Conducting Insightful Strengths Feedback Sessions, Part 1

When it comes to strengths feedback sessions, an excellent coach is a well-prepared coach. Being prepared not only amplifies the impact of these sessions but can allow for greater spontaneity as well as help coaches avoid common pitfalls. Although coaches differ in their preferred preparation methods, Dean Jones, Gallup Global Talent Development Architect and Senior Learning Expert, brings his considerable coaching chops to a discussion of how you can better prepare for and be more effective in the feedback sessions you give.

Gallup Called to Coach Webcast Series -- Season 9, Episode 39. This is Part 1 of a 2-part series on strengths feedback sessions.

Two things I typically ask: I want to make sure they've read the report [and] I ... ask people to tell me what they want to accomplish in this hour. ... Having an intention transforms everything.

Dean Jones, 50:23

Coaches ... can be spontaneous in the feedback sessions if ... the preparation work has been done in advance.

Jim Collison, 9:51

I find that when you're not prepared, you end up making more assertions. When you're prepared, you tend to be better equipped to ask questions and lead the session through questions.

Dean Jones, 43:35

Jim Collison 0:00

I am Jim Collison, and this is Gallup's Called to Coach, recorded on August 13, 2021.

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 in our chat room off our live page. You can just click the link right above me. That will take you to YouTube. Sign in with your Google account and join us in chat. If you have questions after the fact, you can always send us an email; many of you do. It's just coaching@gallup.com. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast player or right there on YouTube to make sure you get notified whenever we have a new program. Dean Jones is our host today. Dean's the Global Talent Development Architect and Senior Learning Expert for Gallup. And of course, he's the chair of Gallup's Diversity Council. And Dean, it's always a great Friday when I get to spend it with you. Welcome back to Called to Coach!

Dean Jones 1:06
Yeah, thanks so much, Jim. I'm really happy to be here. This is great.

Jim Collison 1:10
Good to have you. We've got an exciting topic because I think this idea of feedback sessions is one that I get questions on all the time. And I think some coaches, to be honest, get a little intimidated by it and have stopped asking questions about it because they're afraid it may look like Oh, I don't know what I'm doing. So I think we're here, we're here today, and maybe in the next session to dispel a lot of that. And I think you got some great stuff. Where, where would you like to get us started today?

Dean Jones 1:35
Yeah, let's just talk about the topic. You know, I, as you know, Jim, and like I kind of struggled with what to call this session, because I wasn't sure how to kind of get into it. I do, you know, I think one of the basics, so we always say one of the basics for people when you're introducing strengths to somebody -- and particularly if you're introducing strengths inside of an organization -- we always say there's kind of the basic 3 things, right. The basic kind of trilogy here, which is, first they do the assessment; then we give them some basic education; and then we give them a one-on-one feedback session. Right.

Dean Jones 1:35
So first, they do the assessment so they sort of know it. And, you know, and certainly we want people to go through and read their report, now that the, we've got this great, beautiful, All 34 report that's so robust, that there's just a lot to digest there. The second thing we always want people to do is to do some education, right? And the reason we put that second is, is we used to tell people, "Hey, do a strengths feedback, right after people get the report." What we found was, is then if you're a coach, and you're working with somebody, you end up doing a one-on-one education session versus really coaching them or giving them feedback on their unique strengths. So we, we realized, like, no, in fact, the best thing is they, they do the assessment -- they get that education so they're kind of in the world of strengths. They know all the kind of questions that they might have that are sort of general questions about strengths get resolved. And then when you get into that feedback session, you're really dealing with them and their unique talents and strengths. So that's, that's really the place, you know, this, so this is sort of a basic, right.

Dean Jones 3:06
I think that for a lot of coaches, and I look at the chat today, and, and, gosh, there's, you know, with so many experienced coaches, right, from around the world. And so everybody has kind of their way of doing this. So I don't want -- the last thing I want to do today is mess with anybody's mojo, right? Like, if you've got a way of doing this, you should -- that really works, you should do it that way. Right? So this is not the "right way" to do it. All I'm doing is kind of sharing some stuff around how I, and, and some of the other coaches that I work with, think about doing the, doing the preparation around it.

Dean Jones 3:43
I do know that for a lot of coaches, I think, in the beginning, you tend to, you know, there's always -- in the beginning, when you're doing these -- you tend to overthink them a little bit. And you worry, Do I have the competence? Or do I have the depth of insight into the 34 themes and like that? And then you kind of get over that thing and feel like OK, I got, I know what I'm talking about. Right? And, but I do think that people sometimes struggle with, How should I exactly prepare for the session? And I really, you know, when you're doing a ton of these, I know that there's sometimes it's like people -- I, I'll never forget the story of Michael Dauphinee talking about, like, doing these on campus and doing them every 15 minutes all day, right -- for days on end, right, and just doing them with students where you're going so fast that it's, you know, you're just, it's like doing a quick read, you know, with people.

Dean Jones 4:32
But for most of us, I think, we're doing these where we're spending an hour with somebody or maybe an hour and a half and talking to somebody about, about their talents and strengths. And I think it's important that we're preparing and preparing to really make sure that experience is a turning point for people; that we really do kind of light up strengths. Right. And so, I think, for a lot of coaches, they're not sure exactly how to prepare. And it sounds funny to say, but I think it's like, you sort of read the report and you, and you read the report, and then you maybe go look a couple things up. But I'm not sure that everybody knows how to do the preparation specific to each person.

Dean Jones 5:11
So I want, I thought it'd be useful to just kind of talk about some of the preparation that I do around this and some of the ways that I think around this, so that when I'm walking into the session, I really am, I'm prepared and excited to spend that time with that person and really unpack what's happening. Last thing I just want to kind of say, just as by way of kind of getting into this, I think, Jim, is, I think, you know, for me, maybe it's because I'm Focus No. 2, right, but so I don't do anything unintentionally, you know. I like to do everything with a clear intention, right? So as I think about strengths feedback, there's always two things that I'm thinking about that I want to leave the person with, right? And I think sometimes we get worried about as coaches, are we doing it right? Or do we sound smart? Or do we know our stuff? Right? None of those are a good intention for the session.

Dean Jones 6:04
You know what I mean? Doing it right never really carried the day, right. And so I think the things that, the two things that I think are super important around this is, 1) is we're helping people with self-awareness. So part of I think what great coaches do is, as you're listening to somebody, you're sort of gauging their own self-awareness. And the, the CliftonStrengths assessment gives us a good benchmark around that. So as we're listening to that person, and then looking at that report, we're kind of, we're kind of gauging, OK, where somebody's self-awareness? You can hear as they talk where somebody is in terms of their own developmental journey around their self-awareness. And so, and I think we want to leave people with a greater sense of, with a greater awareness of themselves, who they are, how they express themselves in the world, the impact they have on others, all that stuff, right? Could they be more expressed? How do they do that? So I think we're helping -- one, one outcome of this is helping people along in their self-awareness journey. So I think that's one piece.

Dean Jones 7:09
The other thing that I think is a clear and important outcome for this is people are empowered. You know, people shouldn't emerge from a strengths feedback session disempowered, right? They should be like, "Oh, gosh, this is great! I really am incredible. And I've really got a lot to contribute. And I really feel like I've got openings now to be able to contribute that." So I think we got to have our eye on the, you know, the not just, Am I aware of myself, but am I empowered to express myself powerfully in the world? Am I empowered to express myself powerfully in the world? Is there an opening for me that I feel like I emerge from that with a new opening, to go express myself?

Jim Collison 7:50
Dean, I think sometimes we mix up, in the, in the context of learning, this idea of preparation with the actual feedback session. And so what I kind of want folks to focus, we're going to, today in this session, we're going to talk a lot about that preparing. My mind kind of goes to, then, What am I doing during it? Right? We're going to cover that, more of that in the second session that we have scheduled with you. So I want the coaches listening. If you're listening today, I really want you to think about the work that you're doing to get ready for this. What are you doing before the feedback session? We'll spend some time talking -- I think it's an important separation, because Dean, you already had my brain thinking, I was thinking through some things I wanted to learn from you. And I was like, "Oh, those are all during the feedback session." I need to concentrate on preparing. So as we dig in here, this is, for, this is, for the coach, the work to do before the sessions actually start.

Dean Jones 8:41
Yeah, great clarification. This -- yeah, exactly. This is the thing that you want to make sure you're doing. You know, I always think, you know, when I used to train our course leaders, I'd always talk about how, you know, you know, if you really want to have impact, if you really want to be able to really be present with people, you've really got to prepare. And so what happens is, is if you're not prepared, then you're not present. And so you really want the, all the cool stuff that happens in the moment; you gotta be, you gotta walk into that conversation really prepared. So yeah, today, I just really want to talk about that preparation, if we could. And then tomorrow, or then -- not tomorrow -- in our next session, we'll talk about how do you, how do you conduct that? So --

Jim Collison 9:27
That's great. Looking forward to it, because I think this is an area -- you say this to me all the time. And when we do these sessions, you overprepare. Like I get, I get a couple pages of notes for you, right? Yeah. And you always say to me, you know, the spontaneity works when the preparation is put in. Like, you don't say it in those words, but that's how I would paraphrase it. And so I think that same thing applies to our coaches is that they can be spontaneous in the feedback sessions if the work has been done, if the preparation work has been done in advance, if they know what they're doing going in. I don't know if you get one without the other. And so, you know, a lot of folks mistake my, my preparation, because I'm able, I'm good to be able to take somebody else's prep and bring it out in them. But, but there's no cheating on this one; you got to do the work. So let's, let, Dean, let's dive in on that and get folks ready.

Dean Jones 10:20
Yeah, so I think, and I want, today, I thought I'd just kind of talk through some of the things that I think are useful, right. And, and, and again, this is sort of my process; this is the way I would, I would suggest that that one goes about this. And, and if you got a different process, that's great. But I think as you're going through this, the first thing I'm doing, I'm just gonna sit down with somebody's report and start taking notes, right. So I'm just gonna start to kind of put, to take notes and kind of capture it. I think it's helpful, by the way to, I really am a big advocate for taking notes around this stuff. I think it's helpful to be able to get it captured and get it out of your brain. And I think it's easier when it, once it's on the page, you know, to be able to start to make sense of it. So I'm really a big advocate for you're, you're gonna sit down with somebody's report, so you're gonna just start to write, to jot some notes, right.

Dean Jones 11:07
So, and today, as we go through this, I'm gonna, I thought it'd be useful to, I'm going to show you my CliftonStrengths report. So as we go through this, I'll kind of talk through what, what am I looking at when I'm doing this? And what, what are the kinds of things that I'm doing? So the first thing that I, the first thing I do is just read the whole report. So first of all, I just go through and I'm just reading the report. I may go through and kind of tick some stuff that I see around it, where I'm going through and highlighting some stuff or ticking some stuff. But I just want to get a sense, it's kind of like before I do the analysis on the book, I'm gonna read the book start to finish, right. So I just go through and read the whole report. That's the first thing I do.

Dean Jones 11:47
The second thing I do is I'm, I start to go through the report and why, Jim why don't you pull up my report. Yeah, so this is my report; you guys can all make your own assessment here. You make your own judgment. But I full -- I, you know, the first thing I do, then, after I've read the whole report and I'm going back through it for the second time, the second thing I like to do is I like to go through and just spend some time with the theme sequence on the first page. So I'm just sort of thinking about those. And I notice I'm looking at, I first like us to look at the Top 10. Because I know that, roughly speaking, about 90% of their behavior is going to come out of that Top 10. So I get really interested in what are those Top 5? What are the next 5? So I'm looking at, you know, What does this, what does this tell me about this person? What are, what are my initial impressions of this person? What am I, what am I thinking about?

Dean Jones 12:40
Sometimes, you know, I see stuff like, you know, I'll see somebody that's got a ton of Relationship themes. And I'm like, Oh, yeah, that's great. You know, or a ton of Thinking themes. And I'm like, Oh, yeah, that's exciting. You know, you start to get some sense of who they are. So I like to really look at what are those Top 5, those, excuse me, those Top 10 themes? So what are the things that fundamentally we're working with? The, the next place I like to go is I like to look at the Bottom 5, right? Those are the ones we know are going to be, if they fire ever, it'll be a surprise, right? We're -- we're, we're seldom gonna see those, you know. And so, you know, you can see with me, I lead, you know, my Activator, my Focus, my Woo, my Strategic, my Relator -- my Top 5, right. You can see at the bottom Harmony, Context, Consistency, Deliberative, right. And so I'm looking at those Bottom 5, and I, you know, I like to kind of notice, OK, what's down there? Right.

Dean Jones 13:34
And particularly, I'm starting to relate to OK, what's down there related to what's up top right? Activator No. 1, Deliberative way down, right, so -- as I'm looking at that. So the other thing I look at is I like to look at the 11 through 15. So I like to see kind of what's there. That's kind of, you know, sometimes, like, I call that kind of the floor, you know; I feel like that the, that that 11 through 15 is the floor, that's right underneath all those Top 10 themes. So, you know, I like to know, you know, and I, you know, it's sort of the foundation that's underneath there. I think sometimes what happens with people is, is, there you are, you're cooking along with your Top 10 themes, and all of a sudden you reach down to the floor and pull up one of those themes.

Dean Jones 14:21
You know, and so I want to know what's on the floor. Like you see, you know, with Dean Jones, you see that Self-Assurance come up, you see that Ideation come up, right? So every once in a while, you'll see that Positivity or that Significance come up, right? So I like to know, I like to know what I'm working with relative to the floor. And what I'm doing with this theme sequence is I'm just jotting down my initial impressions, right? I think sometimes you got to get past your initial impressions. What I find sometimes with strengths coaches is they're going in with just their initial impressions to a strengths feedback session. So they're, what they're leading with a ton is their initial impressions, versus having done the deeper work around it. So in a weird way, it's like you're, you're, you're looking at the theme sequence; you're dotting, you're jotting down your initial impressions. And then, so that you can kind of set those aside. Right. That, that's, you're not going in with just that as a point of view.

Dean Jones 15:21
Judy, I saw your your question in chat. Sorry, I'm not paying as much attention to chat. Is that 90% of the behavior from Top 10 or dominant themes? First of all, that's not a scientific quote, OK. So we haven't, we haven't measured the percentage of people's behavior; that's a rough, that's my rough shorthand around it is, most of somebody's behavior comes out of their Top 10ish, you know. And it's really the ones, you know that exercise we do, where we say is this often you, sometimes you, or seldom you? That, that it's really whatever the top themes are that people would say, Hey, this is often you, right. And part of it also is dependent on that person's self-awareness, so, also. So some, some people may say, Gosh, you know, I am often, you know, I lead with so much Ideation, and it's my No., you know, 27. You know, we have to gauge, you know, OK, maybe we have some low self-awareness around that.

Dean Jones 16:20
So, so one is, I want to leave you with it, that, that came straight out of the research department. Now, what my point is, is that we're really looking at that the majority of somebody's behavior is going to reflect that Top 10, you know. There's, there's, that, we're gonna see that. So, so I spent some time with, I spent some time with the first page of the report, just kind of looking at that theme sequence and getting my initial impressions around all of that, right. And a lot of it's just kind of looking what's they're looking at what domain is what's there, starting to, I'm doing a little bit of kind of connecting themes.

Dean Jones 16:53
It's like, you know, what are the themes that we know that often travel together? You know, you know, I would say, you know, these are the friends that like to travel together: Learner, Input like to travel together. You know, so what are the ones that are a little, you know, that, that are either obnoxious pairs, you know, where it's like, Oh, yeah, there's a ton of, you know, we got a ton of Execution that's, that, that's traveling together, or a ton of Thinking that's traveling together, you know. So I'm kind of looking at all that stuff, right. So, like that. So I first, I'm looking at that. Then, the next thing that I'm, that I'm doing is I start to go into, I start to go into the Top, the Top 5 themes. So I want to look at each one of the Top 5 themes. Did we get a question, Jim?

Jim Collison 17:42
I'm holding, there's a few, I'll bring them in as they're -- I know we'll get some stuff you're gonna cover at the end, so --

Dean Jones 17:47
And so we'll go through that? OK, that's perfect. OK, so the next thing I do is I start to look, dig into each of the Top 5 themes, right. And I want to look at the theme statements, the, these customized theme statements. So as you guys know, the, all these highlighted statements are unique to each person. And so I'm going through and, just like we ask people to highlight the words and phrases that stick out to them, that really resonate for them, where they say, "Oh, that's me!" I think you want to go through and be able to say, "Hey, what's the stuff that really sticks out for you?" And this is where I think your knowledge of the themes really makes a difference. Because I think if you're reading the generic theme descriptions, here we are in our StrengthsFinder 2.0, if you know the, the generic theme description really well and then -- and you're, and you're aware of that -- and then you're looking at these customized statements, I think that makes a big difference.

Dean Jones 18:40
So, and sometimes if I feel like, Hey, it's a theme that I haven't coached a lot before, or if it's a theme I feel like I've lost touch with my familiarity around it, I just grab my StrengthsFinder 2.0 book, you know, or go into Gallup Access, and read that generic description. So I've got the generic description, and then really looking at it. So I'm looking at each one of these, and I'm looking at, OK, What are the statements that really stick out? And I'm really looking in 3 areas: I'm looking at, What are those statements that are consistent with every theme? What are the ones that you look, you know, when you see my Activator here, what are the ones that feel consistent with that theme? Right? What are the ones that are, feel unusual for that theme? So, and it feels like Oh, wow, that's interesting! You know, that's, that's interesting.

Dean Jones 19:30
You know, like the one, like down here, "Because of your strengths, you'll feel a surge of energy" -- that seems normal, seems consistent with Activator -- "when you start talking with newcomers." OK, that's an interesting, that's an interesting twist on this, right. So I'm looking at, Hey, what's consistent with the theme? What's unusual for the theme? And then I'm also noticing what, which are the, which are the elements of this that seem connected to other dominant themes? So which are the ones that seem, as I look at the dominant themes, which are the ones that seem consistent with those other dominant themes? So where do I start to see theme dynamics at play? Right? And so how do I see that work?

Dean Jones 20:10
So I'm going through, and I'm kind of making my notes on this, to be able to say, Hey, what's consistent with each theme? What's unique for each theme? And where, where do I see those connection points with other themes, right? Because as I start to coach, I'm going to be listening. Sometimes I think it's hard, particularly when you're first exposed to your strengths, right, to be able to parse out, to be able to parse out, OK, that's my Activator and my Positivity working together. Or that's my Activator and my Focus working together, right? So I'm looking at those things -- make sense? The, the next thing I, the next thing I do is after I've gone through, so I'm going through each, each of those Top 5 themes one by one; I'm really looking at these statements, right? These are, these are generic statements. I think it's useful to read them and around them. But I'm really looking at these, at these customized statements, right?

Dean Jones 21:04
Then I'm going down through my 6 through 10. And I start to read the 6 through 10. And again, we don't have as many customized statements here, right? We're really just looking at, OK, what are those themes? And sort of a reminder, as we go through this, I like to, to as I'm reading the descriptions, I'm thinking about OK, now how does that theme typically express itself? And where did I see the connection points with the Top 5? Right? Where did I see those connection points with the Top 5, where I can say, "Oh, yeah, that's being expressed there. That makes perfect sense," right? So that I know, so that I know what's happening. So by the time I've done that, I've gone through the whole, their, everybody's Top 10, right. So I'm really focusing on helping them with the dominant themes.

Dean Jones 21:48
You know that when somebody starts out, we used to say, gosh, you could spend your first couple years with strengths, just, just unpacking your first 5 themes. And it's really true. It's really true where people start is, you know, in a strengths feedback session that's an initial strength feedback, if they walk away, and they feel really, like, clear and confident around those first 5 themes, then, then, man, that's a, that's a win for all humanity. Right? If you go beyond that, I think that's great. But I always like, like to make sure, as I'm thinking about, about what's happening, I, given that I'm a guy and you're people that, that are, are comfortable with all 34 themes, I want to make sure I've got perfect clarity around what's happening here. Jim, were you gonna say something on this?

Jim Collison 22:37
Yeah, Dean, I find, personally, I live in the Top 5. When I go down to 6 through 10, I hit it and then bounce back. So it's kind of like, Oh, Ideation, boom. Move back up. Oh, Developer, move back up. Oh, Relator, move back up, right. It's kind of, I kind of bounce off that. And I think a lot of folks will as well. They're there; I work, you know, aware of them. There's some great insight on them. "Oh, that's why my Maximizer is shaped this way, because it's bouncing off Individualization. Right? So, so that's kind of how it works for me.

Dean Jones 23:08
Yeah, you know, so, and part of what you want to, why you want to do that, I think, is (let me just go back here) it's because you want to be clear. Sometimes in a strength feedback session, somebody says something, right. And somebody says something, or there's a theme that starts to happen. And, and, you know, you want to be clear where it's coming from. Like, I'll have to give you a "for instance" here. So I was coaching this woman who is general manager of a business, right. Senior-level person, senior-level person, she's general manager of this, this midsize business, super talented human being, lots of Thinking themes, right? But you can hear the difference-making, right? So you can hear the difference-making.

Dean Jones 23:53
And what, and in her Top, it was toward the bottom of her -- if I'm remembering correctly -- toward the bottom of her Top 10, and in her 11 through 15 were like Belief and Responsibility, right? So if I'm just focused on the Top 5 and thinking about the Top 5, I'm gonna wonder, Where's this difference-making come coming from, right? Because there's nothing in the Top 5 that said that. I could hear the, you know, what I could hear was the Belief and the Responsibility resonating through the, all those themes. So for me, I wanted to know, Oh, yeah, OK, we've got, this, this is where that's coming from here. Right? This is why, this is where this is coloring this, right. And I think it's important for you to be able to kind of unpack that, right. Does it make sense?

Jim Collison 24:37
Yep.

Dean Jones 24:38
Great. Great. So then the next place I go, when I'm prepping, so I've got, I've gotten through -- I don't mean to make you dizzy by going through this report here. But the next place I go is, gosh, I, my page 21. You know, like, what a gift page 21 is. You know.

Jim Collison 24:58
It's by far the most popular page on this report. Everybody comes to 21. Yeah.

Dean Jones 25:03
Yeah, it's just, it's huge. It's just, it's one of those things where I think it's just super helpful. It's super helpful. A lot of times when I'm doing strengths feedbacks, and I do a lot of them on Zoom, you know, I, I just got this, I just, I'm sharing this page on screen, right? So we're looking at it together, right. We can see. It's, it's a snapshot of everything. It's visual. I think it really helps people to be able to visualize around that. And so I think it's super useful. So then, so again, in my preparation, I'm going to page 21. And man, I'm studying this thing, right?

Dean Jones 25:38
So typically what I'm doing is, the first thing I'm looking at is the Domain Intensity Bar. Right? So the Domain Intensity Bar. So I'm working with somebody right now, a guy who's a senior leader that I'm coaching, and he asked me this great question. He asked me this great question. He's like, "Hey, is this a process bar or, you know, tell me about -- like, does it start with your most, your strongest domain? And then as you work as it, like, you start with your strongest domain and then move to your lesser domains? Or is it, you know, how exactly does this work? And so I think it's important to just distinguish: This is not designed, this bar is not designed to be a process bar; this is really just your disposition. Right. And again, just like the chart below is a breakdown of your chemical elements, you know, of your, a breakdown of your DNA, I think that bar really is if we look at a high level of where are you disposed to operate? Right?

Dean Jones 26:41
If we look at your kind of DNA, you can see, like, for Dean Jones, this is a big Influencing guy. And I have shared this before, but, you know, prior to CliftonStrengths, I thought of myself as a big people person, right? I was a big people person, right? I love people; I love having relationships with, and I realized that I wasn't so much a people person as I was an Influencing person. And that a lot of, you know, and I, you know, you look at my strengths here down below, you know, I've got that one lonely Relator, you know, you know, that, that, this poor human being, it's like, is lucky that he has, that he has any friends whatsoever. Because he's got that lonely Relator. And there's no other Relationship themes. And if you look at those, the, all those Relationship themes, there's a lot of them are pretty low, you know. It's just like this, this poor human being, right.

Jim Collison 27:31
Yeah, but even that, for you, has its own advantages. So we're not here to psychoanalyze you, so keep going.

Dean Jones 27:40
But, you know, the, the thing, but what you can see is, is, is I lead with a lot of Influencing, right? So, I lead with a lot of Influencing. So, and I think it's your disposition, right. I always think about, like, when I'm looking at that Process Bar, how is this person disposed to act? Is this person disposed to Build Relationships? Is this person disposed toward Executing? Is this person disposed toward Thinking? What is sort of the dominant way that this person is disposed to see the world, right? And so, so that, that bar is really about your disposition. And then as you start to kind of dig in to each, to the, to the strengths by domain, then you start to really look and say, OK, what are those individual strengths in each domain? So this is where I, this is where I really go to work.

Dean Jones 28:34
And sometimes, you know, I love to fiddle around and, you know, sometimes I'll write on the report on Zoom as we're, as we're going through this, so I'm sharing the report and kind of, you know, as I'm talking to somebody about it, just kind of writing through the thing. So I always look at just simply, I start out and look at, What are the individual strengths in each domain? OK. So what are the individual strengths in each domain? So I'm looking at -- the thing that everybody pays attention to, and gets worried about is, Where are the most strengths? Which domains have the least strengths? I want to know that because I know that somebody's gonna obsess about that, right? So I want to know, OK, where are the most strengths? Where are the least strengths? Are they evenly distributed across the 4 domains? Are we stacked in a particular area?

Dean Jones 29:18
Like, you know, it sounds funny, but you can see I'm kind of stacked up in the old Influencing Domain, right? One of the guys I managed at, at Gallup was all stacked up, I think, like, you know, like, I think his Top 8 were all the 8 Thinking themes, right? And so like, he was just stacked up there, right? So you want to see, OK, where is somebody? Where's the most? Where's the least? What's happening, right? And, and so, and I'm, and I'm looking at what those individual ones are. And I typically like to go through -- one of the ways I go through and do it is I look at, OK, what's in the Top 5? Then what's the next 5? And then I usually go through and put a check mark next, next to 11 through 15. All right, so I'll go through and just kind of put a check mark next to each one here, just so I know.

Dean Jones 30:04
OK, Where's the 11, where's the 11 through 15? (Let me see if I can do that live on the screen here. This is my, my goofy way of managing this.) But I go through and then I'm putting a check mark next to 11 through 15. So I can kind of see OK, what am I dealing with that's that floor that's right next to it? I think that's it. Did I miss anything here? Yep. And so that, so I'm looking, I'm looking at, I'm looking at, I'm looking at that, so I can kind of see OK, where, where am I? Yeah, I definitely missed one. Where am I on, on that? Yeah. OK, this is like a, this is, there we go. Boom.

Jim Collison 30:42
Little bit of Where's Waldo?

Dean Jones 30:44
Where's Waldo? Exactly. Right. So, so I'm kind of looking at that while I'm doing it. So then what I, what I, what I like to do is then I go domain by domain, and then really look at OK, what are those individual themes there? So I, you know, like, depending on, you know, there's no right place to start. I typically start with Thinking. So I always think about, and I'm like, OK, what are their thinking processes and patterns likely to be? Right? Remember, again, I don't know anything. Right. All I know is the other people I've coached. All I know is what I've read and heard and experienced before. I'm coming, I've got to come to this conversation with this person, as a, as a, as an, as a blank slate. So any of, any of my hunches right now, I'm just coming up with hunches that I'm gonna be testing out when I actually talk to that person. But I'm looking at, I'm sitting here looking and saying, OK, given the, given the themes, the individual themes that are in their Strategic Thinking, what are the places that -- how are they just supposed to think? Right? And like, what are the, what's their thinking going to be?

Dean Jones 31:51
One of the gals right now on my team, you know, she's got Strategic No. 1, man. And every day I can feel that Strategic Thinking just coming through. Right? And so how is that person disposed to think, right? Then in Relationship Building, well how's this person inclined to relate to others? How will they naturally want to relate? You know, what are the kinds of things that they're going to be, as they, what's the lens they're going to have as they relate with other human beings? Right? You look with me with my Relator, I tend to, and this is the way I am. You know, I love starting with those, if I've got to build a deep, meaningful relationship, I like starting one on one, right? And that's always really powerful for me.

Dean Jones 32:32
I've got that Woo over there in Influencing that breaks the ice and sometimes acts like a Relationship theme, right, and that helps me to be able to get connected to people. But you know, like, if I'm building a relationship, that, that Relator's, you know, that's, that's really like the power alley for me. So what are the, what is the way that those people are inclined to relate to others? How will they naturally want to relate? Then I look at Influencing themes. What are the ways they're typically going to want to influence others? What's that going to feel like, right? What's the energy or the forcefulness or the -- What's going to come out? Right? You can see with me, I lead with a lot of Woo and Communication, right?

Dean Jones 33:09
So there's going to be a lot of energy -- that Activator No. 1, a lot of energy, a lot of Communication, a lot of that energy coming at you around that, right? And so, and then right underneath it is that Command and Self-Assurance. So what are the ways that people are going to want to influence others? And then finally, like, how are people -- you look at that Executing theme or that Executing Domain -- How, how are they going to be inclined to get things done? So as we look at that, how are they going to be inclined to get things done? What's the way they're going to go about doing that? You know, are they, is there a lot of Arranger in there? Is there a lot of Discipline? One of the guys on my team right now has Discipline No. 3, and man, you just see it every day. That's the way he goes about it. You know, this guy's like, he's, he's making it happen day by day, you know, with his Discipline and his Achiever. So I'm looking at that, right.

Dean Jones 34:00
And so I like to think about, as I'm going through and looking at those individual themes, a couple things, right. So I'm looking at the individual themes. I'm looking at the typical attributes of each theme. And by "typical," I mean, stereotypical, right? So we know there's typical attributes. They may or may not be present for that person. So we got to be open to that. I also try to think about what are the negative attributes of the theme? I know this sounds kind of funny to say, but what are the ways that people sometimes have trouble with those themes or where it gets out of control, right? Like, I know, gosh, I'm gonna have coaching with somebody with high Responsibility. There he is; Dean Jones, Responsibility No. 7, right? I know that typically, like people with high Responsibility often have boundary issues, right? What's my job? What's somebody else's job? You know, what's my business? What's somebody else's business, right?

Dean Jones 34:51
So I want to think about, you know, and I'll jot those down. What are the typical positive attributes that are coming out of this? You know, what are the typical things that might be, we need to manage around that, right? I particularly want to notice the themes where, or the domains where there's few themes present. So in this case, I'd look at that Relationship Building Domain, right? I want to look at that and say, OK, how is this person going to compensate? Right? So we know, you know, like, the funny joke that we all love to tell is like, oh, "No Relationship themes; that means no relationships! No Thinking themes; that means no thinking!"

Dean Jones 35:30
You know, but we all know, you know, we all build relationships. We all think. We all influence. We all execute, right? And so I always like to look and say, OK, How's this, how's this person, OK, we got few themes that are dominant here, how's this person going to be building relationships, likely, in all likelihood? You know, like, for instance, I, you know, know a lot of folks that have a ton of Executing themes but very few Influencing themes. And a lot of the way they influence is through that Execution. So Responsibility oftentimes, man, feels like a big Influencing theme. Or Achiever can feel like a big Influencing theme, right? Or Discipline. So I'm always thinking about, OK, if there's very few themes that are dominant in a particular domain, then where's that person, where's that person likely to be compensating? Right? Because I want to be listening for that as I'm actually talking to them. Right? And, again, I want to notice the themes where there's lots of themes, or the domains where there's lots of themes present. Right?

Dean Jones 36:32
So you look at Dean Jones, and you look at that, that Influencing area, lots of, lots of Influencing. Is there, are there going to be, is he going to get into trouble because there's so many Influencing themes? Now you and I know the answer is "Yes." But, you know, like, Where's the place where somebody, because they've got a ton of themes stacked up in a particular domain, might get themselves into trouble or might have to manage that, or might have, you know, might have some challenges expressing that, you know, if they're kind of stacked up in a particular area.

Dean Jones 37:05
There's a gal I coached for a long time, who's, again, a senior executive. she has a ton of Relationship Building themes, right, and very few Executing themes. And a lot of what we worked on together was, How does she, like she doesn't get anything done by herself. She gets everything done through people. Right. So how do we, how do we help her use those Relationship themes and get everything done so that we execute through people? Right? Worked with a group of senior executives, very few, very few Influencing themes, tons of Executing themes, right? So how do we influence through our ability to execute? And so on.

Jim Collison 37:44
It's such a great reminder, Dean. I mean, I have Strategic Thinking and Executing way at the bottom, and I realize I get things done and do my thinking, like you said, through people, because I'm stacked on Relationship Building and Influencing. And so the best meetings are ones where we collaborate, where we get together, where I can, we can talk it through. That's how I do my, you know, and I rely on others for that. And so it's a great, I just think it's a great example on this. How, what about trying, I mean, when we come to drawing conclusions this early without having a conversation, though, Dean, what else are we looking for that kind of keeps us from trying to be a savant or a, or a fortune teller in this when we get together with them?

Dean Jones 38:30
Yeah, I think the, the piece that we want to look at, I'm gonna do one more piece and then I want to go there. But I think the piece -- where we're going with this is sometimes get, people get worried: "I don't want to get on the, on, I don't want to get on the phone with somebody and read the tea leaves. So I'm just gonna go in and just listen to whatever they say," right? But if we don't prepare, we're not really equipped to make sense of that. Right. And that's the challenge. I think it's like, like, years ago, I worked with a sales guy who said, "I literally don't know, want to know anything about the client or anything about the company before I go for my first meeting. I just want to go, go and have them just tell me and be surprised." Well, the problem with that is, is that you don't make efficient use of your time, right? Then you can't really zero in on what's happening there. You also, it takes time, then, to make sense of it.

Dean Jones 39:21
So you're either going to do this before the session or you're going to do this after the session. And with some people, you may not have a second shot, right? So it really allows you to be able to zero in on what's, what's interesting here, right? Let me do one more piece. And then I want to talk about what you're gonna do with all these notes you've taken. OK? So, so some of the other things I'm looking at, so I've gone through domain by domain. Then I start really looking at some of the kind of questions I ask myself is that I'm, I'm looking at, I'm looking at this, at this.

Dean Jones 39:52
One of the common questions I ask people -- and I think I've mentioned this before -- is, Where's the engine here, right? What's, where's drive, energy, determination gonna come from? So, and we know that some of those themes can be big engines. We know, for instance, Achiever can be a big engine for people. Significance can be a big engine, that big ego drive. Competition can be a big engine for people. But I'm looking at, Where's the motivation? Or where's the drive and the energy going to come from here? So I'm really looking at that. Another thing I'm looking at is, What's somebody's work style going to look like? How are they going to organize and approach their work, given what we see here? So what, how, you know, what's that going to look like? Another question I may ask myself and, you know, we could go through a whole session just talking about these, these questions.

Dean Jones 40:40
But another thing I always look at is I look at the temporality of their talents. So I look at where, where are they likely to be focused in time? I did some coaching with somebody around this to just really look at, look at somebody. Like sometimes people are very past-based. You know, they've got a lot of themes that, that, they tend to be very past-based. Some people are very present-based, you know. So let me give you an example. You know, I worked with somebody who was high Adaptability, high Arranger, right. So it was a lot of being able to react in the present, make it work in the present, around that. Some people are very futuristic. You look at me, I tend to be a futuristic cat, right? I have Futuristic, I have Focus, right? I have a lot of those themes that have me kind of -- I have Strategic. I tend to be, I tend to be kind of a futuristic cat.

Dean Jones 41:32
So I'm always looking at kind of what's the temporality of somebody's strengths? Another thing I ask about is the energy level. So I'm looking at, given these themes, what's likely to be the energy level of their talents, themes, of their strengths around this, right? are they likely to be a low-tone human being? Are they likely to be super high tone? Are they going to be somewhere in between? So you look at, you look at mine, you can see the energy coming off of, you know, the Activator and that Woo and that Communication. There's a lot of that Achiever even. There's just a lot of energy coming off of this profile. So I'm looking at, Where's that energy level, right?

Dean Jones 42:09
Because that's gonna then translate, again, each one of these: the motivation, the work style, the temporality, the energy -- all those things are going to translate into, What's the contribution they're gonna make? What might be barriers that they're dealing with? Finally, the other question I ask is, How, what's, what are the themes around that? Where are they going to, what are they going to use to connect and collaborate with other people? So what are the themes that they're going to use in, around building relationships and connecting and collaborating?

Dean Jones 42:36
So those are the, those are the kind of questions I'm, I'm thinking about as I'm going through this. What's the engine? Where's the, where's the motivation and drive coming from? What's the, what might their work style be? Right? What's the temporality or what might the temporality of their strengths be? What's the energy going to look like? Where do, how do they connect and collaborate? So I'm looking at all that, right. So then I'm taking all of these notes that I've taken. And, this is to your point, and I'm starting to synthesize it. Jim, I think we can lose my report here. So I'm taking all these, so I'm taking all these notes, right. So I've gone through and I've read this report. I've really studied this report. I've taken all these notes. Then I'm gonna synthesize it. And what I, the output of that is that I'm going to come up with the questions that I want to ask.

Dean Jones 43:23
So it sounds funny to say, but I'm not, I'm not coming up with all the brilliant points I'm gonna make. I'm coming up with the questions I'm gonna ask, right. And so I find that when you're not prepared, you end up making more assertions. When you're prepared, you tend to be more -- better equipped to ask questions and lead the session through, through questions. So if you're prepared, you've made all the points, you've made all the assertions around it. And I always tell people that what you're doing is coming up with a hypothesis. So this is like junior high science, middle school science. You know, I always tell, you know, if, just to remind you, in middle school science, we all learned that a hypothesis is a proposed explanation for an observable phenomenon. Right? You know, you know, if you, if you knew that already, you got an A in, in middle school science, right.

Dean Jones 44:17
You know, the other definition of a hypothesis that I love is, it's a provisional theory whose merit requires additional evaluation. I'm going to say that one again, because I think that's the working definition for us, right? It's a provisional theory about somebody whose merit requires additional evaluation. In other words, we're coming up with sort of a working understanding of who we think this person might be, might be, and we're going to, our, in our strengths feedback session, we're gonna kind of test that to prove it or disprove it. "Oh, yeah, that turned out to be exactly the way I thought it was." "Whoa, didn't expect that. Totally different direction." OK. That's good to know. Right? So, but we're coming in with sort of a point of view around this. Right?

Dean Jones 45:04
So what I'm, what I'm doing is I'm starting to now synthesize my notes into a set of questions that I think I'd want to ask around this. Now, I would say all coaches have kind of opening questions that they love, you know, and they typically use. And I think, you know, we typically start a feedback session with a lot of indirect, open-ended questions. And I think that's always, you know, what'd you notice in your report? You know, what confirmed what you already knew about yourself? What surprised you? Was there anything that didn't make sense to you in this report? Right. So (as you read the report).

Dean Jones 45:37
So those are some typical kind of open-ended questions: What's working? What's not working? Where do you know? And that, that helps us to be able to know, What's the degree to which the person understands what they read? What's the degree to, I think we're also testing for awareness here. If you've done the, our Advanced Strengths Coaching course, you know, where you know this first developmental milestones, understanding, awareness, appreciation, right? We're sort of testing for where we're at for that, right? What, what do they understand? What don't they understand? Where, where's their awareness? Where's, where, you know, what's the gauge on their awareness? What's the level of appreciation they might have around that? Right? So, and then, but those are sort of the opening questions -- that gives us kind of the landscape.

Dean Jones 46:23
But then as we start to kind of drill in, we start to be able to want to formulate questions that we might want to ask in the session around that. So that we, so that we can really drill into what's working and what's not working. Typically, what we're going to cover in a session is, and I always like to know, you know, right up front, I always want to ask people -- and sometimes I ask people this, to let me know this before we even do the session -- What do you want to accomplish in the session? You know, what do you want to accomplish? Sometimes people are like, you know, "They told me to do this! I gotta talk to you for an hour." You know, I'm like, OK. Not a lofty goal, but we'll get it done. Right? You know, sometimes people are like, "I want to see God." You know what I mean? I, you know, I want to have a full-on religious experience with you. And I'm like, OK. I better, you know, I better have an extra Diet Coke that day. Because, you know, we're going for it, right?

Dean Jones 47:14
Some, you know, and it's somewhere in between, it's like, Hey, look, sometimes it shows up. It's like, "Hey, I really want to go to the next level in my career," or "Hey, I'm having some issues with people," or "Hey, I want to get better at -- bah, bah, bah, bah, bah," right? So typically, what we're gonna accomplish is, we want to, I want to know, like, what do they want to accomplish? What's their relationship to the report? Where are they relative to that? How this shows up in their life, right. And then typically, I'm touching on their contributions, the opportunities for growth they've got and any barriers they've got, right. And we'll talk more about this stuff in the next session. But typically, I want to make sure I'm covering that stuff, or at least I'm touching on that stuff -- cognizant that most of these sessions are an hour, sometimes you're blessed with 90 minutes, but most of them are an hourlong session, right? So there's only so much that you're going to be able to do.

Dean Jones 48:04
So I want to walk in, again, with my kind of provisional hypothesis. And I want to walk in with a set of questions. Typically, I'm walking in with way more questions -- far, far more questions than I'll ever actually use in this session. But I'm walking in equipped to be able to really dive into some stuff around that. And I'm asking the questions rather than telling, you know, or trying to, trying to pretend like I'm psychic. I'm, I'm walking in with questions to start to probe to kind of understand, and my questions, having done this preparation, I'm really well equipped to really zero in on the stuff that's going on, rather than I'm playing catch-up during the whole session, trying to figure out what I should be zeroing in on there. OK. So let me just stop there. I think that's, that's what I got for today. Do you wanna take some questions, Jim?

Jim Collison 48:57
I do, I do. We got a few loaded up. If you got some more questions, throw them in the chat room. Put a little "Q" in front of them, just so I kind of know that's your question. But John asks early on, What do you recommend that coaches ask clients prior to -- to review prior to a feedback session? So homework, so to speak?

Dean Jones 49:15
Yeah. John, here's the thing is my relationship with with people doing prework is very limited, right? Mostly, you know, I, you know, sometimes I'm an ambitious guy. I, you know, I'm a, I'm a, I'm sort of a teacher by nature, right? So, you know, like, the word "homework" is exciting for me. For most human beings, the word "homework" is not an exciting word. Right. So typically, I, the two things I typically want to make sure is, one is I want to make sure they've read the report before we go into the session. It just makes a world of difference if they've read the report going into the session. I know that sounds like a simple ask, but sometimes you get people and they will say "Hey, you know what, I did the assessment; I haven't really looked at the report."

Dean Jones 49:56
Sometimes you get people who've said "Yeah, I read the report," but you know they didn't. You know. So one is I love it when people walk in. I had one gal that I worked with, who, she, without even me asking her, she'd gone through the whole report. She'd highlighted stuff. She'd underlined stuff. She'd written notes in the margins. I mean, she was, she came to the session loaded for bear. You know what I mean? I mean, we were just gonna crush this thing. So you know, sometimes you get that.

Dean Jones 50:22
So the, again, the two things I typically ask, one is, I want to make sure they've read the report. The other thing is, is I typically ask people to tell me what they want to accomplish in this hour with, you know. And so one is, we all know the magic of just having an intention, no matter what it is, you know, that having an intention transforms everything. So one is if they've got an intention, if they've got an intention, and they come in with an intention, I think we're in great shape. I also want to know what they're grappling with, you know. And it really sets them up to know, OK, we're going to accomplish something in this session. So it's not, we're not going to just sit, sit and chitchat, right; we're gonna accomplish something in the session. So those are the two things typically, John, that I ask people around that, you know.

Jim Collison 51:06
Dean, how important are our own themes that play into our own coaching style that then play into that feedback session? You know, we try to give broad generalizations on how to do these kinds of things. But in your experience for coaches, how do their own themes play into this and the way they lead these sessions? Is there any advice around that as far as, you know, do you do this for yourself? How does, how does that work?

Dean Jones 51:32
Yeah, I think one is, you know, I think we've laughingly called, I've, I've laughingly called this "MEsearch" -- you know what I mean -- as opposed to "research," right? I think one is, you got to know your own report inside and out. And you got to have done this work on yourself. Because until you have, what happens is your values and biases creep in your coaching just too much, right? Like, I'm Focus No. 2; let's just be clear. I love a goal. I never met a goal I didn't love. Right. You know, and, and one of the things that I notice is, is that I'm a goal-oriented cat. So that's just what makes sense for me. But, you know, I get with somebody who, that's not their world. And all I'm looking, I'm, if I don't know that about myself, I'm listening through, Where are their goals? Why are there no goals here? Right? Where are they going? They're lost. They're confused. You know, I'm like, but I gotta know, no, that's my lens; that's my value. And if I don't know that about myself, I can never see beyond it.

Dean Jones 52:33
The biggest thing, if you want to be, the, for all of us, our, our talents and strengths give us our lens on the world. And until we know them and we see them, and we're, we've got great awareness of them, we can never see beyond them. You know, we think that's the way the world is. And we can never see beyond it. And so we got to know that first about ourselves so we can see, like, OK, where are we going? Right?

Dean Jones 52:59
So I'll give you another example with me as Activator No. 1. I'm a guy that loves movement. I'm a guy that likes progress. I like to see the movement, and there are people that are completely wired around no movement, right. And, you know, I will tell you that before I knew that about myself, it was like, Hey, what's, you know, what's the deal? I was always trying to get people to move, as opposed to realize like, no, it is a valid way of being to just be, you know. And so, so it's super important that people know that.

Jim Collison 53:34
My first team at Gallup was a bunch of folks who like to think and think and think. And I am, I am built like you; I like to move and, and be up front. And it was, it was painful. There's just no other way around that. Ralph asks a good question: Is there a list of themes' temporality? Maybe a package by Curt? But when you talk about that idea of in the moment, I kind of think many of the themes can live both in the past, in the present and in the future. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Dean Jones 54:07
Yeah. And, and Ralph mentions packages by, by Curt as well. You know, I think Curt was really, here's the thing (it's funny, I was thinking about Curt this morning). Curt Liesveld, for those of you who don't know, was a coach here. He was the person that -- I did the coaching class with him many, many years ago now, probably about 11 years ago now. And he was a coach at Gallup for about 14 years, and probably one of the most talented strength coaches that we've seen at Gallup. I mean, just a really an extraordinary human being. He was, he loved to play around strengths. And so he, and he did a lot of work. He, I think he was like a part-time poet, right? Because he also loved words and he loved to use words to describe that. So he would talk about, he, he was the one that did all of our work on theme pairs and like that.

Dean Jones 54:53
The thing that I think that is the challenge is I think people took that as sacred text versus somebody who was a talented strengths coach just playing around with stuff. Right? So one of the things I think I would encourage all of us to do is, is I think you can trust yourself and you can trust your colleagues. And I think it's the discussion that's really valuable. I don't know, Ralph -- just to nail your question here -- I don't know specifically if there's a list of the temporality of themes. I do think that at some point, Curt was playing around with it. But I don't know, I don't know that there's a specific list. I also, to your point, Jim, I think the themes, you know, it's, it's, as you look at it there, there are certain themes that are disposed toward a certain temporality like Futuristic, right, you know. But, but, again, they're all colored by each other, and they show up uniquely in each person, so you just want to be listening around that. But I do think it's, I do you think it helps, right.

Dean Jones 55:55
Another thing we haven't talked about in the world of temporality is cadence, you know. And I know Curt was thinking about this was, and many of us have thought about this, is What are the themes that tend to go fast? What are the themes that tend to go slow? That kind of cadence is part of that whole, that whole world of temporality.

Jim Collison 56:13
Yeah. He was really good at theme packages, too. We alluded to it a little bit earlier in the conversation. He helped me really see the Woo-Communication-Positivity package that shows up, statistically, that shows up a lot together. But they also have, they, they're also, you know, the three amigos. And they, they hang out together, and they like to do a lot, you know, they kind of party together.

Dean Jones 56:36
Yeah, exactly.

Jim Collison 56:37
You know, and so it's, I love to think through that. I think sometimes though, Dean, we kind of approach it, again, we bring our own biases in. So if I see someone with Woo-Communication-Positivity, I begin to think, even with that tight package of it being like, it's like me, instead of saying, "How does that work for you?" Right?

Dean Jones 56:59
Right. Completely. Completely. I always, yeah, I always laugh because Shari Theer, who's our Chief Marketing Officer at Gallup, she and I've been friends for many, many years, 15 years, right. And we both have Focus really high. But she always laughingly will say, gosh, your Focus is so different than my Focus. And, you know, and my Focus tends to be goal oriented; hers tends to be task oriented. Right. And so, and so, you know, though, to your point, it's like, we just don't know how those tend to, tend to show up until we're really in the moment really listening to that person.

Jim Collison 57:33
There is -- Donna was asking about a list of common pairs, partners, group. There's, there's, some of that exists in Curt's work. I think we have some of that in the, in one of the guides that we have, right, when they train? Isn't there a, what is that, Dean?

Dean Jones 57:46
Yeah, so, so when you do the, the Gallup Global Global -- what am I fumbling -- Gallup Global Coach course, right, Strengths Coach course. We give you a guide called the Paired Up Guide. It was also in the ASC, the Accelerated Strengths Coaching course, a Paired Up Guide. It actually came from Curt's work. It's also, there's an e-book out that has all that work in it. So I think sometimes sounds funny, but some, sometimes people have the paired up guy, they lost their guide, or got damaged or something they're like, all is lost, because we don't sell that thing separately. But all that work is in that e-book, right. And so that's something we can put the link in the, in the video for this when we, when we do it, if you're interested in that. So like that book ebook that Curt wrote was really one of his last big, big pieces of work, you know.

Jim Collison 58:33
Yeah, Expanding Your Strengths, in fact, came out after he passed away, and a lot of that work is there. Dean, any final thoughts? And let's, let's, let's point them towards the future. What are you hoping to cover in the next session?

Dean Jones 58:43
Yeah, I think, well, I just want to, I want to come full circle. So again, remember, the goal of this is self-awareness -- we're, we're helping people along with self-awareness, and people are really empowered out of this. And we're getting ourselves equipped so that we're prepared to go have a really phenomenal conversation with this person. Sometimes it's a one-off, a "one and done." Sometimes we're setting up, setting the stage for more coaching that we're going to do with that person. Next time, I think what we'll talk about is, OK, how do you translate them -- so you've, you've written all these questions; you've set all this up. How do you then translate it to the session that you actually do with somebody? Right? And how does that start to, how does that start to go? So hopefully, this has been helpful. Again, if -- I don't, this is not the right way to do it by any stretch of the imagination; this is just a way to do it. And hopefully, it's helpful, as you're thinking about your own preparation.

Jim Collison 59:35
I'm excited. I'm excited for the next one. And a lot of folks are as well, because that's really where the rubber meets the road. And so, we're excited. But Dean, thanks for backing us up a little bit. I think this is a step we sometimes don't focus enough on is that preparation of getting ready for it. Though sometimes maybe we focus a little too much on it, but that preparation really gets us ready to do the work. And so don't skip it in, in what you're doing. Well, with that, we'll remind everyone to take full advantage of all the resources we have available now in Gallup Access. And we add more resources literally every day. And so if you haven't been out there in a while, go out to gallup.com/cliftonstrengths. Once you log in, if you go to the upper-left menu, drop that down and choose Resources. There's a Search menu there, and just search away. We've been adding more, including all of these resources for the last, oh, I don't know, 6 months. We've been adding all the Called to Coach programs that are in there, so you can get those and you don't have to leave Access anymore to get them. They're all available for you. Still available as a podcast, but they're there in Gallup Access as well. If you have any questions after the fact -- if you're listening to the recorded version of this and you got some questions, send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. I'd love to chat with you that way. Stay up to date on all the resources that are coming up, including Dean's future session on, on feedback sessions and giving them. That'll be available on Eventbrite. So go to gallup.eventbrite.com -- you just might want to bookmark that -- gallup.eventbrite.com -- B-R-I-T-E. And follow us there. You'll get a notification from me whenever I add a new event. We have a bunch coming up here towards the end of the year. I want to thank you for joining us today. I hope you're inspired. I certainly am! And we want to look forward to meeting in the next time here when Dean brings that back. Lots of stuff coming up. Stay close. With that, we'll say, Goodbye, everybody.

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