Learning Updates for CliftonStrengths Coaches With Dean Jones

Dean Jones, Senior Learning Expert at Gallup, was our guest on a recent Called to Coach. Dean talked about some need-to-know learning updates for CliftonStrengths coaches, including some great new onboarding resources for new coaches; accessing the 2020 Gallup at Work Summit content (and the 3-month window for doing that); the abundance of continually updated resources available to coaches in Gallup Access; and recent changes to gallup.com and the name of the Accelerated Strengths Coaching course.

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

Jim Collison 0:00

I am Jim Collison, and live from our virtual studios around the world, this is Gallup's Called to Coach, recorded on June 19, 2020.

Jim Collison 0:17

Called to Coach is a resource for those who want to help others discover and use their strengths. We have Gallup experts and independent strengths coaches share tactics, insights and strategies to help coaches maximize the talent of individuals, teams and organizations around the world. If you're listening live, love to have you join us on our chat room. Right above me, there's a link to our YouTube page. Click on it; jump in with your Google account. And join us in the chat room. If you have questions after the fact, you can always send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. Don't forget, if you're on YouTube, subscribe to us. That way you get notified whenever we produce new content. And of course, you can listen to this as a podcast just by searching "Gallup Webcasts" in any podcast app. Dean Jones is our host today. Dean is a Senior Learning Expert at Gallup, and I'll emphasize "Expert." Dean, great to have you on Called to Coach, and welcome back!

Dean Jones 1:00

Ah, thanks. Thanks so much, Jim. I appreciate it.

Jim Collison 1:03

Dean, we got a full slate of learning today. We're excited to get to bring some learning topics. We have several of them for the, for the folks listening today. And we have some things we want to kick off with. So why don't you get us kicked off?

Dean Jones 1:16

Yeah, today's, today, we have a bunch of kind of learning updates, and some updates of some things that we're doing. One of things I want to, before we get, we dive into all of our topics, I just want to take a minute to recognize that today is Juneteenth. And, really, I think it's a great, particularly right now in the U.S., this is a great time to be able to be recognizing that and celebrating that. For those of you who are not from the U.S. or don't know, Juneteenth is the holiday where we essentially celebrate the effective end of slavery. So it is the time when, in Texas, that the, the slaves were finally emancipated. This is about 2 1/2 years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

Dean Jones 2:04

If, if you don't know about Juneteenth, I would, first of all, I would really encourage you to go learn about the history of it. And for our Black Americans, this is a significant day. And I think it's a significant day for all humanity, that when anybody is enslaved, when anybody is oppressed, we're all oppressed. And so I think it is an incredible, incredible opportunity for us to, to really learn how we can help lift others up, and particularly our, our friends who are people of color, and particularly our Black friends. So, so I think it's really important. I think this is a great day. You know, I would like to just encourage everybody to spend today celebrating Juneteenth by, you know, doing the thing that I think is great to do, which is educating themselves, right. And so that one of the cool things in my hometown here in Bentonville [Arkansas] that Crystal Bridges has a virtual tour of art by Black Americans, Black artists. I know that around the country, there's all kinds of great ways to be able to do that. And so I just think it's a cool way for us all, to be able to to celebrate the diversity of our country.

Dean Jones 3:12

So, with that, I just wanted to make sure we said that because I think it's important. I know that many of you, your companies have given you the day off. And I think that's cool. One of the things we're doing at Gallup is asking everybody over the next couple weeks to spend half a day, really spending that time investing or educating or advocating or volunteering in ways that help the Black community. So we think that's an important thing.

Dean Jones 3:38

So with that, I want to kind of turn -- we -- I have some big updates here. And, and I think that I'm really excited about the first one of them and, and the guy who's responsible actually isn't on the podcast today. So one of the things that we have been talking about, gosh, we've been talking about it since the Learning Series, I think, is doing a, a new orientation for newly Certified Strengths Coaches. And so one of -- we're super excited about this, because one of the things that we started a project or an initiative back in November, December, where we started looking at what were the specific needs around, around Certified Coaches, and how can we really focus on our Certified Coach community and get up under that community? One of the things, and one of these we looked at is, what were the things that coaches were calling in to our customer support team about, right? What were the issues, things like what, you know, like, Hey, I can't find my promo code. Or Where is this resource or that resource?

Dean Jones 4:37

And we started really kind of investigating that stuff and realized that one of the, one of the problems we had was we just didn't have a really great way of onboarding new newly Certified Coaches. So one of the things we did is start looking at this as a project. In the course of doing this, we actually -- I think some of you may have participated in this -- we did a focus group, a Zoom focus group with about 20 Certified Coaches from around the world who gave us some great feedback about what we should be doing and should not be doing. And the gentleman who led this project at Gallup is a gentleman many of you may know named Andrew Bridger. Andrew works in our, in our marketing area and is just a phenomenally talented dude. I mean, he's just a great human being, and just brought all kinds of great creativity and passion and leadership to the project.

Dean Jones 5:28

So what -- starting Monday -- and you'll see this if you're an existing coach, or you'll see this if you're a new coach -- starting Monday, you will receive a series of emails. And we're doing it for new Certified Coaches, but we decided to go back to all of our existing Certified Coaches and do the same thing. So we're -- starting Monday, you'll get a series of emails, it's 4 emails over 8 days. So you'll start to see it, and it'll kick off on Monday, that are designed to kind of make sure that you know about each one of the resources and benefits of being a newly Certified Coach. And they all kind of point back to this new resource page that we're going to be launching. And Jim's going to show you, I think, the resource page now. We've put all of the links to everything in one page, and it's on gallup.com. And, you know, it's just a page where you can go to for everything. We aren't advertising this link. So we're giving the link to Certified Coaches; you have to be a Certified Coach to be able to get to this page. And so it's really designed just for our Certified Coaches.

Dean Jones 6:34

So if you're not certified, get certified! You know, we would really encourage you to do that. We were just talking prior to, to the show today, like, you know, we've got some coaches that are debating, Hey, should I be certified? Or, Hey, is it really the right thing? I'm like, gosh, you know, there's just so many benefits, so many resources that accrue to you as a Certified Coach that you'd want to be, right. So, so there's these emails, there's these emails that we'll send out to these newly Certified Coaches. The page is a resource. And one of the things I'd encourage you to do, if you're a Certified Coach, is to bookmark that page, right? Because you will want to go back to it. We are going to be updating the page; they're reviewing it now, going forward, on a monthly basis to see hey, how do we make sure it's got the latest and greatest on it? So you'll want to bookmark that page, because that page, I think, will be just the one-stop shop for everything you need as a Certified Coach.

Dean Jones 7:28

So we're really excited about this. You know, it's one of those things where you look at it and say, shoot, why didn't we do that before now? And we wish we had and we didn't, and we're glad that we've done it now. So one of the things that I thought we'd show you, one of the cool things that we did as part of it, we're trying to figure out -- we were having a conversation internally about how do we make sure that we're really welcoming new coaches into the community, and we're excited when people get certified? For us, you know, it's kind of like, Hey, you know, we're so excited, so excited that you're part of this global community that, that, that is really advocating for strengths, and that you've made the investment and the commitment to be a Certified Coach. So we wanted to figure out some way to welcome people. So one of the things that we did is we came up with this video. And so in a minute, Jim's gonna play this video for it. But this is -- there's this welcome video here. You may -- the sound is a little soft, and so you may want to turn up your speakers just a little bit as you listen to this. So --

Video Feed 8:33

Welcome to the global community of Gallup-Certified Strengths Coaches! Thank you for investing your time, your energy and your heart into becoming a Certified Coach. People often ask, "Who makes a great Strengths Coach?" A Strengths Coach is someone who challenges others to be their best, appreciate their talents and help point them towards their goals. Someone who helps others understand what they can contribute to the world and supports them on each step of their journey. Someone who knows that the road to world-class achievement begins at the doorstep of talent, with the commitment and determination to build strengths -- that set of consistent, near-perfect performance time and time again. Someone who believes in the power of strengths to transform the culture of an organization and enable teams to elevate their performance.

Video Feed 9:31

At Gallup, we are committed to solving the world's biggest problems and shifting the conversations around human development to focus on what's right with people, rather than what's wrong with people. To help you become a great coach for leaders and managers, students and teachers, teams and organizations, and all the people that you serve. With your commitment, Gallup's science and expertise, and the support of a global community of coaches, you have what you need to positively influence someone's life and give them the gift of strengths. And with each person, each team, each organization, one conversation at a time, you, you, you will change the world.

Dean Jones 10:25

So there it is, that is the welcome video. We are really excited about it. I -- every time I watch that video, I get chills. I just love that video. And, and it was no small feat pulling it off during a pandemic. So, Andrew did a phenomenal job coordinating that and getting everybody kind of put together and our editing team pulled it together. I mean, it was just great. It was just really great. So we're excited. We're gonna share that on social media so people know -- kind of people know that, and and people know how we welcome folks into our community. So I think that's really great. I'm really excited about it. Jim, anything, yeah. Go ahead.

Jim Collison 11:05

Folks would be encouraged -- I'll be putting it out on Facebook here right after the program. And so in the various groups, the links to it, you're welcome to share that. That's, that's that, that we don't want to keep a secret. And so if you want to, if you want to share that around, if you, if you, if people ask you, What, what is coaching, you know, as far as the impact in that? You can share that video with them as well. Dean, we had a we had a pretty great Summit. Speaking of learning, we had a great Summit that we pulled off all virtually, and I know you have some reminders about that post-Summit. Why don't you spend a little bit of time talking about that as well.

Dean Jones 11:37

Yeah, I just want to go back. You know, one of the cool things about this Summit -- I, I don't know about you, but it was a phenomenal day of learning. And it was almost like so much learning in one day. And so I, you know, I, during that day, it was, it felt like just this incredible global community had kind of come together online. And so, connecting with people, going to sessions and seeing great learning. I attended 2 -- 3 -- 2 sessions that day other than the session I delivered. And gosh, I just learned so much. It was just great. The keynotes were great, the learning was great.

Dean Jones 12:13

One of the things I do want to encourage everyone to be doing is going back. This is -- we've got a 3-month window when this is all available. And I want to make sure that I'm just reminding everybody, Go back and watch those recordings. So I would really encourage people to do that. I know that some around the world have started to organize kind of discussion groups around it. And boy, I think that would be an incredible way to magnify the learning is to, is to connect with other coaches, either other coaches in your vicinity or other coaches that you just have a relationship with from around the world. And be -- you know, either watch it together or just, just after watching it, just come with your notes and your suggestions and how you're going to implement that.

Dean Jones 12:59

You know, to be a community of practice, it really means that we as a community need to share with each other. There's no -- nothing more powerful than the learning that we get from each other. So I think it's really important to be using all of this development we've got and really maximizing it. It is one of the cool things that, that a virtual summit makes possible that, that an in-person summit doesn't, is having access to all this stuff, and being able to kind of work it over in this way. So I think it's, I just think it's a great opportunity to be able to do that. So I would really encourage people to do it.

Jim Collison 13:32

The link to get in there, Dean, is super easy now. So if you could gallupatwork.com -- so you had to come to the Summit purchasing and be be a part of it to begin with. And we don't have a program for folks after the fact I know we created a lot of FOMO with that. You can sign up for 2021 right now if you'd like to, but gallupatwork.com. In the very top of the screen, there's a login button for the 2020 Summit. Click it and give us your email address, and you are in. So it's very easy to get into -- all of the videos are available now.

Dean Jones 13:58

Yeah, and remember that they won't last forever. I -- the thing, I think sometimes it's, like, I may be the king of procrastinators, but they will not last forever. So I think it's important to know, Hey, in 90 days, those, those those babies are going to expire, right? So getting in now, being able to watch that and use that and learn from that, I think is an important thing.

Jim Collison 14:19

The dog eating your homework, not an excuse. For this one, you need to -- but anything else on the summit before we move on?

Dean Jones 14:27

No, I think that's great. I was gonna mention, the other thing I would really, I would really be digging into right now particularly is Gallup Access. So for those of you who don't know, or may, you know, we may not be familiar with it, Gallup Access is our technology platform. One of the, one of the big things we did last year was to migrate our old Gallup Strengths Center site into Gallup Access. And the reason we did that was we knew Gallup Strengths Center wasn't going to be the technology platform that would carry us into the future and we know that Gallup Access is. And we're, you know, every month, we push live lots and lots of updates and new content, new information, new tools in the Gallup Access every single month.

Dean Jones 15:13

So it's one -- it's such a powerful platform. Jim and I were laughing the other day, there was somebody that I coached that Jim had talked to who said, "Oh, my gosh, I just discovered Gallup Access!" And it is one of those things where we are, you, gosh, we are working on it all the time. So it is and, and hopefully, you know, as, as somebody who's part of it, we, we, you start to see all of this stuff start to accumulate. That one of the cool things about the platform is there is phenomenal learning on the platform. So there are learning modules. There are videos. There are articles. There's tons of content in there.

Dean Jones 15:49

And particularly right now, I would tell you, we have a ton of content about remote working that is in the platform. We have a lot of, of content about how organizations can manage the disruption of COVID-19. We have a lot of content about diversity and inclusion, right, equity and belonging. Some really powerful content. If you guys aren't following, one of my, one of my favorite people at Gallup is Jonathan Rothwell. Jonathan's is one of our, he's our Principal Economist. He is generating some content that I think is just groundbreaking. He's had articles that have been published by Brookings. He's had articles in the New York Times, and, and he is doing some research and some thinking that is absolutely groundbreaking.

Dean Jones 16:32

We also have links to things like Mohamed Younis, who's the editor of the Gallup poll, has been doing a series of podcasts with leaders from all over the world, which has just been phenomenal learning. So the resources there are just incredible. And so I would just really encourage you to be digging into Gallup Access. It's just, it's a repository with just so much learning. I would 100% do that. So anything, Jim, on that?

Jim Collison 17:02

Jonathan has his own podcasts as well. So "Out of the Echo Chamber," available from Gallup Webcasts out there. And then "The Gallup Podcast" is the one Mohamed is on. We got super original with that one. So both are available; both you can, you can download through any podcast app. Again, if you go to any podcast player on your phone and search "Gallup Webcasts," you'll see all those available. If you can't find them, let me know as well. Dean, what else do you have for us?

Dean Jones 17:30

The last thing I wanted to kind of talk about today is, I just want to give you a little reminder or a little update that when you go to gallup.com on Monday, it's going to look different. So one of the things we're doing is we're doing some updates to gallup.com. And you'll notice, you know, we do this periodically, where we're updating our website, we're updating the approach. And for us, you know, we, as, as we continue to evolve, we continue to see and continue to get feedback, well, we continue to see ways that we can present what we do and the research that we have and the value we provide for the world in new and different ways.

Dean Jones 18:06

So when you go to gallup.com on Monday, one of the things you'll see is a, you'll see a new homepage, you'll see a new navigation. I don't want to, I want to make sure that doesn't throw you. Because all the stuff that you, that, you know, is there, is still there. And, but it's presented in a way that it should be more accessible. And I think it's, it's easier to dive into some of the resources that we've got available, so -- that that are really relevant. It's also a dyn -- this homepage is more dynamic than the last one was. So you'll see it changing on a regular basis. So as we are generating new content, as we are sharing new research and new information, that homepage just automatically gets updated. So it should be a great destination for you, as you're thinking about, like, what is the research that can make you stronger, better, more effective in the work that you do?

Jim Collison 18:56

One of the things that gallup.com continues to work on, and we benefited it -- this was one of the benefits of moving off the Strengths Center and moving on to gallup.com was we have an incredible search engine on gallup.com available. So lots of the questions you guys asked me in Facebook, I just go to gallup.com and search, and then I put it in there. And everybody's like, "Jim, you're so smart!" No, not really that smart. Really good at search. So if you, if you are having trouble, you have some questions, "What's Gallup thought about this?" "What about research on that?" "What about, you know, all these different topics you come up with that seem endless to me, sometimes?" You can just put them in search, and chances are, you're going to find it there if we have it, if we have available. So don't forget, go through, look at the resources.

Jim Collison 19:37

And a great reminder, since we're talking about learning, a great reminder to kind of audit gallup.com/cliftonstrengths. We continue to add tons of resources that are available for you. If you go to the About section, there's 5 sections there that talks about the history of CliftonStrengths, the, the, the why, the how, the Domains, the themes -- all these pieces are in there. And I just don't think some people know that they're there to get them. So if you haven't spent some time, maybe today would be a great day. Or maybe this weekend would be a great time to spend some time going through gallup.com/cliftonstrengths. seeing what's there, getting familiar with the processes and being able to do that.

Jim Collison 20:12

Dean, I want to go back, speaking of a learning resource, when we think about kits -- because this has been, since we've gone to the digital kits, we've mentioned this in the Learning Series, I think, a couple times, and we've spent a lot of time talking about it. But for individuals who trained early with us, and were on a paper kit, and now we have these digital, digital kits, and we keep talking about them. What's the path for them? I know we offer, I think we offer that digital kit in English only for a pretty good price. Is that right?

Dean Jones 20:36

Yeah. So one of the things that we, and we've done this since we released the digital kits is if you did, if you did the course with us and you got a paper kit, we offer a discounted version of the digital kit. You can buy one of each of the digital kits for essentially $200 off -- it's $295 U.S. for that. So it's a, it's about, roughly speaking, it's about, about two-thirds of the price of what it would be for to buy the kit new, right?

Dean Jones 21:04

We also now offer with, if you did the course, and you bought the digital kit, we offer an opportunity to buy a paper kit, right? So we know that there's some people that they've got the digital kit, but they actually would love to have a paper version. And so we, we offer that to folks, right. So typically, you should have gotten a promo code that in your course that allows you to be able to do that, around that. So if that's something that you, if that's something that in your -- check in your course materials; there should be a promo code that allows you to be able to purchase that. If you don't have that promo code, just send us a note at coaching@gallup.com. We will, we'll get you the promo code. They have to -- they verify that you attended the course or when you attended the course to know what offer that you got. And then you can use that in our store to be able to purchase the kit. And you know, we just -- anybody who's using those kits knows they are just indispensable resources, right?

Dean Jones 22:01

You know, one other thing I think we should mention, Jim, is, I think -- and this change is going in effect this weekend, and I want to make sure it doesn't confuse anybody. But one of the things we're doing is we're changing the name of the Accelerated Strengths Coaching course. And I don't know if you guys have known -- if you guys have heard this or know this, but -- and I, trust me, I know, change is hard. You know, I, you know, as somebody, you know, I don't necess -- I always think I love change until it, until it happens, right? So you know, it's the change I see coming and control, that's the change I like, right? The change that happens to me, not so much, right.

Dean Jones 22:42

So we are changing the name of the Accelerated Strengths Coaching course. And so the Accelerated Strengths Coaching course is now becoming the Gallup Global Strengths Coach course. Let me say it again: the Gallup Global Strengths Coach course, right. And if you, if you think about it, the reason that we originally called it the Accelerated Strengths Coaching course was because we had 3 two-day courses that we put together in an accelerated version. Well, as the Accelerated course has become the standard around the world, we very seldom anymore do the individual courses; we do the Accelerated course basically everywhere in the world. So it's really just become the course, right. So it made sense at some point to be able to say, Hey, let's change the name so it more readily, more accurately reflects what the course is and what the course is about.

Dean Jones 23:32

So that course, as of this weekend, you'll notice on our website, we're changing that to Gallup Global Strengths Coach course. Now, does that mean the name of the certification is changing? No, it's, it, it's still being a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach. And so that, that is still, still exactly the same way, but the name of the course is changing, right? And so the name of the course has changed. So I want to make sure you know that and you're not confused around that or wonder, Hey, is this a new course that I should have done? No, it's just a name change. We did have some people that knew about it who said, Gosh, does that mean the course has changed? Now the course hasn't changed. Right? Same course, same course, same content, just new name.

Jim Collison 24:14

And the reason that's coming out early is because we have been in the process, you know, many folks have struggled at times with our shop -- so shop.gallup.com we've been migrating off shop onto store [store.gallup.com]. And then there's some changes coming to the way we sell our courses through software. And so all those changes are happening to make it better for you, to make it easier for people. We listen to a lot of feedback on, This is difficult. Why can't I buy things in this region? and some of those kinds of things, and continue to make improvements on that, that, that change is all -- those are all happening this weekend.

Jim Collison 24:48

So we, as we drive to try to make the experience better -- and trust me, for every -- sometimes it's like an amoeba when you talk, when when it's like working with customers. You push on one side to respond to feedback and it pushes back in other areas that, you know, it's like, Oh, yeah, that's going to have an effect on that. Well, a lot of those things are changing and they're coming out. It should be, for most people, it should be a seamless transition. So you really shouldn't notice in that. I'm sure some of you will. And I'll hear from you. And that's OK. If you have some questions on it, you can send them to me, and we can kind of get those sorted out for you.

Jim Collison 25:19

But there is a lot this weekend, there will be a few changes that you may notice if you're spending some time in there. Dean, I often -- I overemphasize the fact that people spending time on our site, and I say they don't spend enough, but yet then we make some changes and I hear from folks who obviously must have photographic memories and remember, like, no, it was this way and not this way. And so we appreciate you guys being very attentive to that and giving us some, some great feedback along the way. So you may see some changes. We don't expect any downtime during that, but if you do see some, if you do see some, it could, you know, just based on what we're doing, it could be for what -- big weekend, yeah.

Dean Jones 26:00

Yeah, and you know, and the other thing I guess I, you know, I know, we, just so you know, we are always listening. It -- I know that sometimes people in the coach community, particularly, I think that are so close to us, get frustrated. And I think they get frustrated because they say, Gosh, you know, it'd be great if we had this, or we should -- we really need this feature. Or this is not working right, you know, or it's not working as well as it should. Or, hey, this seems a little, like, you know, I've spent time with coaches who said, Hey, this Search function doesn't really work right, or is kind of a little kluge. Or this, you know, it'd be great if we had this or, you know, it'd be great if you had these languages. Right. We -- we're hearing that, you know, and we hear that the you -- the thing you got to know is don't stop giving us feedback. You're always going to be ahead of us. It's just the truth. We have a certain amount of resources we can devote and dedicate to this. And we are working all the time to make things better.

Dean Jones 26:55

And how we know, you know, there's those moments when we as we're, as we're investing and as we're working, that we're thinking about, OK, where do we go next? And we really try to listen to all the feedback that we're getting, and prioritize the stuff that's really going to make the biggest impact, right? Sometimes we get it right; sometimes I don't, we don't always necessarily get it right. But I think for the most part, we get it right in terms of listening to everybody and continuing to invest. And we're not going to stop. I mean, it sounds funny to say we're just not going to stop. We're going to keep going. And we're going to continue to invest and we're gonna continue to work on this and this is the, this is the, this is the direction we're going.

Dean Jones 27:32

So your feedback and your partnership is just super helpful for us. So even though, you know, even though it feels like, Gosh, sometimes it feels like things are a long time coming, just know that that we feel the same way. Gosh, we wish that everything moved faster. And one of the, you know, we are investing a lot, particularly in making everything digital, because that does help us move faster. You know, we have really seen the benefit of, of moving as much digital as we can so that we can be responsive and move as quickly as possible. So hopefully that that's, hopefully that's useful.

Jim Collison 28:07

You say, digitally as fast as possible. We should also just remind them of -- you want to talk a little bit about certificates coming digital, digital delivery to those?

Dean Jones 28:17

One of the things that we just did was we just migrated all of our Certified Coach certificates to digital certificates. And this was a big deal. We actually looked at this for a long time. We got some, we got some feedback from coaches who said, "Great, we would love to do that." We got some feedback from coaches who said, "Gosh, I never want you to go to digital certificates." And so, just, just being transparent and truthful, gosh, we heard from people on both sides of this one, right. And we got to a point was interesting thing that we got to a point where we started looking at the production that it took around doing this, and, which was wild -- it turned out to be wildly expensive. So when we actually added up what it was costing around this, it, we realized like, shoot, we are spending a ton of money doing this that we could be investing in some of the other things that are a priority for this community.

Dean Jones 29:09

The other thing that we looked at was -- it was funny, but we got a significant number of certificates that we mailed out to coaches returned. And it was -- it's interesting thing. So we were -- we had this backlog of certificates that were undeliverable. And so we realized that by doing the whole thing digitally, one is, we could get certificates in the hands of people more quickly. The other thing we could do is when there was an error in them, or when they need to be updated when somebody's recertified it's almost instantaneous. We adjust it in our system, and boom, somebody can go pull that certificate; they're ready to go.

Dean Jones 29:44

It also -- and I know this is not everybody, but we had a group of coaches who said, Hey, I have to attach my certificate to when I submit a response to an RFP or when I have to demonstrate to somebody, it's great to have a PDF of my certificate so I can actually -- I can actually demonstrate Yes, I am certified and be able to validate that, right. So we decided, we made the decision to go this direction. I will tell you since we've gone this direction, we -- what's great about it is, is we're getting certificates in the hands of people. And that over time, you know, we know, again, change is hard, right? And I think everybody loves having that physical certificate. But having the digital certificate and having it readily available has turned out so far to -- it feels like it's a good move. Right? And so, so we made that change, and hopefully that that's something that everybody in the community will embrace.

Jim Collison 30:39

Yeah. And it's so far so good. In fact, we've already, we, the first design that we put out had some things we wanted to make better about it. And so the team has gone back and is reworking it and will be able to release that pretty quickly. So it just, it makes it -- it really does allow us to update those so much faster than we did before in the digital form. Dean, anything else that you'd share?

Dean Jones 31:00

No, just Ralph asked a great question in, in chat where he said, Is there a possibility to have a link that officially certifies that I'm certified so I can link it to my webpage? We don't have that right now. But Ralph, just so you know, that's something we're looking at. Right? That's -- we want to make, we'd like to we'd like to figure out some way that we can do that or also give you some kind of badge in LinkedIn. So we're looking at around that; we think that's, that's useful. And so just know that that's -- that we're not there yet, but that's absolutely in our ecosystem as something that we'd like to, we'd like to investigate. Right. And so around that.

Jim Collison 31:36

And then, Maureen asks, Is there any additional recognition for doing the advanced certification?

Dean Jones 31:42

Not right now. You know, Maureen, that's a great question. One of the things we've toyed with is, should we have an advanced certification, right. And we've talked about that. Right now, you know, part of it, we have been investing so much in making sure that the first-level certification, that that first certification is really available to everybody. And as, you know, I will tell you, as much as we've invested and, and worked on that over the course of, gosh, the last 8 years, really, that we've been, we've been working on this, I would tell you that I still don't think there's enough Certified Coaches in the world.

Dean Jones 32:14

You know, I, literally, the demand, you know, we, we, we -- it's over 2 million people a year that do CliftonStrengths. And, roughly speaking, we have about 9,000 Certified Coaches, right. We have more that have done our course and not gotten certified. But I think the cap of, you know, we've got a total of 9,000 and we've got 2 million a year, right. So we just need more Certified Coaches in the world. We just flat-out do. And we need more people that are trained. So we've been investing in being able to expand that. And at some point we probably will have some kind of advanced certification. I hope that that's the case. And, and in the, in the meantime, you know, our commitment and our, I guess I would say or my encouragement is, is to everybody is keep learning, right? Keep mastering and because your mastery contributes a huge amount.

Dean Jones 33:05

I know as I, as I connect with you all, and as I as I'm on Facebook and watch kind of what you post and like that, the -- one is I'm always super inspired to your commitment, for your commitment to people. I have spent my life really, I'm really committed to empowering human beings. I'm really committed to helping people accomplish what they want to accomplish -- accomplish and do the work that's meaningful, meaningful for them. So that's really what I've given my life to, and I'm really committed to it. I think strengths is an extraordinary way for people to unleash their talent and really make a difference in the world. I also think the -- some of the awareness that we have now in the U.S. and around the world around diversity and equity and inclusion is one of the coolest things I think we can, we can be investing in right now. And I think, I think as Strengths Coaches, I think we got a unique gift to really help capture the diversity of thinking, and to be able to help people feel like they belong and feel included. So I think that's a real gift we've got for people. So I think that that's really an -- a great focus for all of us right now and a great contribution we can make to the world.

Jim Collison 33:30

Dean, I think that's a great way to end it. Anything else?

Dean Jones 34:24

No, I think that's it.

Jim Collison 34:25

I think that's good. If you have additional questions after you've watched this, maybe on the podcast, or even in the chat room today, send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. That's a great way to kind of just get your questions in there. Of course, you can connect to us on the social sites if you want to do it that way: facebook.com/groups/calledtocoach if you want to do it that way. We have a LinkedIn group, not as active, but if you search "CliftonStrengths Trained Coaches" on LinkedIn and ask permission, I'll let you into that group as well. Just a couple reminders. Don't forget to head out to, to the, to the CliftonStrengths site on gallup.com: gallup.com/cliftonstrengths; not too hard to remember. At the very bottom of those pages, by the way, you can sign up for the CliftonStrengths Community Newsletter. We produce that -- it's available to anyone -- we produce that once a month, kind of keep track of all the things that are going on in the community and some great updates, a great way to do that as well. If you want to follow us on Eventbrite to know when these live events are being done, because they're more fun live just to be honest, head out to gallup.eventbrite.com. Follow us there. And you'll have to create an account, but follow us there and you'll get a notification every time I publish something new. Lots of great information; you might even want to go back and listen to it again. Just saying; no pressure, but you might want to, you might want to get that done as well. I want to thank you for coming out today. Have a great weekend, everybody, celebrate your whatever, whatever -- this is a good weekend just to spend some time celebrating some great things. So we appreciate you coming out today. With that, we'll say Goodbye, everybody.

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