How to Have Better Strengths-Based Feedback Conversations

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

If employees know and are applying their CliftonStrengths in their roles, they need their managers to give them feedback based on their strengths. How can managers grow in their ability to engage employees in positive, developmental strengths-based feedback conversations? What are the 5 types of conversations managers can employ as they give this feedback? And how can organizations foster a culture of strengths-based feedback that starts at the top? Join Gallup's Hannah Lomax and improve your skills for greater impact and effectiveness in this important area.

What we know to be true about the ... workplace is actually that most people are not getting enough feedback. And when they're getting feedback, it's not in the way that they would like.

Hannah Lomax, 9:22

It's really important to remember that feedback isn't to be critical or judgmental, or anything like that. It's actually helping people to excel and to inspire them, so that next time, they can do better.

Hannah Lomax, 6:15

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. This episode was previously recorded on LinkedIn live.

Jim Collison 0:18
Hello, everyone, my name is Jim Collison. I'm here with Hannah Lomax. We're talking about how to have a better strengths-based feedback conversation. We want to welcome you, and, Hannah, I want to welcome you. Welcome!

Hannah Lomax 0:28
Thanks, Jim. Great to see you!

What's the Best Feedback You've Ever Received?

Jim Collison 0:30
Great to have you as well. A few rules as we get started -- well, we don't have very many rules, but a few rules as we get started. One, if you're listening live, go ahead and pop your Top 5, if you want to, in the chat. We'd love to have that. And we're kinda, since we're talking about how to have better strengths-based feedback conversations, How do you like to receive feedback? That's what we're looking for in chat from you. How do you like the feedback? There's a question I ask when, when I'm working with new employees is, What's the best feedback you've ever received? That may also be a question. While, Hannah, while folks are putting that in chat, let me ask you that question. As you think back in your career, what's the best feedback you've gotten?

Hannah Lomax 1:10
Yeah, great question, Jim. I think -- I've got Learner in my strengths, for anyone that doesn't know me. So I have this curiosity for kind of continuous improvement. So I've had a couple of examples where feedback has been brilliant for me -- both positive and negative. So I think when it's been positive, it's specific. So it's not just, "That presentation was great." You know, it's, "Actually, what I really liked about that presentation was that you interacted with the audience," for example, or pulled out, you know, the fact that maybe we took a pause after a strong question. So specific things. And I think negative, you know, it's, it's not actually negative, right; it's an opportunity to improve. So I think the question, "What, what might you do differently next time?" I personally love, because it helps me think about what I can do in a way that's going to drive me to excel even better, but still notice the things that perhaps I would do differently was I given the chance again.

Jim Collison 2:06
If you think about your Top 5, and we'll go through those here in just a second with you. But if you think about your own Top 5, and you think about that feedback, have you ever been a, have you ever been in a moment when that, your strengths and that feedback line up? And you can point right towards a theme or maybe a group of themes and say, Yeah, I'm gonna, really gonna, I could really lean into this more. Has that happened for you?

Hannah Lomax 2:28
Yeah, for sure. I think, again, with Learner at No. 3, that's a super strong one for me. So I just have, you know, the type of character where I love feedback. I think also, I have Futuristic at No. 2. So for me, I'm constantly thinking about what's next, you know, and we know that feedback should be future-oriented; I think we'll probably spend some time talking about that today. But I love to visualize successes that are to come, based on what I learned, you know, about previous situations.

Meet Our Guest on This Episode

Jim Collison 2:57
Feedback is coming in. Speaking of feedback, it's coming in to us through chat. If you want to continue to put your Top 5 out there, there's about 100 or so, and it's growing at this point; we'll give it a few more minutes. But if you want to throw your Top 5 in the chat, or we're asking the question, How do you like to receive back or what's the best feedback you've ever received? Hannah, before we get started, let's get to know you a little bit. Tell us a little bit about where you live and what you do. And give us your Top 5.

Hannah Lomax 3:23
Yeah, absolutely. So I live in London. I'm in offices today in the Shard, and my Top 5 are Positivity, Futuristic, Learner, Responsibility and Focus. And I work in the Learning and Development team at Gallup, really partnering with business leaders, coaches to drive growth through their people, within their organizations.

Your Top 5 and How You Do Your Job

Jim Collison 3:47
If I was your manager, and I was asking, Hey, let's have a strengths-based conversation, and let's talk about it from the context of how you do your job best -- because I want to give you some good feedback. Maybe we'll spend some time talking through that as well. How would you say your Top 5 influences the way you do your role today? Can you put those two together?

Hannah Lomax 4:07
Yeah. So I think firstly, I'm just going to call out what a brilliant question that would be from a manager. So the fact that feedback is two-way, right, like so "How would you like to receive feedback based on your strengths?" I think leading with that demonstrates some self-awareness from the manager side. It also creates that kind of psychological safety where, you know, you're entering a space where actually your manager is giving you the opportunity to share your preferences. I think with Positivity No. 1, you know, I do struggle a little bit when things aren't great. So if things have gone really badly, and that positive kind of essence isn't there, I almost feel like, you know, the world is crumbling beneath me, which it certainly is not. But I think knowing that makes me realize that actually, it's not that bad, right? It's, it's just a lack of Positivity at this moment in the day. And what I'm going to do, to your point, Jim, is kind of lean into the Learner-Futuristic side, where I can think about the positive of that poor feedback is actually How can I make this better next time? So I think there's a little bit around knowing what your strengths are and how you might therefore feel when you receive feedback as well.

What Is a Strengths-Based Feedback Conversation?

Jim Collison 5:17
We're getting, we're getting some great comments in the chat. Continue to put them in there. How have you gotten, or how do you like to receive feedback? What's the best feedback you've ever received? Those kinds of questions, continue to throw your Top 5 in there as well. Let's talk about this idea of a strengths-based feedback conversation. Hannah, at the essence of that, what does that, I mean, those are easy words to put together, maybe a little bit harder to execute. So, so what is that? When we say a "strengths-based feedback conversation," what do we mean by that?

Hannah Lomax 5:46
Yeah. And actually, I think, when I was thinking about, you know, our session today, Jim, I actually took a step back. And the, the kind of Google definition for feedback is really about information that we gather to help us make improvements for the future. So I think it's really important to remember that feedback isn't to be critical or judgmental, or anything like that. It's actually helping people to excel and to inspire them, so that next time, they can do better. And we know from kind of Gallup's science, that the best feedback is frequent, it's future-oriented and it's focused. And I think when you think about putting that strengths-based lens onto it, to your point, you know, it's a great sentence, right? Strengths-based feedback. But what that really means is knowing how you give feedback as a person, so the self-awareness of your own strengths.

Hannah Lomax 6:40
I think earlier, I mentioned, you know, Positivity No. 1. When I have to give feedback that's not so positive, it's like an allergic reaction for me. I've got to do it, but I know that it's something I struggle with, based on my strengths. So just kind of leaning into that a little bit more, and going through some coaching myself so that I don't avoid, you know, feedback that's not primarily positive. But also knowing what that person needs. So if you have somebody that's, perhaps, maybe highly Analytical, feedback might be very data-oriented. Versus somebody that perhaps has high Empathy, you know, you're going to want to tap into the emotions that are maybe connected with that experience. So knowing your own strengths and the strengths of the person that you're giving that feedback to, it's just this roadmap that makes it better for everybody involved.

Making Feedback Positive and Developmental

Jim Collison 7:30
Great, great. Aditi in, in chat, a great comment saying -- thinking about what it is, right -- Positivity, transparency, specific, periodic, future-oriented, I love those words. And I love this conversation, as we think about between a manager and those that they're managing, and thinking about what is that -- and you just mentioned this here a second ago -- what's, asking the question, What's the most helpful feedback for you? Because I think we think it needs to all be the same or, or as a manager, it's coming from my perspective, when the real intent of it, right, is to help fine-tune the talents of those who are the, the feedback's being given to. Hannah, do you think sometimes that takes, when we think about the professional development or the development of others, knowing that this feedback is going to help them, from your standpoint, your Positivity standpoint, and I have Positivity 6, so I feel you in that, right. I sometimes try to spin that feedback, always in a positive way. But knowing that it's to help them, do you think that makes it any easier, knowing this is coming from a, I'm trying to make you better? Does that help at all in the conversation, do you think?

Hannah Lomax 8:39
Hugely. And I actually think that most managers don't know that there is an opportunity for feedback to be positive and developmental, because I think one of the things that managers fear almost as much as firing people is having that midyear performance review. And oftentimes, you know, they think that it's going to be weakness-focused or fixing things that didn't go well. You know, it's not, it's not always painted in this kind of positive light. But if we can shift that mindset for managers and help them realize that actually, these feedback conversations are an opportunity to help your people perform better and grow, that, that really kind of flips the mindset that they can have.

Hannah Lomax 9:21
And I think what we know to be true about the current situation that we're kind of working in with this, with this current, the world of workplace is actually that most people are not getting enough feedback. And when they're getting feedback, it's not in the way that they would like. So only 2 in 10 people actually strongly agree that they receive feedback, or that their performance is managed in a way that really inspires them to do really much better work. So I think if we can help managers get the skills that they need to give coaching feedback in a way that's strengths-based, you know, future-oriented, focused, frequent, it would change and how that feels for everybody. And you can start to create this culture where it's a good thing, and it's normal.

Employing the 5 Coaching Conversations in Feedback

Jim Collison 10:06
Yeah, we've, we've put a little structure around these ideas of these different kinds of conversations. We talk about them as the 5 Coaching Conversations -- don't let that name throw you off; they're designed for managers, right. They're designed for leaders. They're designed in a way to help that, help them do better coaching from that standpoint. Christy has this great comment that I want to lead into those 5 Coaching Conversations. She says, For me, I appreciate feedback in "real time," meaning that it kills me to get feedback based on something that happened weeks or months ago that was never mentioned. That's a little embarrassing for me, too, when someone mentions it a couple of months later, and you're like, Why didn't you tell me right then? It's hard, though. Giving good feedback is hard, right. And, and it could have been, it could have been addressed, or at least had time to process as something with her -- Intellection's in her Top 5. We have these 5 Coaching Conversations, Hannah. Can you talk a little bit about -- and we're not going to go through them one by one; maybe talk about, we've got this idea of a Quick Connect right, getting together on a regular basis and providing. Can you talk a little bit about those 5 Conversations?

Hannah Lomax 11:08
Yeah, of course. So first one is Role and Relationship. So what am I here to do? What's expected of me? If you haven't got that clarity when you join, it's going to be very difficult to thrive. So that one's really important. And then the next three are really where that kind of coaching begins. So the Quick Connect could just be, you know, me calling Jim and saying, "How's your day going? How are you feeling today?" Something as brief as that. And then you move into the Check-In. So this is a little bit more, I guess, structured, in the sense that it might be every week on a Thursday. And this is really an opportunity to think about kind of what's getting in your way, what barriers might I remove, what are your kind of priorities, for example? How are you actually doing, in terms of progress, given that you set those goals when you joined the organization? You know, actually holding your people to account: We set this goal; where are you going on that goal?

Hannah Lomax 12:03
And then I think to your point, Christy, the next one's fantastic. So Developmental Coaching, or in-the-moment feedback. Now I'll use the analogy of a sports team, right? Someone scores a goal, you come off for halftime, Wow, that was amazing! You know, you kind of in the moment really reflect on what went well, and how you could do that again, to keep winning. And then the last one of the five is that big, often scary for some people, you know, Performance Review that's often around metrics or KPIs, documentation. But I think, to your point as well, what we don't want is for anything in that kind of official progress review to be a surprise. And it would feel actually super uncomfortable, I think, for the team member and for the manager to get to this review and to say, We didn't get what we wanted to; we didn't achieve our goals. And looking back on why that didn't happen. It should be the exact opposite. So that thing about frequency, again, I mean, we know that when employees receive feedback every week, or recognition, praise for good work, when they get that meaningful conversation once a week, they're almost 4 times more engaged and 3.6 times more likely to do outstanding work.

Making the "Quick Connect" Strategic

Jim Collison 13:16
Yeah, it's a, it's an important aspect. We have a lot of, a lot of information on this on our website. So if you go to gallup.com, search, we have a little, little search icon. Click on that. Choose "5 Coaching Conversations," and we'll have a lot of information for you around that. You know, that Performance Review really is a summation of all the other conversations that exist, right. And I think sometimes -- let's get back to a little bit of a basic level. I think sometimes when we think about that Quick Connect, and we think it's maybe a watercooler conversation -- and it can be, right, where we, it can be just How was your day? or How are things going? But I think it can be done strategically. Hannah, how, Hannah, how could we take just a Quick Connect and think of it in a strategic -- and not coming at it with a heavy agenda, but what kind of things we could do? I have an idea, but I want to ask you, How can we make that Quick Connect still strategic in that developmental process?

Hannah Lomax 14:12
Yeah, great question. So that Quick Connect is also an opportunity for recognition. And I think, again, what we know to be true from our research is that recognition doesn't happen enough. And Jim, I know we've talked about this, but it's recognition for good work. We don't want to just say, "Thanks for showing up." You know, that's not actually going to help us to achieve our performance goals. We might all feel great and be happy and have Best friends at work. But it's got to be recognition for really good work. So I think if you've got the opportunity in that Quick Connect to just say, Hey, Jim, that podcast that you did last week was outstanding. What I really loved about it was x, you know. So thinking about using those Quick Connects to tap into those things, or even just, Is anything getting in your way right now? And if that's going to be an opportunity to spot, you know, a time to have a bigger conversation around a real barrier that might stop someone from hitting that goal, you've kind of caught it ahead of time, rather than in 9 months' time, we sit down, and we didn't get what we wanted.

Jim Collison 15:10
Yeah, well, that, that idea of a surprise, right, of like, this shouldn't come, although there always has to be a first time you hear something, right? So there's gonna be a moment, like, I think sometimes where we say, you know, we don't want surprises. Well, in the moment, sometimes the feedback is a surprise. Like you thought, Hey, this went really well. Maybe you didn't have all the pieces, and there needs to be some courage to say, OK, some things, this part was done really well. But here's some things that also needed to be done. I think, when we look at our Q^12® and those first three questions, right: I know what's expected of me; I have the materials and equipment to do what I, what I need to do; and then I have the materials and equipment, right, or I'm sorry, I get the opportunity to do what I do best every day. That's a manager conversation that I think sets up these strengths-based feedback conversations. Don't you think it would be hard to bring a conversation that's strengths-based if those first three needs aren't being met before those things happen? Right? I think that has to be done first.

Jim Collison 16:13
When we have these conversations in a Quick Connect, one of the things I always think of, we have an exercise that our Certified Coaches have in their kits called I Bring and I Need, right. Two really easy questions. And I think this can be, and I think we can actually do this for each other; it doesn't necessarily need to be a manager that asks the question. Today, what are you bringing? And today, what are you needing? Like, I think that's a really great conversation to have that would bring out, and then maybe even say, and then how are you going to tune your strengths to that, to those today -- both what you're bringing and needing? I don't know, Hannah, as I say that, does that, does that resonate with you? Do you, do you see any, any benefit in that? Give me some feedback on it!

Hannah Lomax 16:56
Yeah, absolutely. I love that. And I think as well, just touching on your point about kind of clarity of expectations, the example that always springs to mind is, you know, how easily it can go wrong. So if you say to someone, "Your job is to paint," right, and they go away, and they paint a wall blue in a day, they're expecting their manager to come back and say, "Wow, you know, you did the whole wall in a day!" Actually, we didn't talk about what color, and we didn't want you to paint it blue. So I think if you don't know what's expected of you, how can you get recognition or praise for good work? But yeah, I think the Bring and Need is just such a simple way as well for managers to sort of understand what's going on. And if somebody isn't quite on track with their goals or maybe isn't, isn't even themselves in the office that day, if you just have that conversation, sometimes I mean, Woo, for me is No. 6. And I'm like, I've just been doing like admin stuff all day. I need some people! I need some conversations! And that's why I'm a bit down. So it can help managers fast-track how they can get the best out of their employees.

Growing a Strengths-Based Feedback Culture

Jim Collison 17:57
Yeah. Some great comments still coming in through chat; we'd love to take your questions there as well. About 10 minutes left in this. And so if you've got some questions, drop them down. A couple really great comments. One says, Personally, I seek feedback for improve, to improve myself and to think, and I think managers play an important role in the process. If managers create the feedback culture -- I love that idea a culture of feedback, a culture where it's known, it's expected and it's safe. You mentioned psychological safety just in the beginning of this, and knowing -- because this is hard. If you're in a culture where you're going to get battered or where, where feedback has been taken generally negative, it's tough. Like, that makes it harder, right? They're expecting, they may be expecting something different. So I love that idea. Let's, let's hone in a little bit on this idea of culture. When we think about -- What else, how else can we set up the culture so that the culture is ready to accept that feedback? In other words, I know, hey, when I'm getting this feedback, I'm getting it because it's in my best interest. What do you think? What are some other ways cultures can be set up?

Hannah Lomax 19:01
And I think it really does come back to role modeling as well. So I love, Jim, that, you know, when we talked about feedback earlier, that question, when people join, of "What's the best piece of feedback you've ever received?" Or "How do you like to receive feedback?" Or "How would you like to give me feedback?" You're really opening the door for people to share their thoughts and feel safe. But I think in terms of really building a culture of feedback, if you have a framework that everyone's on board with, so we mentioned the 5 Conversations, that's ongoing coaching conversations that are all feedback. And if that becomes the norm, like you say, it's not, it's not a surprise. And I think what's really nice about that is it ties into some of the other items in our Q¹² engagement survey.

Hannah Lomax 19:46
So one of them that's really important is that someone, My supervisor or someone at work cares about me. And if someone's asking you regularly for the opportunity to have a feedback conversation, you're probably going to feel like they care about you. You're seen; you're heard; they're wanting to develop you; they're wanting you to succeed. So it helps you to kind of tick that box. And again, Question 6, you know, There's someone at work that encourages my development, if managers can start to communicate with their teams that the purpose around feedback is to help you grow. We want to know where you've got an opportunity to go even further. What does development look like for you? What would you like to come next? Then again, it's going to help you to build this culture where everyone has the shared language of strengths, of feedback. They know that in their 5 Conversations, they've got their Check-In coming up. So it starts to feel like something that's expected rather than a surprise.

Jim Collison 20:44
Yeah, and I think -- so let's, let's prime the pump a little bit for the, for the, for the chat out there. We'd love to hear, we're going to talk a little bit about, because I think, when we think about cultures, strengths-based feedback, and the culture being an important aspect of this, that doesn't happen by accident. We have to find ways to create that encouragement. You were mentioning just the culture of conversations being safe -- that's one of them. I like to think it all starts with onboarding. Like if we don't get it right on Day 1, if we don't express our values and give that feedback early, we don't set the pace for that in onboarding, we miss an opportunity to kind of influence the organization. I mean, there's been a little turnover over the last couple of years, right? A lot of organizations have seen half to three-quarters of their employees turn over. What a great time to use onboarding as an opportunity to build a strengths-based culture and embed positive feedback or embed these conversations in the organization, a way to move them forward. When we think about other ways to really embed strengths, embed this idea of these conversations and organization, Hannah, what else do you think? What are some -- and we'll take chat room ideas as well, if you've got some ways, but what else would be ways we could embed it in the culture?

Hannah Lomax 21:59
Yep. So it definitely comes from the manager. I mean, we know that managers are critical in the performance and the experience of kind of the employee life cycle as well. So if your manager is asking you strengths-based conversations, whether that be in a Quick Connect, you know, Any of your strengths you're going to lean into today? Or Any of your strengths getting in the way at the moment? That's, again, starting that kind of language that everybody is on board with. But I think also if you know that that's part of the coaching conversation that's coming up when it, when it relates to progress reviews, it helps you keep that in the top of your mind going kind of throughout the year. So I think just having champions within the organization that are talking about strengths, it's, it's fresh, it's alive. Making it part of your team Weekly Connects if you have them, so maybe some fun icebreakers. You could even do like a Love, Frustrate Appreciate kind of exercise with your team each week, to just keep it kind of top of mind. But then I think if your managers are trained to actually have strengths-based conversations, and you've even got coaches in the organization where, if you've got specific challenges or goals that you want to accomplish, there's dedicated coaches for you to go and spend time with, that's really the model of excellence that we've seen in some of our best-practice clients.

Jim Collison 23:18
Sharlyn asks a good question out in chat, and I think this fits right in with what we're talking about. She says, How do you start the culture of giving good feedback in an organization that's not used to it? Right. And I think what you just said is influencing -- the very first one, influencing managers, teaching and training them, onboarding, right, having great team activities. We've got some Team Activity Guides; you don't have to make that up. We've got some things that you can do. Hannah, what else, as we think about this, How do we take a culture -- and this is our business. This is what we do is people come to us and say, "Help!" And we help, we help them do that. What are some other ways you've seen, maybe in a culture that's, that isn't a great feedback culture turning to -- and it takes time; it's not going to happen overnight. But what do you think?

Hannah Lomax 24:04
Well, I think firstly, the Learner/consultant in me is wondering why it's a culture where feedback is not welcomed. So perhaps unpacking that a little bit, just to explore if there's anything that that, you know, can be done to sort of fix that, that maybe negative framing that already exists around feedback, or looking at perhaps some of the consequences that came from feedback that weren't positive. And then spinning that mindset. So again, tapping back into the purpose of why we're giving feedback and making it a positive experience. So explaining to people that this is actually to help you.

Hannah Lomax 24:40
But I think, to answer your question, one of the things that you can do is just, it's really hard as well, but be that person that starts, right. So somebody's got to do it. Ask your friends for feedback. Ask your manager for feedback. And it will have this ripple effect, where the more that you're doing it and the more feedback that you're getting, and the more that you can share positive experiences of it, the more that other people will kind of start to buy in. I think, again, that's the power of strengths. Because it's positive, if you ask for strengths-based feedback, the chances are you're going to come away with some experiences that don't terrify you to never ask for feedback again. Similarly, if you're, if you're training your managers really well, then you're at a lower risk of somebody having a bad experience with feedback that puts them off doing it again in the future.

The Importance of Leadership Buy-In

Jim Collison 25:28
Yeah, I think you alluded to this, but maybe we can spend a little time talking about it. And one of the steps of becoming a strengths-based culture, of course, is to have executive or leadership buy-in on this, right. That it, that it, it begins, or it's supported by leadership. How important do you think it is in that, in those leadership roles that you're modeling this feedback, right, that you're, with each other? I think sometimes, as leaders, we forget that we actually lead each other as well. Like, we spend time influencing and focusing on what -- it's not just, Hey, I'm leading people, I'm alone. I've got a leadership team, and oftentimes in an organization that's, that's, that's also there to support. How do you think, how important is that that all leaders are demonstrating that to each other as well? Talk a little bit about that. What do you think?

Hannah Lomax 26:17
Yeah, I mean, imagine that you have a pocket of an organization where managers become strengths-based, or the teams know their strengths. And then they cross the CEO in the corridor, and they have a conversation: "What have you been up to today?" "Oh, we're talking about CliftonStrengths." And the leader says, "Hey, what's that?" That's gonna feel really bad, right? Like, we do not want that to happen. It might be an opportunity, of course -- I'm leaning into my Positivity here -- for, for these people who have done strengths to kind of educate that leader on what it is. But imagine if you flip that, and the leader straightaway says, "Oh, that's amazing! These are my Top 5; tell me more about yours." Think about how that feels. It also means that people aren't a little bit worried. Like, I don't know if you've seen any organizations where they say, Oh, you can have Friday off to take a day for wellbeing. And everyone's like, Can we really? Are my friends gonna be online? Does that actually mean that we should stay offline? It's that psychological safety again around, No, we really mean this. We're really doing it. So I think it's really important to catalyze strengths-based development.

Jim Collison 27:19
Yeah. And I think to know what that feedback, like, again, going back to the beginning of knowing How do I, me being the example, how do I like that feedback? And what motivates me in that? Like, I like, I like it often. I like it frequent. I like it honest. Like, I don't want to get caught off guard. That's the worst thing for me, right. For others, there was someone in the chat earlier who kind of said, that early conversation, that early feedback is difficult for them. And it is. Like, and it, I think it's good for their manager to know that, right, from a strengths-based perspective. Then find ways, and maybe even role-play some of that feedback early, to kind of learn to understand, How do I -- so if I was their manager, I would say, "So how do I do this with you where it works?" Let's role play that, and figure out, OK, what works and what doesn't? I know that feels awkward, but it's oftentimes a great way to model it first, so you understand the expectation and then roll forward with it from, from there on out. It's, listen, this, this is not, if this was easy, everybody would just do it. Right? It's really hard to do and sometimes takes practice. Hannah, we just have a minute or two left. Let's kind of wrap it. Final thoughts, as you think about this topic of building and having better strengths-based feedback conversations -- put a bow on this for us.

Hannah Lomax 28:40
Put a bow on this, OK. So I think knowing your own strengths can also help you -- if you're nervous about giving feedback, going through some coaching around your own strengths is going to help you think about how you can do it best, so you almost feel a little bit more secure in this is who I am. This is what's going to feel really easy for me. And this is where I'm going to find it a little bit more challenging. So that kind of self-awareness piece in that space of giving feedback. And then I think, in terms of kind of making it strengths-based, that doesn't mean that if something goes wrong, you know, you ignore the negatives, but it's all around that kind of developmental piece. So I think, if you can encourage your team members to just be more open and be more vulnerable with how they are feeling, it's almost like dating, right? You kind of get to learn someone a little bit more. And you realize that actually, when you took them to see a horror film, they really didn't like that. It's the same, right? So you've got to get comfortable with that early stage of learning and growing together as a team and kind of collaborating to accomplish the shared goal that's at the end of it for everybody.

Jim Collison 29:45
Hannah, thanks for spending time with me today. I'll give you some feedback: This was an awesome 30 minutes that went super fast. But I appreciate you sharing your talents with us today, and it's always great to be with you. Thanks for coming on.

Hannah Lomax 29:57
Thanks, Jim.

Jim Collison 29:58
Great to have you. We'll remind everyone listening, if you're on LinkedIn, we did record this. It'll be available right after we're done, if you want to watch it again. Maybe you came late. You can watch it there, right on LinkedIn. Or we'll publish this out to The CliftonStrengths Podcast. Maybe you haven't subscribed to that yet, and you should. Just go to your favorite podcast player. And yes, Spotify^® -- that's the No. 1 question I get: Is it on Spotify? It's on Spotify. Search "The CliftonStrengths Podcast," and we'd love to have you subscribe to that as well. All these resources available on gallup.com. And so head out there and search for those. And we, thanks for coming out today. Thanks for being a part of this. And thanks for all your comments in chat. Chat room, little bit of feedback: You guys did awesome! Super engaged. Great comments. Appreciate it. We'll do it all again another time. Thanks for following us. Goodbye, everybody.

Jim Collison 30:44
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.

Hannah Lomax's Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Positivity, Futuristic, Learner, Responsibility and Focus.

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