How to Improve Your Wellbeing With Consistency®

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

Your CliftonStrengths^® can empower the 5 elements of your wellbeing -- career, social, financial, community and physical. But how does this happen if you are struggling in one or more of these elements? If you have Consistency, Appendix 1 of Gallup's Wellbeing at Work book has Strengths Insights and Action Items that can move you from struggling to thriving as you apply your Consistency talent to fuel your wellbeing. Join Jaclynn Robinson and Jim Collison on this CliftonStrengths Podcast to discover how.

[People with Consistency] crave and appreciate stable routines alongside clear rules and procedures that everyone can follow.

Jaclynn Robinson, 1:17

When the team faces serious uncertainty, this person can help establish team standards. They will provide stability, confidence and fairness. ... This is Consistency's time to shine, I think, in the workplace.

Jaclynn Robinson, 5:58

Jim Collison 0:00
I am Jim Collison, and welcome to the CliftonStrengths Podcast. On this podcast, we'll be covering topics such as wellbeing, teamwork, professional development and more. Now enjoy this episode.

Jim Collison 0:13
In this CliftonStrengths Podcast, we'll look at the Strengths Insight and Action Planning items from Appendix 1 in the Gallup book Wellbeing at Work one theme at a time, and today's theme is Consistency. If you're listening live, love you to join us, have you join us in our chat. There's a link right above me there. Jump in there, we'll -- those will be important here a little bit later. If you have questions after the fact, you can always send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. Dr. Jaclynn Robinson is our host today. She works as a Gallup Learning and Development Consultant and was the primary -- was and is the primary contributor to Appendix 1 in the Wellbeing at Work book, which I hope you all have. Jaclynn, great to see you. We've, we've had a couple of weeks off; folks listening probably haven't. But welcome back.

Jaclynn Robinson 0:54
Thank you. Yeah, it's good to see everyone in, in chat again. It's good to be here.

What's the definition of Consistency?

Jim Collison 1:00
It is good to be with you. Let's get, let's dive right in. Let's start with the theme definition. We're talking about Consistency. How do we define Consistency?

Jaclynn Robinson 1:10
We at Gallup define Consistency as the folks that are keenly aware of the need to treat people the same. So they crave and appreciate stable routines alongside clear rules and procedures that everyone can follow.

Jim Collison 1:24
Yeah, I think a really important, and one of those that good managers can have -- doesn't mean you have to have it to be a great manager -- but, so let's talk a little bit more about that. How does it relate to you? And then how does that relate to others?

Jaclynn Robinson 1:38
if I think about how it relates to you if you lead with this, you likely feel and be at your best when life feels like it follows -- like they call it a standard operating procedure manual, meaning there's guidelines that help both you and those around you understand what is expected and not expected. And I think that sense of clarity and boundary setting and awareness helps you lead with confidence and knowing that expectations and fairness and equality have been established. From an others perspective, when projects go awry, or the team feels unclear on next steps, this is where people can count on you to bring forth solutions that can create stability and fairness. And that can turn chaos into consistency.

Jim Collison 2:22
Jaclynn, do you think there are certain types of jobs that, where Consistency is more needed than others, maybe, or is it across the board? We called this theme "Fairness" in the past; it, do you think it needs to be fairly standard across the board?

Jaclynn Robinson 2:41
Where I've seen this show up frequently, and people just kind of live and breathe there, is when they can be in a role where they can create these standard operating procedures or guidelines that folks have to abide by. So we could even consider just human resources as an example, where there's certain things that you just, every employee in the workplace needs to consider; or even in higher-education institutions, where students have certain rules they have to follow. And beyond that, you can really individualize at the, the more local level. But that's where I've seen people just really thrive in that type of environment.

How does Consistency look when it's thriving vs. struggling?

Jim Collison 3:17
I have Consistency really low. I was in the military -- of course, fairness and consistency is the mainstay, right, in the job, like, and I didn't do very well. How does this theme look -- we're spending this season talking about wellbeing. And of course, how does this theme look thriving versus struggling?

Jaclynn Robinson 3:35
Yeah, if I think about thriving, from a personal standpoint, life feels predictable and stable, as a result of crafting rules and guidelines and boundaries that both friends and family, I think, can recognize and respect. This might look like a dinner routine that the family's familiar with and appreciates. So, for example, dinner's gonna be every night between 6 and 7 p.m., and then the kids are going to do the chores afterwards. From a professional standpoint, there's predictability in the role and likely some guidelines that all the team need to abide by.

Jaclynn Robinson 4:10
From a struggling perspective, I really see it from that, that opposite end of the spectrum, where they might be struggling personally and professionally when responsibilities change frequently or life's throwing curveballs and obstacles that just upend that existing structure that they've put in place. And those that I know with Consistency, they tend to like that, personally and professionally. It's everyone in the family, all my friends, are going to know what's expected. We're gonna have that routine -- but also in the workplace.

Jim Collison 4:38
There may be some times -- we talked a little bit about this last night; we were doing a podcast where we talked about where individual contributors can provide leadership with Consistency. In other words, like in times of chaos, in times of, and maybe even relational chaos, right? Folks with high Consistency can come in and lead, lead themselves, lead the teams, lead those around them. And it may be a great opportunity. I mean, last 2 years have certainly been calm around the world. And so it's a great opportunity for those leaders to, even those influencers, to be able to bring that, kind of bring that as a healing, you know, healing balm, so to speak, to groups. We have some best-practice examples in the book -- some things that you, that you wrote, some work that you did, talking about this with the theme, with one of the wellbeing elements. What do you have for us with that?

Jaclynn Robinson 5:37
Ooh, yeah. So the one that I wanted to share today was career wellbeing. And it's, it goes really right to what you were just mentioning. There's, with the current work environment, so many folks might feel a bit unstable or unsure of what's coming next. And so this could be a really great time for those leading with Consistency to bring forth that stability. So when the team faces serious uncertainty, this person can help establish team standards. They will provide stability, confidence and fairness. So way to tee us up for that one, because this is Consistency's time to shine, I think, in the workplace.

Jim Collison 6:13
Yeah, I think it is. I think it's, it's probably needed more than ever, in the sense of people are feeling -- I mean, we're in, all in different, new environments. You and I were just talking about that in preshow. And we kind of keep thinking we're going to go back to something that, I don't know if that's gonna exist by the time we, we get a chance to go back to it, right. And so, those, those folks with Consistency can begin to figure out on their teams or their divisions or whatever, right, How do we, in this world of differentness, how do we create this fairness, this Consistency of relationships across the board? Because we're all struggling with that, right?

For those with Consistency, how can it be used to support others?

Jim Collison 6:13
So we, we also have 4 other elements in the back of the book, it's in Appendix 1 for you, if you want to go back. A great resource for coaches or for individuals to go back, as we think about this idea of, How do I take these themes and apply wellbeing concepts? We'd also love to hear from you, if you've got some -- if you're doing some of those things out of the back of the book, we'd love to hear from you as well. So Jaclynn. with, with this in mind -- with Consistency in mind -- I think this is really the important part: How do we, how can we use this to help others? We've mentioned a few ways to do it. But what, in what other ways can we do it, maybe kind of based on role?

Jaclynn Robinson 7:27
I've got some thoughts here. If you're a manager, or you're leading a team, identify areas where people feel more uncertain or unclear on expectations or goals. And then what solutions come to mind that, with some implementation, can bring clarity and confidence to the individual or to the team that you're working with? If you're on a team, so I would think prior to engaging in a work project together, helping the team come up with just two to three guidelines that will help everyone work more efficiently together, such as honoring deadlines or responding to each other's emails within 48 hours, can help create some sense of stability and also just respect for each other and fairness for each other.

Jaclynn Robinson 8:06
And then as an individual, when life feels out of control at times, I think just stepping back, recentering yourself and creating guidelines within your own locus of control can help you feel more grounded. I would also say, when feasible, sharing those guidelines with your manager, with your family, with your friends, with your partner, so that they too can respect those guidelines that you've established for yourself. Because sometimes you might have those, those guidelines in place, but other people might not honor it. So claim it and share it and, and help them help you.

Jim Collison 8:42
Maybe even in those happy hour -- virtual happy hour relationships that you've built during this time, as you're connecting with people -- what, whatever that is, a great opportunity to, to kind of work through that. You used two words, as we were talking about a manager or leading a team, you used two words that I wanted to highlight, but I've, they've escaped me already. What were those two, those, that they can bring? What were those two words? Do you remember them?

Jaclynn Robinson 9:10
They can bring clarity and confidence.

Jim Collison 9:12
Clarity and confidence -- I love those two words together! Like, and I think that really highlights this idea of Consistency. In other words, I can be more confident in knowing what I'm doing when I have clarity and when the rules are defined. We all really want that at times, right? We all sometimes need that -- even, even you and I that live in a crazy Adaptability world, where we're moving around -- we still need to kind of know where some of those walls exist, right. And I think leaders with Consistency can bring some of that stability to us as well. So I think there's some good -- I love that. That's an, that's something you can hang, that's something you can hang your hat on, so -- . In Appendix 2, we have a framework for you where we kind of work through a kind of a 3-step process. Let's, let's look at Consistency through that framework.

Jaclynn Robinson 10:05
Yes. So Ask Yourself, my consistent friends, "Is the vision for the future clear to my team, or the team? And where or how can I add clarity?" And then one thing that I just wanted to caveat here is, Where can you add clarity through rules or guidelines that you can help them create?

Jaclynn Robinson 10:26
You could Ask Your Team Members, "If you could make one change for the better" -- and this is where I also put in parentheses "(that feels fair and equal to all), what would it be?" "If you could make one change for the better (that feels fair and equal to all), what would it be?" And asking team members that, to see what they need for themselves.

Jaclynn Robinson 10:42
And then Taking Action, Add or suggest physical wellbeing activities that could be added to the monthly calendar. That way, everyone has a fair chance to focus on their wellbeing. So this could look like even using the first 15 minutes of a meeting to just move around and walk around before everyone comes back and gets started, whether it's on site or virtually. So those are in the back of Appendix 2. And of course, for this framework, I always like to frame it up in a way that makes sense to that, that theme as well. So you're hearing a little bit of that in what I'm mentioning.

Jim Collison 11:15
Yeah, again, Ask Yourself; Ask Your Team Members; Take Action. I think a great coaching framework. As I was reading through this, when the book came out, I thought, Oh, this will, this will work in podcast form! And, and we need to get that as well. I love, Jaclynn, I love the idea, you know, you think about giving -- you know, we're all, we're all doing, for the most part, a lot of us are doing meetings virtually. If we're not, we're in a service industry where we're out having to do; we're out having to do things. And I love that idea of figuring out, especially these areas of wellbeing, How can we blend these wellbeing pieces in, so that everybody on the team is getting an opportunity for what works best for them in this, in this area to make them better? Because we, we know we know we need it, right. Anything else? Anything else you want to add before I kind of close this up?

Jaclynn Robinson 12:08
I would just say the, the one insight that I really loved was the, the piece on asking team members. I don't know if I would have necessarily thought of that initially, without even having gone back to Appendix 2. But Consistency can really bring that. I just love the idea of asking team members and inviting them, What would bring, you know, what would bring more fairness and equality to our local level -- to our team, to you? And get their ideas. Because you might have your own insights, but they might have a new way of looking at things; you go, "Oh, I didn't think about that. Yeah, let's do that so we can create that stability."

Jim Collison 12:42
Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of the CliftonStrengths Podcast. Make sure you like and subscribe wherever you listen, so you never miss an episode. And if you're really enjoying this podcast, please leave a review. This helps us promote strengths globally.

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.