of your team alone. It's important to do some exploration -- think about yourself as that first explorer who's out there trying to make sense of what you're finding.

Maika Leibbrandt 12:02

But as an explorer, you need to be continually getting curious. Instead of trying to jump to conclusions and prescriptions about this, please make the first place you jump to or that first rock you grab ahold of be a question, a question you want to go back and ask the individuals involved. And I think it's important that you're, again, you're not trying to just fill in those gaps and make assumptions. But you're, you're having a conversation instead of making this any kind of a labeling exercise. Analysis of a team is also probably best done with a coach, or at least done in a progression. You want to see the power and truth of one person at a time. And then spot how a group of individuals brings that power together and what they look like when they form a team.

Jim Collison 12:47

We're focusing on teams and managers this season, right? So how does a manager do that?

Maika Leibbrandt 12:52

I think to put it simply, you do have to start with your own strengths. Then talk about those the individuals on your team and their strengths as they stand alone. And then look at the -- the DNA of the team. We have some great conversation outlines and tools that you can use in our coaching materials. So your, your Gallup Certified Coach can help you with that. You can also use previous podcasts to dive deep into any one specific CliftonStrengths theme that may be something you're seeing frequently show up on your team, or something that an individual on your team has that you don't. Really great way to have a "quick hit" of getting your head wrapped around what that power and that talent looks like.

Jim Collison 13:33

OK, so let's say I have a picture of my team, right? And I notice that the dominant theme among them is Executing, right? What does that tell me? Let's just be real practical about this.

Maika Leibbrandt 13:44

Yeah, teams who frequently have a lot of Executing talent are wired to DO. Just like individuals who lead with Executing, teams who have a lot of Executing power are probably going to look at the challenges in front of them through a lens of what is it that needs to be done? What is it that we have yet to accomplish? And what have we already done? Again, really looking at effort as probably the central point of the conversation.

Maika Leibbrandt 14:09

It might be easier for this team to take action, or get tackling challenges than it is to think bigger about how that relates to something else. They probably need less motivation to do than teams who aren't as strong in Executing. It doesn't mean that they'll all be working in the same direction, with the same goal, unless making sure that you're doing that on purpose.

Jim Collison 14:32

How could this Executing theme get in their way? I mean, oftentimes we see it as, you know, you just kind of said it in a positive light. As we think about maybe how it slows, it could slow them down a little bit, how would that happen?

Maika Leibbrandt 14:43

Sure, sure, you know, lots of individual doers, who see what needs to be done, and are internally, individually motivated to run toward it, could be running at their own goals without syncing up with each other. They could get a lot done but duplicate efforts or, or sort of duplicate the work in ways that work for them as individuals, but don't necessarily work for everyone else. A lot of Executing is about finding your lane and repeating it.

Maika Leibbrandt 14:44

You think about the, the idea of an Achiever really working very well toward completion, versus maybe an Arranger working really well when they can tinker with things. If you've got two different people who have both of those themes, and they're working at it in different ways, you might not be making the most of, of some potential clues for improvement or for efficiency.

Maika Leibbrandt 15:33

They also, because again, it tend -- and I'm generalizing here, because we're talking about 9 different themes, and every single one of those themes is incredibly complex -- but in general, these Executing themes are again about moving it forward more than they are tinkering with the process. And because of that, they might be impatient anytime you need to make adjustments or redesign how things are being done. They can have a laser focus, but I think it's worth a discussion of where that focus really should be. So make sure your priorities are aligned or, at the very least, that your priorities are talked about. Don't assume that everyone's on the same page when it comes to really noticing where everyone's energy should be spent.

Jim Collison 16:12

A great manager can make a big difference in this space, right, of really recognizing that and pushing it forward. So how can a great manager kind of support the -- a team that has these strong Executing talents?

Maika Leibbrandt 16:23

You've noticed we're going to use the word manager. It's worth noting in our first of these 4 bonus episodes that you might replace the word "manager" in your head for leader, parent, sponsor, champion; we're going to use the word manager. So if you're the manager of this team, first, I've said this before, but maybe not loud enough. spend a little time on yourself. Specifically put on that hat of, "How do I execute?" Really great managers don't just know themselves and lead with themselves. They also have that challenge of being able to recognize how their team functions and then meet their team where they are. That takes a lot of grace and a lot of sophistication.

Maika Leibbrandt 17:03

So first, get clear about what your team's most important priorities are. Who outside your team holds a stake in your team's success or failure? What are the implications within your team of a really big win? And how would you define losing? How would you define failing? And what metrics are you paying attention to that indicate how close or far you are to those most important priorities?

Maika Leibbrandt 17:30

I also think, in service to your team of Executers, find one more thing that you can count, measure, rate, rank or sort than you already do today. And this should be related to your important priorities. People on your team need to know about it and be able to access the team's progress on this measurement without waiting for you to tell them. That might mean that they individually are measuring something on their own that sort of gracefully adds up to a bigger goal. It also just might mean how people access data needs to be more open-sourced; that they can look around and track how we're doing as a team on their own, so that you're removing that barrier of motivation. It doesn't have to always come directly from an update from you.

Jim Collison 18:14

Yeah, Maika, let's hold on a second here. Because sometimes when we use words like count, measure, rate, rank, sort, we often think of maybe sales teams, where it's super easy -- those, those figures are easy to get. How, you know, with teams maybe, where it's -- those kinds of things are not as easily measured, how would we address that for these kinds of teams?

Maika Leibbrandt 18:36

This is why I love working with you, Jim. You push me on things that are hard. And here's -- here's the good part: Ask your team. You're not doing this because a leadership or a management book told you to; you're doing this because you're working, remember, with a team of executers! Get them talking about what they're executing, about what they're tracking. Involve them in the process of setting the team's priorities. Go theme by theme or person by person, and have a conversation with those individuals about what are you measuring? How, what are your indicators of whether or not we're achieving our most important priorities? Remember, still within a team of -- of a lot of Executing, you might have a couple individuals who don't lead with Executing. They can add to the, I think, the jump-start that you have toward metrics by having a lot of people who do frequently show those Executing themes in ways that you might not even be able to predict.

Maika Leibbrandt 19:29

So you don't have to do this all together as a group. It can be done through powerful one-on-one conversations. If the end goal isn't easily measurable, start tracking the inputs that are -- that are within the team's control. So you might think about a communications team who's looking at number of page views, or an event planning team who's measuring on-time submission of hotel reservations, or a teaching team who's looking at student attendance records. Don't get blinded by the idea that the end goal has to be what you measure. You can also look at, What are we tracking in order to get there? And chances are, if you've got a great team of people with a lot of Executing talent, they're already thinking about that.

Maika Leibbrandt 20:12

So I would say bottom line is, Focus your performance conversation. Really get brave enough and bold enough to narrow it into what the real priority is. Understand that that's going to be hard, because it might mean saying "No" to other things. Feel free to change it when you need to, and make sure every person on the team is measuring something that's leading toward that goal.

Jim Collison 20:36

I love what you're saying about measurement there. Because I think sometimes we think we have to measure what the end is. And measuring the process, for some, will either lead you to that or can be enough to drive performance. And so don't get stuck always on the end results; sometimes kind of measure those -- it can be, like you said, it can be time measurements of things that are happening in the process, right?

Maika Leibbrandt 20:59

Yeah.

Jim Collison 20:59

And how do we get there? And so, you know, your, your ability to measure, start measuring what you can. And I think things will then begin to appear of things that maybe weren't obvious before. Right? You want to add anything to that?

Maika Leibbrandt 21:12

Yeah, and I think this is going to feel pretty different from pure coaching. Even the fact that we're having this podcast today feels more like management or leadership than just coaching, where we're not just sitting right next to somebody and helping hold them accountable and find their own way. We also know that really, really great managers are incredibly clear about what success looks like, and then let people find their own path. That's, I think, the nature of even being a strengths-based manager is understanding that everybody is going to get to success in their own way, and we need to trust them to get there in most circumstances.

Maika Leibbrandt 21:45

What we're hopefully adding today is that next stepping-stone of saying, All right, I need one more clue. And I have all this rich data about the people on my team and how they think and feel and behave. So when you're working with Executers, it might be that much more important that you're really taking the information you have in front of you and thinking about this as some clues that might work.

Jim Collison 22:06

Yeah, I want to -- there's a couple -- there's a question in the chat room about, that Robert asks. He says, What would be the downside of having too many -- let me actually bring that up, now that it's there --What would be the downside of having too many people with Executing talents? We kind of addressed that a little bit in the very beginning. But, but Maika, can you address that really quick, as we just kind of think overall? Because you could fill in any of these, what's the downside of having too many Influencers? How do you, how do you want to -- how would you address that?

Maika Leibbrandt 22:33

It's probably not a quantity issue as much as it is a maturity issue. And it's, I can't -- on paper, the downside to having Executing talent that's out of control is you could be running in a million different directions and not running together. Or you could be running so quickly that you aren't running in a thoughtful manner. You could also just be really blindsided by other opportunities to -- if you're missing the other 3 themes, you could be blindsided by opportunities to influence or to connect with each other or to think critically is the real cut and dried answer.

Maika Leibbrandt 23:11

But I also think it's not about how many people you have on your team who -- and what they're strong in. It's about whether every single one of those individuals is seen for the truth of their talent and the power for what's there. It has the individual ability to talk about what that means they bring to the team and what they need in order to bring it. And that you are prepared as a manager to create the space for that to happen.

Jim Collison 23:38

Yeah. It's gonna -- this is gonna fit very nicely in with what we want to talk next. But sometimes, you know, we we always in this, in the strengths-based communities, we talk about, you know, never, always always talking positive; always finding what's good; always, like in individuals. And as soon as we get to teams, it's like, oh, there's too -- not, I'm not saying in this case -- oh, there's too much! And yet what if we approached it like, Look at all the Executing, we have! In a positive light, like look at the look at all the things we can do, focusing on what is positive about the team and not immediately going to the negative. We see this a lot in the domain space. Right? You know, and so ...

Maika Leibbrandt 24:16

I mean, huge, I, I'll give you my teaching trick that I can teach anytime I teach a coaching course, when we get to teams, I can always catch people's attention with this one little activity. I'll hand them a team grid or any other way that you're looking at a team. And I'll say just, you know, tell me what you think. If you were looking at this as a coach, what are some questions you'd have for the manager of this team? What are some questions you'd have for the team? And I'll just send them off. I know -- it's not dry. We've had usually 3 1/2 days of learning at this point before we would do that. And I'll have them come back. And instead of debriefing, what I ask them to go do, I'll ask them to turn to their partners who they analyzed that, that report with, and I'll say now, let's go back to these 5 guiding principles and rate yourself on how well you did at understanding that themes are neutral; that they're not labels; that you're leading with positive intent; that you're looking at the differences across the team; and that you're inspiring everyone to need each other.

Maika Leibbrandt 25:13

And almost without fail, people sort of exhale and slump back in their chair and say, "You're right. All we talked about here was what was dysfunctional about this team." You have so much more to learn about what's working on a team than you have already, I promise! Even if you are listening to this today, and you are in like the strongest, most synergistic, greatest team you've ever been in, you've barely scratched the surface of what is going right with that team.

Jim Collison 25:40

Yeah, and we don't coach to the domain, right? We coach to the individuals. So as we think about these team leaders, talking strengths in these teams, because if we, if we, if we raise the coaching conversation or the manager conversation to the highest level of a domain, we really water down the effectiveness of the team from that standpoint. And we've got to continue to dive deep into these individuals to say, What is working right? And what can we do more of? So when we talk, when we think about talking strengths regularly, how do we keep that conversation going and not let it get necessarily diluted in that?

Maika Leibbrandt 26:14

Sure. I would also say, just to be super clear about our language here, when you say we coach the individuals, you mean the individual people.

Jim Collison 26:20

Correct.

Maika Leibbrandt 26:20

When you are looking at a team grid, let's say, it's not as important to look at individual themes. So I'll always have somebody say, Oh, you know, we're missing Discipline. Well, chances are, you're going to miss Discipline, it doesn't show up in people's Top 5 all that frequently. So it's not, again, don't get, don't get lost by thinking you need all 34 themes on a team. Just like you don't need all 4 domains. And the conversation at a team level really can be about those domains. But you're right, the way that we move forward is by noticing and working with the individual team members. So if you're with a team of people who naturally gravitate toward Executing, make strength part of what they're Executing; part of what you're doing.

Maika Leibbrandt 27:03

When you ask someone to take on a challenge, ask them how they might measure success, and what they think the most important steps are toward the end goal. Again, it's about seeing the talent they have and squeezing it out on purpose. Ask how often they want you to check in with them; how, how they want to talk about measuring success; and when or where they'd really like support from you as that manager.

Maika Leibbrandt 27:27

Remember that you lead people with engines attached to them; attached to their progress. Do you debrief a project or do you just move on to the next one? Make review a regular practice, and in that review, talk about what's working right; talk about how people contributed. You might ask, Hey, what made sense about the way we achieved this, or What would be a more efficient upgrade the next time we try something like this? Even stopping and having that review session or that debrief might be something brand new that you're introducing to a team who might feel more of a charge around getting going on the next thing. But it's worthwhile to, again, look at how are we Executing more purposefully? Anything to add to that, Jim?

Jim Collison 28:13

No, I think just so much rich content there, Maika, as we think about what's available there, I just really want to encourage people to not start -- I hear this a lot -- they get the, they pull the report, they get the team grid, they go -- immediately, they say, "We have too much!" or "We don't have enough!" And that's, that's not really where we start with this discussion, right? It's not about too much or ...

Maika Leibbrandt 28:35

It's not even where we would ever end!

Jim Collison 28:37

Yeah. Right. Yeah, no, but we hear this; I see this. This is the, this is the performance I see from folks who are posting in our Facebook groups, is What do you do with the team who has too much? And that's not the question to ask. Like, it's never about too much or too little. It's what you've been given. And now how can we put this together to create, increase, improve our performance, right, in these kinds of things? This is what we have. So, so don't -- on domains, don't, don't lose those factors that we have with strengths, where we begin, like, "What's great about us?" And immediately, a lot of times on domains, we dive back to, "What's wrong with us?" And I think that's a habit I'd love to see our communities kind of break.

Maika Leibbrandt 29:19

I think it's also important to say, you don't have to skip over what's wrong. But usually what's wrong is something much bigger than strengths. It's that -- and I'm really excited that we're going to have this construct of the 5 Truths of a Strong Team as we go throughout this season, because it's not their makeup of strengths. It's are you focusing on results? Are you allowing people a balance between their work life and their personal life? Are you, you know, are you noticing what's diverse and embracing that?

Maika Leibbrandt 29:47

You don't have to shy away from those hard conversations about what's wrong. I would say even all too often I get called in to lead a team strengths session because people are behaving badly, and they're not brave enough to call out that bad behavior. Instead, they think, We'll just get together and talk about strengths and that'll fix it. Well, that's not going to fix a lack of trust. It's not going to fix, you know, poor behavior from adults toward each other. That -- that's something you you should address. But you don't have to mask strengths as a way to to address it.

Jim Collison 30:18

That's, that's worth a million dollars! Right there. Right there. We, starting next week, we'll be diving into these themes, we'll get back to 20-minute sessions that we're doing -- where we're doing each theme twice, or doing each theme once, but twice. So make sure you get signed up to come join us. I know that sentence didn't make any sense. So just come join us: gallup.eventbrite.com to get signed up for the individual themes as we go through them.

Jim Collison 30:44

We are bringing back -- and we mentioned this in the overview last week -- are bringing back this talent-mindfulness exercise for us, Maika, and I'm really excited about as we go forward. We'll always do them here at the end. You can join us live; you can replay them. If you're listening to the podcast version of this, you might want to take a second -- and maybe it's your first season with us -- these may not be best if you're listening in the car or you're walking the dog. Some of these may not be best served -- you might want to pause, get into a spot where you can kind of come back and spend some time kind of concentrating on this. But, Maika, I'm excited for this season. What do you have for us?

Maika Leibbrandt 31:17

Listen to you, Jim, you're doing a little of the practice here. So we did want to focus Season 6 on managers and teams, because managers need mindful moments. Not only do managers shoulder, in many ways, the weight of an organization's performance, but they do it while they're juggling a whole lot. So this season, we're bringing back the idea of talent-mindfulness. We started in Season 5. And this is for you -- you right now. I'm not talking about "you" as Jim or "you" as some other person who also might be listening to this podcast; you -- the person who's hearing my voice. And that's different from everything else we've talked about up until now.

Maika Leibbrandt 31:55

So this is a opportunity for us to talk less about the theory of strengths; less about what do we know about IO psychology or organizational performance or behavioral economics, and really just get real and give you 3 to 5 minutes to practice. So it is 3 to 5 minutes. And it is different from the normal buzz of the rest of your day. It's certainly different from anything else we do in this podcast. And I encourage you to stop feeling like you're gathering information that's outside of you, and, you know, thinking about what you might use in the future.

Maika Leibbrandt 32:28

Instead, just be here right now. Whether you are a manager or not; whether you lead with Executing themes or any of the other 3 domains, or you've never even taken CliftonStrengths, to make this moment your own, I am going to start with a breathing exercise and I'll stop and you'll know when it -- when we're finished. You'll, you'll get to do that every single time. So if this is your first time doing it, give it a chance. You might want to come back and replay this with a notepad later, but for now, just just be in the moment with us.

Maika Leibbrandt 32:59

So let's start by taking a deep breath in through your nose, fill your head, your lungs, your entire torso. Hold that breath right at the top and release it through your mouth. Let's take one more purposeful breath in, hold and release. Really empty yourself of any stale breath. You can inhale some freshness and continue to breathe normally as you listen to this 3-minute exercise. You might want to close your eyes or focus softly on one single thing that's different from your computer or your to-do list.

Maika Leibbrandt 33:53

In the past 7 days, when did you make something happen? Think about a time when your effort was key to making something occur. If there's too many times swirling around in your head right now, just too many to pick from, select one that stands out in your mind as something you're especially proud of accomplishing; something that, if you or your effort did not contribute, it would not have happened. It doesn't have to be big. You don't ever have to tell anybody what you're thinking about right now. But make it recent.

Maika Leibbrandt 34:54

How does that accomplishment that you achieved in the past 7 days -- how does that affect you today?What is important to you about this thing that you made happen? ... What is one tool or habit or system that you sought out in order to make this happen? This might be something that made accomplishing this slightly easier or slightly more doable for you. Also might just be something you always do in order to accomplish. One tool, one habit, one system that that you used. ...

Maika Leibbrandt 36:01

Now let's think about the future. What's an important thing you need to make happen in the next 3 days? ... What tool or habit or support will you seek out to make this next thing slightly more doable? ... If you had a pen and paper right now, this is the point I'd ask you to write it down. So imagine your own handwriting writing down that answer in your brain. What's something that's important you need to make happen in the next 3 days and what's one way you're going to make it easier? ...

Maika Leibbrandt 37:06

You're a fighter. Doesn't matter what your CliftonStrengths profile specifically means; hear me now: You are made to overcome, to meet challenges, to survive, to accomplish. Now, if you've got some Executing talent, you probably think about doing more often than others. But even if you don't, you are breathing right now and your pulse right here suggests you're here for a reason to do, to accomplish, to progress.

Maika Leibbrandt 37:43

And you have survived 100% of your hard days. Your talent won't tell you what to do or what not to do. It's not a prescription to go pick a vocation. It will offer a beautiful clue and rich inspiration on how you're going to accomplish great things. It might even help offer some insight into what accomplishment really looks like for you at your best. There is something important for you to do today. And you owe it to your own powerful talent to do that in a way that offers you joy. Pay attention to that. That is your talent-mindfulness for today.

Jim Collison 38:31

It's pretty great to be back.

Maika Leibbrandt 38:35

It is.

Jim Collison 38:36

Yeah, at the end of last season, I told folks how much that affected just me, just being here for it, right, just to listen through those. And so I hope folks this season really dig in, and they'll always be at the end. Always be available for you; just kind of a quiet moment to step aside and kind of think through those things which we have for you. And I think they're very applicable. Bunch of questions came in during the show, during the domain. When we cover each of the domains, those will be a single podcast in a week. And we have some time for a post-show. So if you're listening live, there'll be time for some post-show questions that are available. If you're listening live also on YouTube, go ahead and subscribe today down, down below. It's, it's actually over here somewhere. There's a subscribe button; click that and click the notification bell, and every time we go live, you'll get notified. That way, it's just -- again, it's one of those steps that helps you. If you're not a doer, sometimes you just need those prompts, right? You just need the prompts to kind of say, hey, come and join us.

Jim Collison 39:35

If you're watching us on YouTube, on our main YouTube channel, you can subscribe there as well. Click that subscribe button; click the notification bell so you get the notifications for it. And every time we post an edited version, you'll get notified. And you can do both if you want, by the way. That's the kind of the way -- I've gotten completely YouTube for most -- I don't even watch TV anymore; It's all YouTube. That's how I know my most favorite content is available when it is there. We'd love to have you do that. If you're listening to us on the podcast, share this with somebody. Like, just stop it right now, grab it and who could you share this with? Who needs to hear that? Who needs that advice? Who needs, who needs -- it doesn't need to be one person; it could be a whole team. It could -- however you want to do it.

Jim Collison 40:16

Let me just encourage you, we're gonna have a pretty awesome season ahead! I don't do this very often, but we're gonna have a pretty awesome season ahead and you're going to want to share it with individuals. So get the word out, share it with them. You don't, you don't -- just, just send it to them, say Hey, love to have you listen to this. And we'd love to have you do it. Maika, before we wrap it, anything else you'd add?

Maika Leibbrandt 40:35

It's just so good to be back. I love the, the idea of sharing. Just to add on that, I've got Ideation. I've spoken to a lot of coaches who find that it's really helpful to share this in between their coaching sessions with their clients. And applicable even, you know, if you're not really diving into specific themes now, so thanks for being around. You can also follow us on Instagram @strengthstalk and let us know what you're coming up with. Give us your feedback! This is a community and, and we're best when it -- when we're in conversation with you.

Jim Collison 41:02

Yeah 50 or so joined us live. That's a good number for the beginning of the season. We'd love to see hundreds at this point join in for the conversation. With that, we'll remind everyone to take full advantages of all the resources we now have available on Gallup Access, visit gallup.com/cliftonstrengths -- pretty easy to remember. That link is best because it will -- when you log in, it will take you right to your strengths dashboard. So gallup.com/cliftonstrengths. Just bookmark it. Best way to get into the system. We'll post full transcripts, with all the links to everything we talked about today. Those are at that site. Those are available there as well, and including the links to the podcast and our YouTube channels. If you can remember nothing else: gallup.com/cliftonstrengths. You can also search on YouTube for "CliftonStrengths"; you'll find our YouTube channel there, as well as Gallup Webcasts in any podcast player. That'll get you there. We'd love to have you subscribe. While you're there, right, while you're at the site, sign up for our CliftonStrengths Community Newsletter. With very bottom of the page; links everywhere. Get signed up for that every month; helpful information that we send out to you. That's kind of a brand new thing we've been working on; love to have you get involved in that as well. If your organization is struggling to implement anything we discussed, or if you have any questions at all, you can always reach out to us: coaching@gallup.com is the way to get that done. You can see a complete list of all the courses we have available. We got some great ones coming up here in 2020 that you're going to -- in fact, for the managers you coach or if you're a manager yourself, we have a great Boss to Coach Journey coming along here throughout the year. Head out and see what's available right now, though: courses.gallup.com. And we'd love to have you sign up for future webcasts as well: gallup.eventbrite.com will get you there. You can come to Omaha and join us for the 2020 Gallup at Work Summit. It's going to be June 1, 2 and 3 here in Omaha, Nebraska. The best place to be June 1, 2, 3 is right here in Omaha. Maika and I will be available for you. If you come out to the summit, we'd love to kind of see you there. You can get registered: gallupatwork -- all one word -- gallupatwork.com. Join us on our Facebook page: facebook.com/groups/calledtocoach. On LinkedIn, just search CliftonStrengths Trained Coaches. Now you don't have to be a coach to join that site. But CliftonStrengths Trained Coaches, that's kind of where we're gathering there on LinkedIn. Many of you have said, Do you have a LinkedIn place? And I finally figured out how to get all that done. And so that is where our group is there. If you enjoy this, we'd ask that you'd share it. For those listening live, stay around for the post-show. Today, we'll have some time to take some questions from you. Thanks for coming out. With that, we'll say, Goodbye, everybody.