CliftonStrengths Community Update for September 2020

Austin Suellentrop, CliftonStrengths Portfolio Manager at Gallup, was our guest on a recent Called to Coach. In this September Community Update, Austin and Jim Collison talked about what Gallup has learned from recent conversations with the coaching community. In addition, he provided a window into how those conversations are informing what Gallup will be doing in the year ahead, including:

• An upcoming Called to Coach series on Access
• A group of December webcasts that will look at coaching during the pandemic and into 2021
• Increased digital availability of Gallup products

I always like to ask ... "What is Gallup not providing you as a coach that you really would like to see us provide?" And ... one of the most common answers ... is ... "I need help getting a little more tactical."

Austin Suellentrop, 14:08

I'd ask you to [join] us in December. That may be one of the ways to close out the year. And we'll ... start thinking about what's coaching look like for 2021?

Jim Collison, 13:38

As we think about what's going to happen in the year to come, ... you'll continue to see new offerings ... [including] the ability to buy content from us digitally ... things that in the past, you had to pay to have shipped to you.

Austin Suellentrop, 16:57

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 September 4, 2020.

Jim Collison 0:19

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 in our chat room. There's actually -- on our live page -- a link right above me there that'll take you over to YouTube. You can sign in and join us in the chat room. If you have questions after the fact, you're listening to the podcast or you there on YouTube. You could put it in the comments, but -- or you could send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. Don't forget to subscribe there on YouTube. There's a little subscription button that will notify you when we publish new work. And if you want to listen to us as a podcast, you can find us on any podcast app. Just search "Gallup Webcasts" and subscribe there. Austin Suellentrop is our host today. Austin is the CliftonStrengths Portfolio Manager here at Gallup. And Austin, it's always a great Friday when you're on Called to Coach. Welcome back!

Austin Suellentrop 1:09

Glad to be here. Jim. Thanks for having me.

Jim Collison 1:11

We want to give some updates, and I think we have some, I think we have some fun updates. A little, little less of functional things, and those who know the community know what I'm talking about, and, and some exciting things of some work that we've done. So Austin, why don't you get us started.

Austin Suellentrop 1:28

For sure. Thanks, Jim. So I think the first update, first sort of key thing I want to make sure we share is a humongous "Thank you!" that we have had over the last month or so. Jim and I, along with some of our partners, have been conducting a sort of series of different focus groups with our Certified Coaches. So we've, we've just wrapped up yesterday, our 8th focus group of the last month. And in those focus groups, we had more than 50 coaches represented from every corner of the globe. We had just about every continent represented at some, at some point. I think Antarctica, we didn't hit Antarctica, but we will

Jim Collison 2:06

I'll work on that this week.

Austin Suellentrop 2:07

Oh, we will at some point. And so in those focus groups, we had some, some opportunities to ask you all questions and get direct feedback on specific things we were curious about, but also open the door for you to share sort of what's on your mind with us. And Jim and I and our team, we, we learned an awful lot. And we were able to, I think, validate some things we were thinking and some things we had been hearing, but also open the door to new ideas.

Austin Suellentrop 2:33

And we talked a lot about, I guess 2 key topics throughout those focus groups. And the first one was all things Access related, right? So we were talking about, you know, how code management works or doesn't work for you; about the aspects of the subscription functionality versus our consumer model and what the differences were and how you were leveraging it -- how you were utilizing Access to get your jobs done and serve your customers. And so I think it was fantastic feedback that we heard. And again, I want to thank you all for that, that insight.

Austin Suellentrop 3:06

We also opened the door in those focus groups to exploring some new things. And one of those is the, I guess, the evolution of our digital learning content, and asked some questions and got to hear from you all about, you know, we've been hearing feedback for a while of, Hey, I'd really like to see this tool digitally. I'd really love to have access to this in an electronic format. So we were able to dig into that with a group of coaches, about 20-25 coaches on that topic specifically.

Austin Suellentrop 3:35

And what got me excited was there's a real openness and real candor, I think, in both directions. And I got really, really excited at a couple certain points when I was proposing some things we were thinking about. And the reaction from our coaches was really, I think, true excitement like, "Yeah, that would be nice! It would be great to have that!" And in the, in a way that I've sort of grown accustomed to with this, this community, it didn't stop there. It often led to, "But while you're at it, have you thought about this? And while you're doing it, what about this aspect?" And frankly, it helped sort of shed some light on some things we hadn't been factoring in.

Austin Suellentrop 4:15

So it was exactly what we were hoping to accomplish in those focus groups where we were able to, I think, get some great clarity on what the next investments we're making in Access and in our digital platforms, but also to open the door to some things we can continue to explore. So a really big "Thank you!" to everybody who participated in those and shared their time and their feedback. But also I want to say to all of you, they're not going to stop. Those focus groups are something we're going to continue doing. Through the end of this year, we'll have another couple of rounds on different topics. As we go into 2021, we're continuing to work to make sure that as we at Gallup build out the strengths community that we have, the coaches are a central voice we are listening to.

Austin Suellentrop 5:03

So as we make investments in learning content, products, technology, your voice is being heard. And your voice is being heard through participation in events like that but also through the, the Gallup Coaches Panel that you've heard me mention in the past, We are really close to getting that launched. I joked with a coach yesterday, if Jim Collison and I had been the ones to develop the Coaches Panel, it would have probably been launched in June. And then at some point in the next 30 days, somebody from our data science team would have said, "You know, that isn't exactly what we would call a panel," right.

Austin Suellentrop 5:42

And so at Gallup, we take the phrase, you know, "Gallup Panel" very seriously. And there's a lot of science and rigor that goes into making sure we build it the right way, that it can withstand sort of what we're looking for from a data collection perspective. And so we've been going through that with our team behind the scenes the last several months. And we're really close to getting that launched. So you can, you can expect that as another mechanism to be gathering your feedback.

Jim Collison 6:07

Austin, as we've worked through that panel, I've actually learned a lot, going through the rigor of the questions, and then the demographics and some of the things we pull and the questions and why we ask them. And so it's been a really great learning experience. And I think the time is right. And so, you'll kind of want to stay close to us. Everybody will have a chance to be on the panel. And so we'll put that out there as well.

Jim Collison 6:28

Like, and like Austin said, we'll begin to also do these kind of micro focus groups, where we'll throw those out into the community, say, "Hey, we're looking for, you know, 8 to 10 people to give us some feedback on this. So watch for those. Primarily right now, I'm pushing those out through the Facebook group. So if you're not in those, or you haven't been paying attention to those, you know, and you want to be a part of this, you might want to as well. Austin, one more thing you and I have been doing is one-on-one interviews. I've done a bunch of those over the last 2 months. And I think you have as well. You want to talk a little bit about that, and why we're kind of doing one-on-one?

Austin Suellentrop 6:59

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, as part of our commitment to making sure that you, the coaches, have your voice heard, that we are really understanding what you're facing and what you're, what you're up against in this current environment, Jim personally has been taking on any coach who's, who's had to call into Client Support, you know, multiple times, with several tickets open at a time, trying to resolve issues, Jim has been picking up the phone and calling and reaching out personally, and really understanding what the root issues are with, on a one-on-one, one-on-one level. I think it's been really insightful for him and being able to provide feedback to our, our Client Support teams and our Technology teams to make sure we resolve those, I think, continuous issues that people may be running into.

Austin Suellentrop 7:45

I think oftentimes, what we have found, both through, through Jim's experiences, the conversations I've been having have been more, I think, on are, are situations that come up that are a bit broader, maybe impacting wide numbers of people. I get really involved in those and pick up the phone and have some conversations. What we've been learning is oftentimes, it comes down to either we've made a change in the system that we didn't do a great job of communicating to you; or something's been fixed and we didn't, you didn't know it was fixed; or there's some functionality available that we didn't do a great job of making sure you were aware was available.

Austin Suellentrop 8:25

So I think oftentimes, solutions have been created. But there's a gap somewhere in us building the solution and you understanding where to find it, how to use it, when to, when to leverage it. So that's one of the,I think, the opportunities we discovered here in the last couple months that we're working hard to try and remedy and to try and provide as much transparency and sort of connecting you, the coach, what you're using the systems for, what you're leveraging to what you need, and how we've been trying to connect that. So it's exciting in one sense that we've, we've got a lot of these root issues addressed. But at the same time, it does us no good if we don't help you know when and how to leverage them.

Jim Collison 9:05

And by the way, don't call customer support dozens of times so you get on my list, OK? Don't do that. There's, there's easier ways. If you need, if you need a conversation, just reach out to me. And then the Facebook groups -- if you're a Certified Coach, you need to get that invite, so send an email: certification@gallup.com so we can get you in that group. If you want to join the big group, you can go to facebook.com/groups/calledtocoach. That's the big group, and you can get access to it that way. OK. So Austin, enough congratulatory backslapping on our part of saying, "We're listening." The important thing in this is what are we doing? So what have we learned so far? This is not an exhaustive list of everything we're going to do. But we have, we have and are considering some things going forward. So talk a little bit about that.

Austin Suellentrop 9:51

Yeah, so I think the first thing you can expect is something that Jim has already kicked off. But here on Called to Coach, you can expect a series that Jim is gonna be bringing one of our partners, Leigh Gobber, on on a, on a regular basis. And this Back to Access sort of series focusing in on some of the, the core functionalities of the platform, so that all of you understand the most efficient, most effective way to leverage the tools in Access to get the work done you need to get done.

Austin Suellentrop 10:21

So we've taken all the feedback we've heard and, and all the common issues that people keep running into. And we've tailored walk-throughs and demos, so that you have a resource at your fingertips to say, OK, I'm trying to do this. What's the best way? And we're trying to sort of reeducate you and provide a new forum for it so it's not just a user guide, it's not just having to pick up the phone or even chat with somebody in Client Support. That you've got this community to lean on. And this, this forum is a way to learn more about, about the newest and greatest. I think that's something that's been received really well initially. And we're going to continue that, throughout the rest of the year, as we address those, those big things.

Austin Suellentrop 11:03

I think the other thing is, we're looking at how we fold in all of this into our continuous sort of learning and education components with things like our Learning Series, right? You're gonna, we're gonna blink, and it's gonna be January. It's hard to believe it's already September, and my kids are back in school, thankfully, and that we're gonna, you know, we have Labor Day weekend, this weekend here in the States. And that always leads to Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Year. And so we're going to blink, and it's going to be here.

Austin Suellentrop 11:33

So in January, we're having our Learning Series for our Certified Coaches, like we do every year. And we're going to have some dedicated content in that Learning Series really aimed at helping sort of master these aspects that have been causing frustration for you and our coaches, and make sure you can leverage all that we have to offer on that front. But then one of the things that's been really positively sort of a piece of positive feedback we heard that I'm excited to sort of, sort of guess keep going, Jim. Something you're really excited about as well, which is coming in December around sort of that ICF coaching series. So why don't you talk a little bit about that.

Jim Collison 12:11

Yeah, we, we are excited. Let me pop this screen here. So I'm back in the, back in the late spring, as as COVID kind of took off around the world, we celebrated International Coaching Federation Coaching Day, right. And I gathered a bunch of Certified Coaches internal to Gallup together around the world to talk about the impact of this -- to celebrate coaching to begin with, but we started looking ahead at, like, what does this mean, in this world of COVID, what does this mean for coaching? And there was a lot of things said; this was April, May.

Jim Collison 12:42

Well, I -- we wanted to get those groups back together, plus a few more from from internal resources, to talk a little bit about what do we know now? Like it's been 6 months -- what -- that's felt like 10 years, just to be honest. What, what do we know now? What's different? What's happening? And so we're getting the -- I like to say we're getting the bands back together here in early, early December to do that. And so you're going to see a whole bunch of these show up here starting in the next couple weeks on our Eventbrite page. So go to gallup.eventbrite.com -- B-R-I-T-E on that. And just follow us over there. Make an account, follow us to get notifications when those become available.

Jim Collison 13:21

But a really great way to kind of follow up on what are we, what are we seeing? If you want to hear from Gallup's perspective, what are we seeing in the coaching community and what's going on around the world? We have a good chunk of the world represented, and some of the coaches that we have coming on, some really good diversity in there. So we -- I'd ask you to invite us in December. That may be one of the ways to close out the year. And we'll kind of start thinking about what's coaching look like for 2021? Right? And where that's going to go as we go forward. On, on top of that, then -- and I think you mentioned this already -- the Learning Series is coming up right behind it. So 2 really big learning events in December and January to get ready for.

Austin Suellentrop 13:59

Yep. And Jim, I think, to, to build on that, when we did these focus groups, and we've done these one-on-ones and we've had the conversations over the last several months we've been having, one of the questions I always like to ask is, What, what is Gallup not providing you as a coach that you really would like to see us provide? And I think one of the most common answers that I've heard in my conversations is something to the effect of, "I need, I need help getting a little more tactical, with how strengths fits into a coaching model, or how strengths fits into a structure of conversations." And "I love Name, Claim and Aim, but it's not, it's not, you know, rigorous enough for what I'm looking for; help me connect it."

Austin Suellentrop 14:43

So I think that, that feedback I've taken absolutely to heart, and we're continuing to focus on practical tools, practical guidance. And this kind of series, right, where we get some of our best coaches together and they talk about how they've been using it, about their experience having to now move to a completely virtual coaching experience, right? How have they adapted their style to Zoom coaching, when a lot of us have never done Zoom coaching before either, right?

Austin Suellentrop 15:11

At Gallup, the most common form of coaching we do is over the phone. And now we're experimenting, and a lot of our coaches have with some great success with doing face-to-face on Zoom. It's a different approach to coaching. How have they done it? And that's, that's the kind of tactical approach we're trying to get to help provide you some insight to how we do it at Gallup, and how our master coaches and how our, how our most experienced coaches are approaching it. So that's, that's one of those things that, you know, it comes out of the feedback we receive from you all to provide this kind of stuff.

Austin Suellentrop 15:45

And so we're going to continue to roll new things like this out, and based upon what we hear from you, and in terms of what you're looking for, but also what we get really excited about. There is a balance of -- there are some things at Gallup we just get jazzed about and we want to make sure we share with you. So I'm really excited for that in particular. Those are the kinds of things, when I look at my calendar, and I think about, What can I watch live versus what do I need to podcast and listen to when I'm in the car? Those kinds of events, when I, when we get the Cathy DeWeeses of the world on here, talking about experiences to coach. Like, I want to be there lives because I want to, I want to see the chat room light up for that kind of stuff.

Jim Collison 16:18

Yeah, no, right on. Excited about that content that is coming. Austin, as we think of, certainly, and, you know, this feedback that we're getting, it's not going to be a 60-day response, right, on some of these things, right? We got a little work to do. Can you, can you look ahead to 2021, maybe just from a priority perspective, and kind of say, I mean, I think we've kind of given most of it away. But as you think about 2021, any other thoughts?

Austin Suellentrop 16:42

Yeah, I think it's hard to believe it's been, it's been about a year, right? It was September of last year where we launched the new storefront, right, where we launched the new gallup.com, and Access sort of became our new ecosystem. So as we think about what's going to happen in the year to come, the next year, so talking about from now till maybe next September, I think you'll, you'll continue to see new offerings, in terms of products, in terms of the ability to buy content from us digitally, to gain access to a lot of the things that in the past, you had to pay to have shipped to you. That we're going to be able to have a way to get that digitally to you. And that's, I don't think that's too terribly far off. So that's the kind of thing that we're now in the stages of hammering out, well, what does it look like? Exactly how do we package that? Exactly how do we offer that? But that's, that's something that's absolutely on the horizon.

Austin Suellentrop 17:36

I can tell you, we're looking at different types of subscriptions. Right now, we have one subscription package. If you want to subscribe to Gallup Access, whether you're an independent coach or you're a large organization, it's the same set of functionality. And we understand that doesn't make a lot of sense for everyone. That there are unique needs. There are things that an independent coach may want in how they operate and how they leverage the platform that, you know, a big Fortune 500 company may not. They may need something different. So we're working on different subscription types coming in, in the next year to come as well.

Austin Suellentrop 18:08

So those are, I think, probably 2 really tangible things that you can expect. I hope you've seen -- if you haven't, just go play around on gallup.com/cliftonstrengths, to see all the new content that keeps getting pushed out there. Right. So different landing pages for how strengths helps teamwork, how strengths helps career progression. All these kinds of things that were not there in October of last year, but they're there now. Our team, our marketing team and content team are always thinking about what's -- what are the questions we're asked and the things we're pulled into that we have to maybe pull together some expertise to answer? And why don't we just pull it together, document it and put it out there for the world to see. And that's the kind of stuff you'll continue to see throughout next year is more public access content and answers to common questions and curiosities.

Jim Collison 19:01

OK, you ready for a lightning round?

Austin Suellentrop 19:03

Let's do it.

Jim Collison 19:03

We can take some questions. Anything else that you wanted to cover before we jump in? "2021 is crying out for Strengths Based Parenting." We've talked about this a little bit before. Where are we at with that?

Austin Suellentrop 19:13

Yeah, so we did launch our first-ever sort of virtual workshop for Strengths Based Parenting. We had a 2-hour workshop we, we did virtually, a couple sessions this summer. We'll continue to explore the right time for us to be offering that. Usually when it comes to like Train the Trainer models or things along those lines that -- where we are sort of providing resources and tools for you to then go deliver training -- usually we offer those fewer frequency, and they're almost always done around the Summit. Right.

Austin Suellentrop 19:45

And so since this year, we had that big pivot and the big sort of shift to a virtual Summit on pretty short term, that did not get prioritized in terms of something we wanted to make sure happened this summer. I think you can continue to sort of reach out to me directly if you have, if you want updates on where we stand with that. Strengths Based Parenting, I will tell you, for me, I've said it publicly many times, it's, I think it's the best book we ever wrote. And it is something I take to heart and believe in. I had a very big hand in helping design that workshop that we did. So I think you can, the realistically, the earliest you could expect anything around that would be the Summit of next year, which, fingers crossed, will have some element of in-person and virtual, but it's too early to tell there. But I think that's the best guidance I can give on that answer.

Jim Collison 20:30

And it's available, the registration for the Summit's available right now for the in-person one we're planning. So it's available: gallupatwork.com. Kevin asks me, What's the plan for Theme Thursday, will see -- Season 7 start in 2021? Kevin, you'll have to come to Theme Thursday, that's the, the season wrap, next Thursday. So not this Thursday coming up, but 2 weeks from now. So make sure you're at that. We'll be announcing future plans for that.

Austin Suellentrop 20:57

I would never dream of answering that question without Maika present.

Jim Collison 21:00

Yeah, it's not going to get answered here. So we'll talk about that in 2 weeks. "Where would a newer coach get a review of practical tools to help aim strengths in general or specifically related to goal-setting, effective feedback?" I have some ideas. What about you, Austin?

Austin Suellentrop 21:16

I think one of the, one of those features in Access that is probably newer that many people may not realize is there, right, is we've got a sort of full-scale action-planning tool, right. So we have an action setting and an action functionality inside of Access. So for those of you who have subscriptions to Access, there is the ability to build team-level action plans, and to have individual responsibilities around certain actions that can sort of interface with CliftonStrengths and understand sort of how those connect to it. So that's one of those things that we've launched since October of last year. That's an enhancement to the functionality in terms of a technology resource for it.

Austin Suellentrop 22:00

As -- in regards to maybe just sort of tool like a knowledge-based resources or other things, not as sort of an interactive technology thing, you can look inside the team activity -- like the team, sorry, the team kits we have and the coaching kits around the whole Aim it section, anything we would have gone over like individual development plans, theme intervention models, is one of those things that comes to my mind, where we've got some some practical tools there. I encourage you, if you get in there and you look, and you say, "Hey, this isn't what I'm looking for." That's a piece of feedback we need, right is if you're looking for more practical than that.

Jim Collison 22:39

Yeah. In the kits, there's some specific by-theme resources there. The Insight Guides are there. There's some also, some great in the Coaches Resource Guide, really underused there. And that used to be in the book. It's still in the book, but now it's completely digital in your kit, as well, for those Certified Coaches -- for those who've gone through the training, that is available. Any Called to Coach that has Dean Jones on it, if you haven't listened to it, you're missing out. Like Dean does everything that's really success and focuses on getting people to be successful in their roles. And yeah, Dean's not going to do it theme by theme. I don't think that's the idea. You guys know enough to be able to do that. But Dean's principles on that are fantastic. So if you haven't gone back and watched the series, we've got a playlist on YouTube for it, you can find, just search "Dean Jones" on gallup.com. Like, you need to get on those.

Jim Collison 23:30

And then you need to make sure you're listening to the Success Stories that we're doing. Because each one of those has nuggets in there of how organizations are doing these things. And they're just, they're just fantastic. I can't, you know, I can't recognize it enough. Austin, one of the things we heard during the feedback is, "We want more learning." And I cried a little bit inside. Because I was like, You know how much learning we put out on Called to Coach? And I think sometimes we forget about that.

Jim Collison 23:56

You know, people ascribe value to which they pay. And because we make Called to Coach for free, I think some folks have gotten the impression that it's maybe a lower-grade content. And, you know, folks may -- this -- over the last 90 days, all I heard was "The Summit, I can't get to the Summit. I can't get to the Summit material." A lot of the Summit material we've done on Called to Coach. That's our secret. Don't tell Abbie I said that, but it's on Called to Coach. So if you're not, if you're not keeping up with that, I know it's a lot, but figure out ways to listen. There's a lot of learning that's available is there. OK. Lisa asks, "Looking for more on diversity and inclusion. I see Gallup is ramping up on this. Love to learn more." Austin?

Austin Suellentrop 24:35

Yeah, so obviously that's, that's a topic that here in the last several months in our country nationwide has become more and more at the forefront of conversations. So at Gallup, we have published a perspective paper, right, on sort of the requirements of building a diverse and inclusive culture. And strengths, I think, when we think about how strengths fits into that, I'm always sensitive, like CliftonStrengths by itself is not a diversity and inclusion tool. It's not going to be a solution for addressing an organization's diversity and inclusion issues. While connected to a broader strategy, it can be a remarkably helpful tool to understand the uniqueness of an individual and to build respect between people. Right.

Austin Suellentrop 25:23

So we've got a great paper that speaks to that that is public access out there on gallup.com, around our stance on diversity and inclusion and those inclusive cultures. You know, I think the work we're doing right now, with the Center for Black Voices, the initiative we kicked off here this summer, I think will open the door for us to be able to have more data-driven conversations on the topic, and understanding the current state of the workplace and of our communities and how we can best support it. But I think that's a conversation that we are absolutely committed to expanding. But I'm also really sensitive to not try to oversimplify, because it is such a remarkably nuanced and intricate conversation. So I'm always, I'm, I'm always open to having that conversation with people. So if you want to, if you want to reach out to me directly, I'm happy to engage you one-on-one with that.

Jim Collison 26:17

We -- you and I were just talking about this question this morning. Let me see if I can find it. I lost it. Gallup Gear. Of course, you have to work at Gallup to get this kind of Gallup Gear. Austin, we, we have offered at various times Gallup Gear, and it, to be 100% transparent, hasn't sold very well. Just to be honest, lots of folks want it. But when we go to actually sell it, we offered it -- it was shop.gallup.com before the conversion; there was Gallup Gear available. When we made the conversion to store, we had to kind of prioritize, because we have to build some things to make that work. And it did, it just didn't, it just didn't sell very well. And so we've kind of -- it will come back at some point. But we've kind of depriority, deprioritized it. I don't -- you want to say anything on that?

Austin Suellentrop 27:01

No, I just think, again, I've used the analogy before, like we are evolving our entire online experience. And when we think about where we were last year to where we are now, a lot has been done and improved. But it's the first step in this evolution. We've got multiple steps in front of us. But we're going to, we're going to continue to put to market things that people ask for and buy and add value. We make data-driven decisions on that front. And usually we, we -- I don't want to speak out of turn, but usually we sell, we sell more gear in the Summit during those 3 days than we do online the rest of the year.

Jim Collison 27:36

Yeah, yeah. Easy. And we do, here at Gallup, we do a lot of our own gear. So you see me wearing it all the time. Because it's internal stuff that we, we make. That's one of the great things about, like, this is a Corporate Cup, I think this was a Corporate Cup T-shirt that, when we did a local event, we had our own made. We had some designers do the shirt and stuff. Man, certainly in organizations that you're working with, encourage them to create that corporate identity with some of these things. I -- we actually ought to sell that as a service, to be honest, Austin. So OK, let's see. Hybrid version. "Are you considering a hybrid version of the Summit? For example, you can attend personally, remotely?" I don't know if we know yet. But you want to --

Austin Suellentrop 28:19

I think the success of the virtual Summit this past summer has opened our eyes to what could be. So I don't want to speak for what the definitive plans are for next summer. But I will tell you that I think, I think we're exploring several different approaches, and several different options for how we best make that experience available to the whole world, as well as a really special in-person experience when we can, because I think that's a, it's something that's hard to replicate. But if we can provide an opportunity for a virtual experience as well, I think this past summer's experience sort of shows that that's worthwhile.

Jim Collison 28:56

Any way to get teams from engagement to sync with strengths teams?

Austin Suellentrop 29:00

Well, Trapper Keeper, they should. Part of the, part of the design of, of Access is that you build the team once. And it's there for your engagement reporting as well as your strengths reporting. So you build the team once, and that's the team.

Jim Collison 29:12

Now, for Certified Coaches, they may not be, they may be using different tools?

Austin Suellentrop 29:18

Right. So if you're using, for example, Gallup Business Center to do that, then that's a different platform than Access, right. So that's -- they're not going to sync up automatically. But as that gets folded into Gallup Access here in the, in the year to come, then you'd be able to sync those things up. We'll, we'll talk more about that as the details for that, that sort of next step in evolution comes.

Jim Collison 29:41

Oh, this is a great question. And I think maybe we'll wrap with this one. "What, what are you consider translating resources for other languages like Spanish?"

Austin Suellentrop 29:49

So, again, full transparency we had hoped to have most of this done already. And when COVID hit and we had to think about prioritization of where we spend our effort and, and energy and resources, translations was one of those things we sort of put a, put a stop on. Because, frankly, it's an expensive endeavor for us to get all -- we have such, such breadth of content. Getting it all translated is, is not cheap for us, right.

Austin Suellentrop 30:14

So, the good news is, we have committed to getting it translated. We're using a lot of different resources, or even a lot of our own internal people who are bilingual, to help us translate our research. So the plan is throughout the remainder of this year and into 2021, that all of the resources on that resources section in Gallup Access will be translated into Spanish, French and German. We're, we're at different progress points, depending upon the language, of those 3, but we're continuing to work through that with the capacity we have. So that's something that is actively being worked on. And I will absolutely, as soon as I get a, sort of a, a firmer timeline, and when you can expect it all to be done, I'll be, I'll be sure to tell the community.

Jim Collison 30:57

Yeah, and let me, let me give you a little insight on some of these, and how this works. You know, we just released new videos that have Maika on, you know, the shorter versions of each of the themes. They're under 2 minutes. They replaced some really old, and, honestly, kind of pretty cheesy videos we had made. And we, we released them English, English subtitles, they're ready to go. But they're not translated, and they don't have, they don't have translations for all the languages. If we waited to do all the languages and get them out there, you would never get to see those videos. It just takes, it just takes too long. Plus, we don't really know the demand on them.

Jim Collison 31:32

So oftentimes, we'll release them in English. Our English community is the largest, and not saying the, the other languages are important, because they really, really are. We kind of test things in the English market, just to kind of like, How has this been received? How did this go? What it is -- that's a big test market for us to be able to say, Yeah, is this right? And if it is right, and we start seeing that traction, then, then some of those translations will come with it. So I know, listen, I hear this every day. I know that's difficult for you guys. I totally get it. But with the resources we have, and trying to be smart about it and trying to make sure we're getting great content out there first has been a priority. COVID kind of kicked us in the teeth on this, on translations. So it has been, it's been really hard as we've had to make the, as we've had to adapt. Austin, any final --

Austin Suellentrop 32:19

Every time I've ever spoken with Ralph, Ralph has made sure to remind me that we need things in German. So if nothing else, out of a personal relationship and obligation to Ralph, we will get it done. Right. It's a matter of, it's a matter of when.

Jim Collison 32:32

He's not here. So it -- I don't know. He didn't show up; it goes down the priority list. That's the way it works.

Austin Suellentrop 32:40

So I, you know, as we wrap up, again, it's, it's a huge debt of gratitude to this community. I always like to remind the coaching community, like, I started my journey with strengths in about 2011 was the first time I was exposed, and I was a Certified Coach early, late 2012, early 2013. So I was, I was a Certified Coach long before I joined Gallup. And I understand a lot of the perspective that I hear from our coaches, and I value it, because I understand the impact you make with your clients in your community, with the people you coach, because strengths changed my life. And it changed my life because I had a great coach who helped show me that I was good the way I was. And I could make some fine-tuning adjustments. But I didn't need to hide who I was.

Austin Suellentrop 33:32

And that experience of how my life direction shifted from a conversation and a relationship with a coach is what motivates me to do what I do every day to take strengths to every corner of the globe, and to reach people that have never been reached before. And we at Gallup can't do that alone. And we know that. So I continue to thank you for all your involvement, for all you do. And reinforce, like, my commitment, Jim's commitment, Gallup's commitment to doing whatever we can to best support you. So thank you for everything. Jim, always appreciate the chance to be on with you. And I look forward to talking to everybody soon.

Jim Collison 34:07

Austin, since the subject here, the theme, was really feedback. Can I do a quick feedback thing with, with everybody in the chat room? Can we just try, could we try it really quick? So Austin and I, just a few minutes ago, we're talking, we're kind of planning for 2021. And I said, Hey, Austin, what do you think about a quarterly Zoom call with all the, with the community, where we open up? So this, this kind of format except on Zoom, where you guys get to talk. Now not all at the same time, don't get me wrong, but an opportunity for people to see people and you can turn your camera on and, you know, we get kind of that big group feeling. And then you can ask your questions like you can -- we'll bring you in and you can ask your questions.

Jim Collison 34:44

What do you think, once a quarter? In the chat room just put, "Yes, I would come" -- just say "Yes" or "No, I'm not interested." Let's -- for those 36 or so of you that are out there via Zoom, Let me know -- a little informal feedback. We'll just kind of see how that goes.

Jim Collison 34:59

With that, we'll remind everyone to take full advantages of all the resources we do have available. Austin mentioned it: Go to gallup.com/cliftonstrengths. And you really should have your strengths customers going there as well. Logs you into Gallup Access, straight into the Strengths Dashboard. So they're not getting lost or confused in those things, right into the Strengths Dashboard. Lots of resources available on that page as well. If you haven't been out in a while, you might want to spend some time auditing it. If you haven't, Certified Coaches, if you haven't been in your kits in a while, let's use this time to audit. Like get in there and start figuring some things out. Colors have changed; they're there. Some of the tools updated? Yes. Some of the things to get at? Totally. So get in there, get it done. Just go through it. Just know where things are at. Just do it one time; it'll take you an hour. Get it -- you don't have to read everything when you do it. If you want to sign up for the CliftonStrengths Community Newsletter, it's gotten super popular. Head out to that site as well at the bottom of the page. You can sign up for it. Put your email address in, and we won't spam you, and you'll get that community update each and every month. If you have an email, somebody said earlier in chat, they'd sent this to coaching@gallup.com and they hadn't heard back. Guys, I usually see those emails in about 2 hours. So if you have not, if you've done that, and you haven't heard from us, that's super unusual. Send that email again. But coaching@gallup.com. We have a team dedicated to just watching that, and they are really good at what they do. So make sure you are sending those questions in. And if you want to join us for all these webcasts, just follow us over on Eventbrite: gallup.eventbrite.com will get you in there as well. We mentioned, since we mentioned the Summit, you can head out there: gallupatwork.com. It's open right now if you want to start planning in the dates and some of the things that are coming up. Join us in our Facebook groups: facebook.com/groups/calledtocoach -- all one word. If you're not a Facebooker, and that's OK if you're not, you can join us on LinkedIn. In our LinkedIn groups, search for "CliftonStrengths Trained Coaches." You don't have to be a coach or trained; I'll let you in, but that just kind of keeps the spam out. So we appreciate you doing that as well. And there's no great direct link to that on LinkedIn. So fix that. Watn to thank you for joining us. If you found this helpful, share it with your coaching communities. Love to have you, as we put the -- both the live and when we do the recorded version in 2022 (that's a little joke between Austin and I because it took us so long to get the July update out). We appreciate you guys coming out today. With that, we'll say, Goodbye everybody.

Austin Suellentrop's Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Communication, Activator, Futuristic, Belief and Positivity.