CliftonStrengths® Wellbeing Series Launch

Gallup Called to Coach Webcast Series -- Season 10, Episode 1.

Below are audio and video plus a transcript of the conversation, including time stamps.

Your wellbeing -- and the wellbeing of those you coach or manage -- has been challenged as perhaps never before over the past couple of years. How do you maintain thriving wellbeing, or move to a place of thriving, in each of the five wellbeing elements -- career, social, financial, community and physical? The new CliftonStrengths^® Wellbeing webcast series has answers for you. Using Gallup's Wellbeing at Work book, you'll learn how to leverage your top talent themes, or help those you coach or manage leverage their themes, to become someone who thrives. Join Jaclynn Robinson and Jim Collison to learn about the benefits you can expect from this new series.

So many people right now are just struggling with at least one element of wellbeing ... And so we're really hoping that we can support you and/or others that you support, based on your themes ... your Top 5 or your Top 10.

Jaclynn Robinson, 3:06

Who are those close friends or colleagues that you can lean on and be able to just share with them? ... I can't say enough how important it is to have those accountability partners around you personally and professionally.

Jaclynn Robinson, 26:38

Career wellbeing was what was hurting and needed a little healing and rest. And instead of continuing to focus on it ... you just diverted your attention to other elements of wellbeing ... And that actually filled your bucket for career wellbeing.

Jaclynn Robinson, 35:31

Jim Collison 0:00
I am Jim Collison, and this is the Wellbeing at Work With CliftonStrengths Podcast, recorded on November 4, 2021.

The Wellbeing at Work With CliftonStrengths Webcast

Jim Collison 0:19
In this CliftonStrengths Podcast, we'll look at the Strengths Insights and Action Planning Items from Appendix 1 in the new Gallup book Wellbeing at Work, one theme at a time, and today is the series kickoff. If you're listening live, love to have you join us in our chat room. There is a link right above me there on our live page; it'll take you to YouTube, and you can sign in, join us in chat. Take your questions there; that will be important a little bit later. And if you're listening after the fact and you got questions, you can always send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. Dr. Jaclyn Robinson is our host today. She works as a Gallup Learning and Development Consultant and was the primary contributor to Appendix 1 in Wellbeing at Work. Jaclynn, always great to spend my day with you. Welcome back!

Jaclyn Robinson 1:01
Likewise. Thank you, sir. Good morning to you.

Jim Collison 1:05
Let's dig in a little bit. It's the first day of class -- this is going to be a class for the next, next 18 of these, as we spend time together; two sessions if you join us live on each theme. Or if you're listening to the podcast or watching us on YouTube, a theme at a time. Can you set the stage for us as far as materials? This is where a professor would normally hand out a syllabus. So, Dr. Robinson, what's in the syllabus? What kind of resources do folks want to have available as we go through this together?

Jaclyn Robinson 1:34
If you don't have the Wellbeing at Work book, I would, I would, I would, I would grab it. This is going to be chock full of goodies. And that's what we're going to be going through over the next 16 to 17, you know, shows that we have together with you all. And we're really going to focus on Appendix 1 and Appendix 2 and just support folks as you start thinking about your own themes and your own wellbeing and How do I, you know, how do I think about what works for me? How do I think about what is going to work for other people? And then what are some best practices and actions that I can take and move forward? So that is the primary tool.

Jim Collison 2:16
The book is available -- globally, it's tough to say. It's available in a lot of different locations. You can head out to our store, actually still on Amazon, I think. So at this point, head out or search your local, kind of your local bookstore, whether that's online or local. We try to get that out globally just as much as we could. We don't have an electronic version for it yet. We're still working on it. Maybe by the time you're listening to this, we do, in some form or fashion. But you can follow along without it. But there's a lot of great material in it as well. Jaclynn, what are we hoping to get out of the series? What are you hoping folks will take from this series?

Jaclyn Robinson 2:57
I hope people take a lot of, you know, Ahas! away -- that's my favorite thing to say -- is just some new discoveries about self. So many people right now are just struggling with at least one element of wellbeing, whether it's career, whether it's physical (you've gotten off track), whether it's financial, and you've gotten off track, or you're trying to build your income. But there's, you know, out of the 5 elements that we talk about frequently -- career, physical, financial, social and community -- people seem to be struggling in one of those. And so we're really hoping that we can support you and/or others that you support, based on your, your themes that you have -- your Top 5 or your Top 10.

Overview: Appendix 1 of Wellbeing at Work

Jim Collison 3:40
This would be a great opportunity for the chat room to chime in. You're here for a reason; we'd love to hear from you. If you just take a second in chat, let us know what you're hoping to get. That'll, that'll help us get some ideas as well as we think about the series. This is a two-way conversation: While we're just talking to you, we do listen back to you via the chat room. And so if you take a second, Why are you here? What are you hoping to get out of this? At the end of the program today, I'm going to tell a little bit of a story about how I applied that just this last weekend. And so give you a little bit of a feeling of kind of what I'm hoping to get out of it. So we'll, we'll work through that through here at the end of the program. Jaclynn, you were a primary contributor to Appendix 1. Can you give us a little bit of just kind of overview on what is in Appendix 1 and what's in the back of the book? Why is it so important?

Jaclyn Robinson 4:32
The back of the book has so many valuable resources. And I think about that as application; Appendix 1 and Appendix 2 are application. We can, you know, briefly discuss 3 and 4. That's going to be more resources, references, report style for you. But in Appendix 1, the focal point was to look at all 34 themes one by one, and map them to the 5 elements of wellbeing. So if you are focused on your Responsibility theme, and you feel like career wellbeing is in a "struggle" mode or in a "suffer" mode, you could flip to the back of the book, look at Responsibility under career wellbeing. And there's going to be an insight for you, in terms of what you should be thinking about potentially, or what you might want to do to support Responsibility within career wellbeing.

Jim Collison 5:26
You and I just wrapped up a series with Ryan Wolf. We went through the first part of the book. We talked about, we had Mohamed Younis on talking a little bit about what, what is thriving? What, why is this important? We had Anthony Blue come on, talk a little bit about the data and how we approach the data. We had Natasha Jamal come on and talk a little bit about it from a DEI perspective and from, from a diversity perspective. We had a favorite, Danny Lee, come and spend some time -- it was great -- talking about wellbeing and strengths. Those, that series currently available -- a good chunk of it; we're still producing it as we're recording here on November 4. That actually may be a, I'll tell folks, if they haven't listened to that series as part of it, that's maybe a little bit of homework too in the syllabus: Go back and listen to that. You and I spent a little bit of time together on that. That'll be out here in the next couple of weeks.

Jim Collison 6:26
But you and I spent a little time digging in from a domain perspective. So we kind of spent some time. As you think about the, the, you know, the Appendix, the material that is there, and then thinking through it from a from a strength lens, give me just a little bit of, a little 2-minute advice of, What do you think's the best way to approach this from a coaching perspective? I'm getting the feedback -- a lot of folks are here, dropping in comments in chat. And many of them are saying, "I'm hoping to gain insights." Ken, Ken says this -- he says, "Hoping to gain the insights from your coaching conversations in the blending of CliftonStrengths and wellbeing principles." So take a little second here, as we put those two together -- CliftonStrengths, wellbeing -- Appendix 1 information there. I don't know. What do you got?

Jaclyn Robinson 7:23
Oh, that's a good one. Well, I'll go back to a coaching question I've just been asking individuals the last 2 years, especially, as we start thinking about wellbeing, because, you know, your mind tends to race, and we get stuck in the weeds. And so typically, I'll just ask, you know, individuals, "If you looked a year ahead, what is that ideal situation or outcome for you? What does that world look like? What's the first step you can take to get there?" But let's even rewind back, because we're, we're really focusing on strengths and wellbeing, and I would say, "What does that ideal outcome look like for you one year from now? What element of wellbeing potentially needs to be rectified or repaired or supported, so that you can get to that outcome that you see for yourself? Is it your career wellbeing right now that's impacted? Is it your physical wellbeing right now that's impacted? So let's start there, so we can narrow down one of those 5 elements of wellbeing."

Jaclyn Robinson 8:22
And then, as you think about that next action that you need to take, what theme is going to best support you out of your, your top themes? And then you could go to the back of the book in the appendix section. Look at that theme, look at that element of wellbeing that you recognize is really going to benefit you in getting to that ideal outcome. And consider what that, consider what that insight is. That's one path. So I have Strategic as my No. 2; there's always different pathways. That's one path. Another ... element of wellbeing that is in a funk. Go to Appendix 2. Appendix 2 is set up where it's a Manager Resource Guide for wellbeing, but coaches can use it, individuals can use it. And you'll see that there's a section that says, "Ask yourself."

Jaclyn Robinson 9:14
So if your physical wellbeing is off, you could flip to the Appendix 2 section. Under Ask yourself, look at some of those questions and self-reflect -- What do they mean to you? And then from there, you could start to think about What theme is going to best support me, based on what I've, based on this new discovery that I have? That's gonna lead you right back to Appendix 1. So there, they really do interplay with one another, which is pretty unique.

Jim Collison 9:39
Yeah, it's, I think it's a great reference to be able to flip in between those. And just as you were talking about this, you know, in this, this section, we spent some time talking about the CliftonStrengths for Managers -- that new report that we launched back in May of 2021. And I, you know, I did a bunch of work through the summer, my own -- looking at my own CliftonStrengths for Managers report. And all of a sudden, as you were talking, I was like, "You know, I could probably pull that in as a resource for two," as we think about managing ourselves, right? Because we think everybody manages something. Right? At least, that's what I've been saying. I think everybody manages -- I'm trying to get everybody to say that.

Jaclyn Robinson 10:19
That's true. A family. A business.

Jim Collison 10:22
Yourself, right? Your, your, your whatever the --

Jaclyn Robinson 10:27
Group projects, you might be managing a piece of it.

Jim Collison 10:30
A process, right, that, that's involved in this, home projects, which I'm going to talk about here at the end. You're managing something in that. And I think there may be even some clues inside that Manager report, as we think about managing our own wellbeing. There's been some comments from chats -- you know, Andrea says, you know, she's hoping to get her wellbeing back on track as it pertains to sleep, like managing sleep, right. Financial wellbeing, Vladimir says the financial wellbeing has been a 30-day focus thing for me, so supplements my Learner theme. I think as we get through this series, we may not be able to address every single process that you're working on with wellbeing. But we hope to give you a framework. I think we hope to give you some examples of some things.

Jim Collison 11:19
Now, certainly if you come and join us live, for the live recordings of it, we may interact in chat. But Jaclynn, don't you think it's kind of working through, we're going to work through this process of questions, which we're going to talk about here in a second. But don't you think it's kind of working through, using the combination of maybe your All 34 report, if you have that available? Top 5 is in there, maybe the Insight Guide to this, give, give you some insights. Maybe that CliftonStrengths for Managers report, if you have it? And then Appendix 1, Appendix 2, don't you think, I mean, all of those fit together nicely?

Jaclyn Robinson 11:54
Like a puzzle, absolutely.

Energizing Your Wellbeing

Jim Collison 11:56
Yeah. And some clues to that. You had mentioned, as I, you think about, you know, as I think about you know, high in Woo, but I've also been high in Relator -- not been; I am high in Relator and have been leaning on that Relator more during, during the pandemic. The career wellbeing and the career wellbeing section, Appendix 2, at the questions to ask myself, What do I enjoy about my job? Let me just stop right there for a second, in the sense that I've, I've said this on our webcast. I've enjoyed one-on-one. I just did one this morning, actually, where there was a question in Facebook, and I pinged him and said, Do you have a second? And I called him right there. And we just kind of worked that out. And that gave me, like, a bunch of energy for this morning.

Jaclyn Robinson 12:45
That's so neat.

Jim Collison 12:45
Right? Isn't that cool?

Jaclyn Robinson 12:46
Did you, did you feel that mental switch, from Woo to Relator, during the pandemic? Or -- was, was that intentional?

Jim Collison 12:53
Well, not intentional, but it was progressive. So throughout the time this was happening, right, it was like, you know, this is like, I'm coming away from these one-on-one Relator conversations -- and I'll call them Relator style, because it's, it's not, it's still Woo, in the sense that it's a whole bunch of people and I talked to them one time. Right? But it's, it's kind of a more of a Relator style, in other words, like you and I are doing right now. One-on-one, I can see your face. And all of a sudden, I realized, it's, whoa, this is bringing me energy. Like, this is -- to what Danny said -- this is recharging my batteries, like, I need to do more of this. How does, how can I put myself in a situation to do, to do more of it? So I think that's just one example. I've got a second one here at the end of the program. But let's --

Jaclyn Robinson 13:49
I like what you just said, though.

Jim Collison 13:50
Yeah, you want to add anything to it?

Identifying Wellbeing Highs and Lows, Taking Action

Jaclyn Robinson 13:52
Yeah, because what you just mentioned was you paid attention to the energy and the energy you felt. And I think that's where, for some folks, journaling really comes in handy, where you're just -- having a notepad nearby -- when you're excited or enthusiastic or you're doing something with excellence, just jotting that down if you've got a notepad near you, just to keep track. Because we'll just go through the day, and sometimes we, we're not discounting the energy and that positive energy we get, but we're not necessarily paying attention to it either. So if you're stuck in the weeds figuring out, you know, what is it that's draining me throughout the day? What's giving me energy? I'm just thinking about your situation and how if I wasn't cognizant of that, and just scribbling it down -- like ooh, this feels good. Scribbling things down throughout the day -- don't like this! Not in a good mood. But some people will even rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being "Love this; strongly agree; want to do it all the time," just to start to identify, What is it that's giving me energy in the day? What isn't?

Jaclyn Robinson 14:52
And if you look at that over the sum of a month, you can find a lot of significant insights. Where's my wellbeing high? Where is it low? What themes am I using? Am I overusing them? Am I underutilizing them? So for some of you, if you just feel a little bit off kilter, that might -- and journaling works for you or writing on a notepad works for you or talking in a recorder works for you -- that might be supportive. Yeah, back over to you, Jim.

Jim Collison 15:22
Yeah, you know, the interesting thing in all of this is, this is not, you know, a lot of folks threw out some goals, some wellbeing goals, and that's awesome. I've admitted on these programs that I do in the community that, you know, my physical wellbeing just took a massive hit during COVID. And I would be like, eventually, I'll get back it on track. And it really took some effort; it was just 2 weeks ago. Like, we're 18 months into this, and 2 weeks ago, did I finally get some patterns put in place that allowed me to start getting some physical activity kind of built in. So don't, I guess don't be discouraged as you come to this, and like, "Ah, I lost my (fill in the blank) during COVID. And it'll never come back." Well, maybe today's the day. And maybe now is the time, right, to get this done. So --

Jaclyn Robinson 16:12
Little baby steps. What for you drove you to get started 2 weeks ago?

Jim Collison 16:18
Oh, I just tired of, like, I knew I just needed to get it started. Like I've been talking about it forever. And it's, so I bought a treadmill, you know, a year ago, and it's been sitting there, and it's been sporadic. But I just said, "You know what, I need to change going to bed earlier, so I can wake up earlier and get it. I'm going to set a small goal: 45 minutes of walking." That's it. Not nothing. I'm going to watch -- I have a screen; I can watch YouTube and catch my podcasts and that kind of stuff --

Jaclyn Robinson 16:47
Perfect!

Jim Collison 16:47
Yeah, no.

Jaclyn Robinson 16:48
Multitasking.

Jim Collison 16:49
Why couldn't I do that before? I don't know. It doesn't matter. I'm doing it now. Right? Don't let the past like, "Oh, I could have been doing this the whole time." Well, you didn't. So, so, but you are now.

Jaclyn Robinson 17:01
Give yourself grace. Go for it.

Jim Collison 17:02
Yeah.

Jaclyn Robinson 17:03
When the energy's there.

Jim Collison 17:04
Six out of 7 days last week, every day this week -- like I found, I found the rhythm, right? I found the rhythm in starting small. So as we, as we, in each of these sessions, they're going to be quick-hitting, 20 minutes, you and I kind of get in, get out, we're going to focus on a single theme. I'm going to ask you some questions. And those questions are going to be like this: We're going to start off, of course, we'll cover a definition of the theme, just so you can get into it. Then we're gonna spend a lot of time about talking about thriving versus struggling. Why is it important? And I think this is self-evident, but I want to hear from you. Why is it important that we really differentiate between the two, thriving and struggling?

Jaclyn Robinson 17:41
Yeah, if you think about thriving, you are positive and hopeful for the future. And without hope, where would we be? We don't want to live in that, that place of despair or dissonance. So thriving is, you are really just happy with where you're at presently. And your expectations for the future are just as hopeful and happy and positive. Struggling, it's more moderate or inconsistent, day to day, but also it's a little unclear about what your future looks like. And then, those are the two that we're really going to be focusing on in our upcoming sessions. But for, for everyone in the room, we also have another one called suffering. And suffering is really when you're not in a good place now, and the future looks pretty, pretty sad, pretty depressing. Maybe it's your basic needs that are at risk. But those are, those are the three unique differences with, with our -- I call them buckets -- our categories for wellbeing.

Jim Collison 18:43
You mentioned, and I'll ask the same question in the chat room. They can fill that in. And so folks, if, if you're listening to the podcast form of this, you might want to come to YouTube and catch it, because you can also catch the conversation that's going on in chat. Sometimes that's a program within a program. And so just fun to see that kind of in real time. But you mentioned this -- as you're going through a day, and you're thinking about what energizes you? And you say, "Jot it down." You may also jot down those things that are sucking the life out of you.

Jaclyn Robinson 19:14
Yes.

Jim Collison 19:14
As well, right.

Jaclyn Robinson 19:15
Taking your soul.

Ways to Get Out of a Wellbeing Rut

Jim Collison 19:17
That's kind of one method. What other methods, as we think about ways to kind of track it, see it, you know -- "See it, say it, sort it," as they say on the tube in London? What are some other things that you've seen that could work, as far as kind of tracking this or getting some awareness around it?

Jaclyn Robinson 19:37
We could go back to studying success. This is something we love to do at Gallup. So when you've been successful in the past at getting out of a rut -- getting back into that fitness routine, setting a budget for yourself, feeling OK with change and seeing change as a chance -- What were you doing? Maybe who were you with? What was that spark that got you motivated and moving forward? So one of the best things you can do is just study success. How have I gotten out of this rut previously in a successful way? And then you've got your themes. So what themes was I likely using at that point in time? And it might be a really good idea to replicate that same process.

Jaclyn Robinson 20:22
I've got one colleague at work, she leads with Ideation and she's got Strategic high. And she loves being around people. So she'll find things that she can do with people. She likes to be really creative. So Post-It notes or scribbling in books, writing down her ideas works for her to keep track of what she wants to do or what she plans to do. Whatever tends to work for you, those are some key best practices that we have. Maybe it's, it's knowledge and skills that you need before you feel comfortable taking that leap and moving forward. Because, as was mentioned earlier with Learner, Learner is one that's being used for financial wellbeing. But if you have a theme like Learner or Input or just by nature, you want to have a mastery over something before you get started, you might even ask yourself, Do I know enough to feel comfortable enough to move forward? So also really consider your themes too, and are they able to play well right now?

Jim Collison 21:24
Couple conversations or a couple tips coming in from chat as well. Love the idea, "What went well" journal, right, jotting that down. By the way, doesn't have to be daily. I, that's a little, that's a little too much for me, right, I kind of go mmm. Daily wins are important. This is going to play into the story I'm going to tell here at the end. Lisa says, mind map my to-do list based on wellbeing categories. I think this may be a good opportunity to jot those down and then, and then use a highlighter -- this is kind of key -- use a highlighter to mark my successes. Because I think sometimes it's too easy to walk away from these and, and not you know, and not realize we've had successes.

Jim Collison 22:05
Justin says, An illustrated to-do list is providing wonders for me right now, illustrated by my wife -- that's interesting -- and on a really big piece of paper, making me feel much more in control. We, we'd had Dawn Landry on the program, oh, back in the beginning of the year. She was talking about, she had created -- when her husband was going through some, a difficult time in the hospital, she created these things that she brought in and then stuck on the walls. And I think sometimes maybe, maybe we need to do that on sticky notes or big sticky notes or --

Jaclyn Robinson 22:36
For sure. We all have an inner child; we need to embrace the creativity.

Jim Collison 22:40
Yeah, no. Right on. So, so great. Jess says, I have regular monthly coffee chats with a friend, and we help hold each other accountable. That accountability partner.

Jaclyn Robinson 22:50
Team -- I love these.

Jim Collison 22:51
Yeah, no, some great. United Ways Vermont says, We take time on Thursdays for "Thankful Thursdays" -- that's a, that's a great one; I haven't heard that one yet -- and share three things we're grateful for. That's a great opportunity there.

Jaclyn Robinson 23:05
It is. These are good! I love these best practices.

Jim Collison 23:11
You know, in our, in our coaching communities, in our Facebook groups, LinkedIn, whatever, whatever we're doing, share these ideas out. Like, tell us what you're doing in this. I mean, I just love to hear -- this is where it's, I think it's kind of key that we kind of lean on each other for some of these.

Jaclyn Robinson 23:28
And have more of this immersive experience. I love hearing best practices; I can never get enough of them.

Appendix 2: Supporting the Wellbeing of People Around You

Jim Collison 23:33
Speaking of leaning on others, the second or third -- depending on how you're counting these -- question we're gonna ask, or I'm going to ask you in the series is, How can this be used to be support, to support others? What, what do we mean by that? What, what do we what are we gunning for there?

Jaclyn Robinson 23:46
Yes. If you are a manager or a coach, or even just, you know, a colleague that cares about another colleague or a friend that cares and about another friend, and Appendix 2, there's another section. So right underneath "Ask Yourself," it says "Ask Your Team Members." Team members can be anybody. It could be your family; it could be, again, truly your team members, if you're a manager or an employee. But you'll see some questions there per each of those wellbeing categories just to really start to help other people self-reflect and self-discover. Yeah, it's a great section.

Jaclyn Robinson 24:23
And for all of the coaches in the room, that might be really fundamental and key to you. You might find some good pointers in there as you're just listening for cues and clues of where people might be hindered in their wellbeing to just, you know, kind of prod them and ask one of those questions and see if you get some new discoveries and insights from them. And then we can drive it right back to Appendix 1, once they start to maybe think through a theme that's hindered or a theme that they want to use for a goal or a challenge.

Jim Collison 24:54
It, it seems like it's been a reoccurring theme over the last couple months for me about pulling, like, I get when I give. And I'm really excited, because I think sometimes we focus a little too much on ourselves to get out of these or to get into these wellbeing habits when including others. I think somebody had mentioned, you know, accountability partners, and doing this along with someone else is sometimes what people need. Ironically, the fitness thing for me has actually worked better. I've been a big social fitness guy. I mean, in the past, that's been my motivation. So switching that over to an individual fitness was difficult. I'm actually kind of enjoying it just being me, just on the treadmill, 6:00 in the morning, watching YouTube, you know, catching up on learning things. Like I use it as a learning opportunity. Interesting, right? Just the different in that.

Jim Collison 25:50
But it is setting an example, you know, for the rest of my family in this. Like, Hey, we can't forget about our physical wellbeing in this -- let's, let's do some things together. So I'm hoping through this, that we get the opportunity to share -- that people see, this isn't to keep to themselves, but to share with others, right?

Jaclyn Robinson 26:09
Yes. Yes.

Jim Collison 26:11
Anything else you want to add?

Jaclyn Robinson 26:12
Good point. Yes, I was just in Virginia yesterday, and we were talking about wellbeing. And even just among managers or leaders, or if you're a coach, we always say, "Every coach needs a coach." Managers want coaches. Leaders want, want coaches. But sometimes it feels like it's hard to achieve. And so one thing we talked about, we went right back to accountability partners, and who are those close friends or colleagues that, that you can lean on and be able to just share with them? Whether it's venting, because one of your, you know, you know, your wellbeing is in a rut, or whether it's celebrating a success, but I think really having those partners can be helpful. And in this case, managers might not have felt as supported as they would have preferred to be. So being able to lean on each other or to find a friend for comfort was going to be really helpful. So I can't, I can't say enough how important it is to have those accountability partners around you personally and professionally.

Jim Collison 27:16
Marina says -- and Marina and Lisa and Holly, they meet in a group, Sally, they meet in a group together. And Marina says, When we meet as a group of coaches, Lisa always starts by asking, "What, what's everybody celebrating today?" It's always a fun way, it's always fun and energizing. I think there's some great, even among groups or people, what can you say? What's, "Hey, what's been the best part of your day?" What, what if we, what if we started every conversation, every meeting, like, Hey, let's take a minute, what's been the best part of your day so far?

Jaclyn Robinson 27:49
Yes! What magic are you creating?

Jim Collison 27:53
So we're going to spend -- in the series, you alluded to this just a second ago, but we're going to spend some time working through that framework: Ask yourself; ask your team members; and then take action. We're going to close each one of those kind of based on what we're, what, what we've been through -- ideas, suggestions. And of course, it'll be more fun with you here doing it with us live. Again, if you're listening to the podcast, and it's over, sorry you missed us live. But a great opportunity to get that. Anything else, from a structure standpoint, I'm dying to share the story, Jaclynn. But anything else from a structure standpoint, as we think about what they can expect in the 20 minutes' work together recording this? Any other thoughts?

Jaclyn Robinson 28:35
Yeah, that, that, for me really wraps it up. I would say we, you know, because this is a forum where we want to learn from one another, we're gonna love hearing your insights and best practices and any new discoveries or things that have worked for you, as we go through this process for, for each of these themes. We can all learn from each other as, as coaches and individuals to hear, Yeah, what did you do for your Achiever? What did you do for Restorative to get you inspired and moving? Or what did you hear someone else do as you were coaching them? So please bring in your insights too, as we go through our, our time together. I'm excited for it. I'm really excited for it.

Leaning on Your Top Themes When You're Struggling

Jim Collison 29:17
I am, I am as well. And so, you and I have been prepping for this for a couple months. And it's already having an effect on me. So like, this is the great part about my job and what I do is I've got to actually do it. If I'm going to get on a microphone and talk about it, I actually have to kind of do it. So let me, we'll close this -- I want to illustrate this with a little story from the weekend, from just this weekend was coming up. Last, last couple of weeks have been a difficult career wellbeing week for me -- many of you know why. And by Thursday, I was kind of done. I don't know if you've ever been there, Jaclynn?

Jaclyn Robinson 29:51
Yeah, you just checked out. I see your brain feels like noodles and glue. You're just done.

Jim Collison 29:58
I'd sit down to do work, and I'd literally get a headache, like just thinking about -- I'd think, "Oh." Or I just didn't want to do it. You know, there's some things I'm like, I just don't -- I know I'm admitting, I know a lot of you think that I just work all the time. I was like, Yeah, I was like, Thursday afternoon, I was like, "Can't do this anymore." And so by Friday, by close of business Friday, you know, Friday evening, I was like, "I gotta get my head screwed back on straight. Like, I can't get, I can't get to Monday and be this way. Like, I just can't, I just can't be this way." So I can't control all the circumstances, and you just can't wish that away. Right? You just can't say, "Well, I wish -- " "Try harder," or "Think more," or "Plan better." No, none of that? No, no, no, let's, I can't do that.

Jim Collison 30:39
So I started thinking, OK. What do, you know, what could I do? Well, there were two areas outside of career wellbeing, I think of my, in this case, both financial and, and physical wellbeing where I could take some opportunities over the weekend to get some wins. You know, I had, I had read in the, I think it's in the physical wellbeing section in Appendix 2, there's a question that says, "What can I do today that'll boost my energy?" And I was like, hmm --

Jaclyn Robinson 31:11
Such a good question to ask yourself.

Jim Collison 31:12
It is, isn't it? You should almost ask that question every morning. Like --

Jaclyn Robinson 31:16
Every morning!

Jim Collison 31:17
What do I have on my calendar today that will boost my energy? Right? Doesn't have to be working out, by the way, either. Because I'm going to tell you how it wasn't working out. So, Sunday, well, one financial, I'm dealing with a financial situation that's just been hanging over me for a year or two. And I said, "I'm making a decision." And I made -- Friday, Friday and Saturday, I made a decision. And like, it, like, changed everything. I just, I'm like, OK, I'm just gonna do this. And all of a sudden, I got this peace. Like, oh, yeah!

Jaclyn Robinson 31:50
That's amazing!

Jim Collison 31:51
Isn't it great?

Jaclyn Robinson 31:52
What themes do you think you were leaning on?

Jim Collison 31:54
Well, definitely a Maximizer. That's an Arranger-Maximizer. These two themes are prevalent through both these examples, because I needed to do a whole bunch of stuff. And, and for the financial one, getting some things started are gonna require like a whole two- or three-week process. And, like, I'm actually kind of excited about it. Like --

Jaclyn Robinson 32:16
You can see it on your face; the energy's just there.

Jim Collison 32:19
Yeah, I was like, OK. Taking -- the process of taking care of this financial situation is, is bringing -- I know this is weird, but it's bringing me --

Jaclyn Robinson 32:27
I love it, though. It sounds like it, like, it was just enlightening for you. The minute you're like, "I need to do this," it was enlightening, and the moment came.

Jim Collison 32:35
It's benefits enrollment time too, right, for here, at least here in the U.S. And for us, it's benefits enrollment time. So that fit right in nicely -- like, OK, how am I going to plan my financials? And I'm terrible at this, but how am I gonna plan my financials for 2022 and get some peace? Like, how do I get some peace about that, right? So, so pretty great. And then Sunday morning, I've had some landscaping that, for 5 years, I've, it's a retaining wall. And I keep, every, every summer I'm like, I need to, as soon as fall comes, I need to replace that thing. And every winter, I'm like, Oh, it's too cold now!

Jaclyn Robinson 33:12
I'll get to it next weekend.

Jim Collison 33:13
Oh, we'll do it in the spring, right. Well, it was a little chilly, but I just got out there, and I just started tearing, like just tearing it out. Just, just old, bare hands, some tools, right? And it took me 20 or 30 minutes, but it was an amazing, it was a physical -- and this is why I always said, it doesn't have to be working out -- it was an amazing, it brought me, like getting that part done and torn out brought me some, brought me some energy. I got something done! Right? I got something done.

Jaclyn Robinson 33:46
Got your blood flowing.

Jim Collison 33:48
Yeah, and I have something to look at.

Jaclyn Robinson 33:49
Mentally, it sounds like, it sounded like you were more sharp because you had these two goals that you were tackling.

Jim Collison 33:54
Right. I, it's on my, you know, I have a Ring driveway cam, you know, and I, for security. Every, I've been checking it like to go look at, like during the day, I go look at the work that I just did, to be like, Oh, man, that looks so great, right? It's, it drives me, it energizes me to get, you know, once an hour, I'm working from home most days. And so I just this week, I've just been peeking out the window. Like --

Jaclyn Robinson 34:24
It's your baby.

Jim Collison 34:25
Yesterday afternoon, I took an hour at the end of the day, went and I had bought some materials, and I put the foundation part in. Small, hourlong project, just got it done. I got, like, I got to the evening and I was like, Man, that felt really great. I didn't have to do the whole thing. So I'm really hoping, like that, that was so good for me. That brought so much energy to Monday morning and a Tuesday morning. And even last night's work bringing energy to today's -- I didn't know I was going to talk about this till this morning. I was like, you know, that'd be a great example of what I'm hoping for with people in this series, right, what I'm, what I'm hoping they get out of this, what I'm hoping they see in it -- and, and get a really physical, tangible, "I can do this thing!" And this is how I'm going to do it with strengths: Arranger-Maximizer driving those things for sure. A lot of, you know, there's, there's a little bit of Ideation in there, thinking about how I'm going to put this together and some of those kinds of things. But I think a pretty great example. I don't know, anything else, anything you want to add to that?

Jaclyn Robinson 35:28
What, well what's so interesting about that example too is career wellbeing was what was hurting and, you know, needed a little healing and rest. And instead of continuing to focus on it when that part felt tiring for you, you just diverted your attention to other elements of wellbeing, based on other goals that you have. And that actually filled your bucket for career wellbeing.

Jim Collison 35:53
Yeah.

Jaclyn Robinson 35:54
So I think that's, that's key too is, maybe it's diverting attention from what you're spending so much attention on, and thinking through other goals that you might have fills other buckets, and that's going to give you the nourishment and rest to go back to that other element of wellbeing that's in a rut. We don't always think that way, just, you know, want to keep focus on this, focus on this, focus on this. So --

Jim Collison 36:19
Yeah, I think the, the tendency would be, well, how am I going to rearrange my work schedule? Or maybe I need to take some days off or -- and all those are valid. Like I'm not saying those aren't, you shouldn't. But for me, right, it was, it was focusing on these other, getting some of these other things kind of done. And I needed to go out and get some, for me, I needed to get some physical things done. I mean, I'm pretty pumped. Like, it'll be tough for me to stay away from this project for a while, because now I have a plan. It's coming together. I won't buy materials until I need them. That's just the way I am. I only buy what I need in the moment. And so, you know, throughout the week and weekend, I actually think -- I have a Saturday morning podcast, that is, was canceled this week. So I think Friday night, I'm going to go out and buy a bunch of materials and spend a good chunk of Saturday morning, just, just crushing this thing.

Jim Collison 37:14
So we're hoping -- Jaclynn and I are hoping -- through this series that you, that you're seeing this in a very, very practical way, that you're, you're addressing it for you. And we want to hear from you on this. We want to hear from you live in chat; we want to see this in Facebook and LinkedIn, whatever, wherever you're at socially. And we want to, we want to interact with you. We'd love to hear your stories. If you've got great stories throughout the series, you want to tell us, send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. And we'd love, to we'd love to hear from you. We'd love to hear what's going on, share those back out. As we wrap this, Jaclynn, anything else you want to add before I wrap?

Jaclyn Robinson 37:51
Ah, I say, come with, come with goals or challenges in mind as we go through this series. And hopefully just in the process of us all sharing together, you'll be able to kind of work through those and find some higher, higher, a higher sense of wellbeing for yourself. But stay tuned because there's a lot more to come. And I'm already just so excited. I'm just looking at the chat and the feedback that's being received, and the way that, that you all connect with each other and with us is just so beneficial and so helpful and engaging. So please keep coming back. We'll keep sharing out on these discussions.

Jim Collison 38:30
Yeah, we're excited for it as well. We'll just remind you, kind of on the way out of here, you, we have tons of resources: gallup.com/cliftonstrengths. And then, if you want to connect with us on social, just search "CliftonStrengths." Reilly, who does all our, who does a lot of our comms work in that area, is just doing a bang-up job of, doing a nice job in social. So search "CliftonStrengths" on just about every platform, and you'll find us there, and we want to interact with you that way. If you're listening live, we'll do a little bit of a postshow. With that, we'll say, Goodbye, everybody.

Jaclynn Robinson's Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Achiever, Strategic, Maximizer, Positivity and Relator.

Gallup^®, CliftonStrengths^® and each of the 34 CliftonStrengths theme names are trademarks of Gallup. Copyright © 2000 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.