How to Increase Campus Engagement Using Strengths

Called to Coach Webcast Series -- Season 11, Episode 26

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

The college or university experience is a relatively brief part of a student's life journey, yet it can form the foundation of a life that is strengths-based. What is Gallup doing to partner with universities to help young adults discover and use their strengths? What best practices have strengths-based colleges and universities discovered to be effective in embedding strengths among their students? What are the engagement benefits for these schools' faculty and staff? And what are some ways in which schools can keep the momentum going for a decade or more? Gallup's Janet Gibbon joins the webcast to bring you up to date on the most recent developments on strengths-based campuses, and what can be done to bring strengths to new campuses.

In order for us to have really sustainable relationships, but also a sustainable framework ... that has some momentum behind it to really impact our students, there has to be a close relationship with our faculty and staff members.

Janet Gibbon, 1:48

When we think about students and being able to showcase and share out who they are, there's nothing better than that visual cue.

Janet Gibbon, 14:22

The more reps ... and the muscle flex that you get with strengths, obviously, the better in tune your students are going to be to utilizing their strengths ... not only in their student-based experience, but in their personal lives, too.

Janet Gibbon, 26:21

Jim Collison 0:00
Hello, everyone, my name is Jim Collison. I'm Gallup's CliftonStrengths^® Community Manager. Today, I'm here with Janet Gibbon. Great to be here. Janet, welcome to the program!

Janet Gibbon 0:08
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here!

Meet Our Guest on This Episode

Jim Collison 0:11
Great to have you here. While we're getting set up, we'll, we, for our live folks that are joining us, we'd love to know your Top 5, and we have a question for you. You can do this here in the comments. I think they're right down below me here on LinkedIn. You can, we, we'd love to know your Top 5 and if you attended a university or a university career program, whatever, we'd love to know what that is. Throw those in the chat comments. We'll be monitoring those as we go along. But as we're waiting for folks to do that, Janet, let's to get to know you a little bit. I've been excited for this webcast for a while now. Tell us a little bit about what you do for Gallup, but start with your Top 5.

Janet Gibbon 0:45
Sure. Strategic^®, Achiever^®, Woo^®, Arranger^® and Maximizer^®. And I am our Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships, which basically means I get to use my Top 5 every day. So I really work to customize and create solutions and scalable approaches for our higher education clients, as well as some of our large K-12 and Department of Education partnerships as well. So we really think through engagement, culture, strengths, obviously, as a tool to amplify that engagement and retention for all audiences, and faculty and staff.

Strengths on Campus: Relationships + Framework + Momentum

Jim Collison 1:00
You know, I think a lot of folks understand our role in the enterprise or in small businesses, when we think about strengths or we think about engagement. And oftentimes, they wonder, like, what does that look like in a university setting, when we are partnering with a university to bring these programs there? Give us, before we kind of dive into some details, just give us a high level of what that kind of looks like. What's your role in that as well?

Janet Gibbon 1:43
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for asking. So I'm really passionate about my role in that. I think, in order for us to have really sustainable relationships, but also just a sustainable framework and a skeletal framework that has some momentum behind it to really impact our students, there really has to be a close relationship with our faculty and staff members and with Gallup. You know, we really want to walk alongside of our teams, talk through strategies, best practices, ways that we can utilize kind of some cultures or some desired outcomes to wrap strengths around. We really want to be intentional in our relationship to make sure that strengths is something that folds into the fabric of what's naturally occurring on campus. It's not something that's a square peg through a round hole; it feels really seamless to our faculty and staff, while they've, are juggling a lot of things with their time and energy, energy and attention. But it's also really seamless and natural for our students, so that they can gain a better understanding of their strengths.

Jim Collison 2:40
That's awesome. We're gonna dig into some details on that here in a second. But I was telling you before we jumped on the program, I've never been more excited, as I think about what Gallup is doing, in, in that space today. And of course, the CliftonStrengths Institute at UNL has been a shining light for the last, I don't know, 8 or 9 years. But that's not the only thing that's going on. Can you give a quick, like, highlight reel of what's going on in that space, as we think about maybe some particular institutions that we're working with, and just kind of the, the excitement around that?

Janet Gibbon 3:14
Yeah, so great question! Actually just came back from one of our university partners yesterday afternoon. So West Virginia University is one of our newer partners to strengths in a strengths-based campus. So lots of energy on campus this week, as it was their Week of Purpose. So that's what they've really solidified as kind of, for their, their anchor for strengths to wrap around. So they did a lot of strengths activities to really meet students, faculty and staff members where they're at. So they had workshops on burnout for faculty and staff members. They had study skills with your strengths for students; strengths to help with overwhelming situations; strengths for awkward conversations for some of their upperclassmen, as they're thinking about, kind of those interviews and next steps and resume building. So lots of buzz and energy. And, you know, I'd say that, with West Virginia as well, some of our best clients, Jim, they really think about strengths and the intentionality for how they can aim those strengths to meet those outcomes, but to meet their students where they're at too. So it was really neat to see kind of strengths in action, if you will, as part of the Week of Purpose this week.

Strategic Advantages of CliftonStrengths in a University Setting

Jim Collison 4:23
Yeah. And on our website, we have some other universities listed and some case studies, which is pretty great. There's kind of a Who's Who checking into the chat room right now, which is kind of super cool. Just a reminder, it's not too late. Put your Top 5 in there, let us know where you're checking in from. Producer Reilly behind the scenes is throwing those up. I've seen Delaware and Arizona and Furman popping in, so great to see you all here. I don't want to give an exhaustive list, because it'd take too long, and I'd probably miss somebody. But let's dive into some, Janet, let's dive into some details on this. As we think about the advantages, the strategic advantages of a university using CliftonStrengths in the academic settings, what, what are we saying? And what are you seeing in that space?

Janet Gibbon 5:06
Yeah, great question. So I'd say in academic space, you know, especially our freshman year of strengths, we want to weave through every layer in every level of the student experience for it to really be impactful. But starting with that freshman year, it's a really awkward time to kind of show up on campus. And you kind of might have been with some similar faces or recognizable faces for the last 12 years of your educational or 13 years of your educational career path. And then stepping on to a brand new campus where you're kind of like, Who are you? Why are you here? What do you, what do you do here? And so strengths really allows students to have a common vocabulary and to kind of start from the onset when they first step on campus in the strengths-based campus, to have a communication strategy that can be a thread that that can be pulled from freshman through senior year.

Janet Gibbon 5:55
With faculty and staff members, we see through research, unsurprisingly so, there can be a little bit of disjointedness between faculty and staff members. But those campuses that use strengths and use it with intentionality, through our research and support with them, or through their own research, we find that really that communication breakdown and that hierarchy from titles or tenure is really broken. And everyone is really on the same, level playing field. So you allow faculty and staff to have those conversations. But the best part and the most exciting part for me is that it allows those faculty and staff members to then have conversations with those students, too, that are really authentic. They might say, Oh, you're a Woo, and I'm a Woo too! You know, what does that look like and show, show up for you? And then our, you know, as we kind of progress through the student experience, our sophomores and our juniors just aim their strengths a little bit differently, as they think about, you know, career advising or academic advising and having those strengths-based conversations with those student-facing individuals and leaders on their campuses, to really support their decisions and help them to have trajectory and momentum moving forward.

The Current Campus Situation: Gen Z and Post-COVID

Jim Collison 7:02
That's awesome. The campus is, is front lines for Gen Z right now, as we think about that generation. What are we, what are we seeing, what are we learning as we're interacting on campus? Well, Gen Z and post-COVID? Like, there's been a lot, I mean, those students that are graduating now, most likely were freshmen kind of working their way through, or they were at the tail end of it. What are we seeing? What are we hearing? And how is, what's the advantage of using this for, for those individuals?

Janet Gibbon 7:31
Yeah, so we've found that less than half of Gen Z report that they're actually thriving. So when we think about a strengths-based approach to really be able to support them from a wellbeing standpoint, but also that individualist, individualization and way to customize their learning experience. You know, we found, also through that same research, that, you know, when, when students have a teacher that cares about them and makes them excited for the future, and then when our school is committed to the strengths of each student, they're 30 times -- 30 times, Jim -- more likely to be engaged. So when we think about, you know, what does engagement do for all students, but it's specifically for those Gen Z students, which is a majority of our student body on our, on our higher-education campuses, it really helps them to be connected and have that sense of belonging -- to the university and also to just the campus culture overall.

Generating Buy-In, Ownership of a Strengths-Based Campus

Jim Collison 8:20
You said something that kind of reminded me of, of, like, who is owning these engagements at these institutions? Like, because I think, I'm hearing, oftentimes, that's the biggest challenge is, how is that working? As we think about best practices or a strengths-based campus, how is, how is that working in a way that's working well? What are some of the best practices or what are we seeing that are best practices as far as who's owning it? Yeah.

Janet Gibbon 8:45
Absolutely. So ownership has to start at the top. So, you know, in order just, you know, kind of like an engagement-based campus or workplace, you know, that we speak about in our workplace development, CliftonStrengths has to start at the top. So it really has to be a leader's, not necessarily their initiative; oftentimes, we find that senior leaders or additional campuses, campus leaders bring that initiative to kind of a president of a university or chancellor. But it really needs to start at the top to have that, that buy-in right out of the gate, to have that momentum, and to really kind of put that stamp of approval to say, this is what we do here. These are kind of our expectations. You know, we, we really want to have a campus that's thriving, that's engaged, that really is providing kind of those individual touch points and support to our students, our faculty and our staff members in a positive way,

Jim Collison 9:34
As we think about some of those strategies, and as we think about how we help with that, how Gallup can help with that, with, with us working now in all these institutions, as we think about integrating it into current programs that are happening, right? Because oftentimes, you can't just upset the whole applecart; we can't just change everything, right, going in. What have been, what have been some strategies for integrating that into existing campus programs?.

Janet Gibbon 9:58
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, best-practice, best-case scenario is obviously senior leadership buy-in at the top. But really, when we think about kind of what's that next tier, so if we're kind of coming into an existing program, or we're thinking about that next step, really, it's, though, it's diversifying kind of that bandwidth across the university system. So that's where we really come in on our education team and help to kind of create a roadmap and a strategy to say, you know, I'm directionally challenged, Jim. So I say, if I want, if I want to get from here to, you know, Virginia, I need my phone or a GPS, or a navigation system to help me to do so. And that's where our team really comes in, and helps you kind of figure out, you know, here's your outcome that you want to wrap strengths around. But how are we getting there?

Janet Gibbon 10:40
And so, you know, really diversifying those champions and thinking about, What are some established programs or some needs that we're already seeing on our campus? You know, back to West Virginia University yesterday, when we think about study skills, that was something that they had done some focus groups and some learning around and recognized that students were having a hard time, especially these Gen Zers that were learning remotely, and then all sudden, they're on campus and, and kind of a mental pivot there. You know, what are some, some ways that we can support, through a strengths-based lens, a need that's on campus? And who are our champions to do that? So really thinking, you know, at the outcome, and then backing it up and saying, you know, how can we get from A to B, and who can be our champions to support us to get to that initiative?

Strengths Best Practices for Student Life

Jim Collison 11:23
Oh, that's super, it's super good. I want to remind folks listening live, if you got a question, throw it in the chat room. We'll be able to take those here toward the end of the program. Put a "Q" in front of it, so it's easier for us to find. Producer Reilly will flag those for me, so we can pull those up on screen. Continue to put your Top 5 in if you want, at the university or career program that you're in. We'd love to see that as well. Lots of energy out there in the chat. Janet, I want to ask you a little bit about the student experience, because sometimes we see this happening in career services at the end of the student experience. Sometimes we see this -- and I don't know, I would call it onboarding. But I don't, in the university setting, they don't call it that, for freshmen. Right? You've already mentioned that as they're coming in. But as we think about the whole student experience, what are you seeing in that space? And what's practically working well? What are, what have been some best practices for the whole student life experience?

Janet Gibbon 12:15
Yeah, so I think about strengths like an Oreo cookie. So I think about, you know, you come in. And, and I say that because Oreo says "Oreo" on the bottom, and it says what it is on the top. There isn't, you're not questioning if it's a Chips Ahoy. So, you know, when you come in that freshman year, and you're learning, these are my strengths. You know, it's kind of allowing you to identify those. The good stuff of an Oreo, or my favorite part, is the middle. So really thinking about, OK, how do we develop those strengths? What does that look like, as we have those touch points with those, you know, kind of toward the end of our freshmen year, our sophomores and our juniors? And then how are we kind of reiterating those strengths and allowing them to be projected as our students go out into the workplace? So how are we reaffirming and circling back to kind of, you know, I don't wanna say back to basics, but back to, you know, this is, this is really who I am innately. And this makes me a powerful person. Because as I tiptoe into that workplace or into the next steps of my educational journey, that can be a little bit scary. So how am I going to aim those talent themes and really allow them to be elevated and accelerate my path?

Jim Collison 13:15
Yeah, yeah. Double stuff is the answer to your question.

Janet Gibbon 13:18
Yeah, that's my favorite too!

Sustaining Strengths on Campus

Jim Collison 13:20
Lots in the middle, right -- a little bit on each side and lots in the middle. And it's, that's kind of, you know, as we think about the student experience, the beginning and the end are logical places. But there's so much that happens in between. As we, as I think about the workplace, and that's, I've done a lot of strengths work in the workplace. And we do things like name tags on, on offices. Or we, we, we have, maybe in conference rooms, we have some, you know, hey, so here are some strengths-based things you can do before a meeting. As we think about those visual clues in the university setting for the double stuff, the stuff in between, what kind of visual clues are we, or what kind of things are happening in, in the institutions we're working with, to kind of keep it going during the 4 or 5 or -- in my case, 10 years, I was in the university setting. Not really.

Janet Gibbon 14:12
I was there for a bit too, but I've got, this degree came with it. So it wasn't always the best.

Jim Collison 14:16
Senior year was the best 4 years of my life!

Janet Gibbon 14:20
No, great question, Jim. So really, when we think about students and being able to showcase and share out who they are, there's nothing better than that visual cue. University of Tennessee utilizes keychains to kind of show out and share out who those individuals are and recognize them for, for that, you know, those important talent themes. West Virginia University uses, they, they're into these inch-and-a-half buttons that they have for everything. So each student has their Top 5 on buttons. But we have universities that have mascots that have identified their Top 5, so that something that's front and center of the student body at all times. A lot of times, the president of a university is really a big champion of sharing out their Top 5 and creating just kind of snapshots or videos that are being sent to students, just to, again, reaffirm strengths as a part of their culture, but also say, you know, here I am at the top of this, this rung. But I too have the same 34 talent themes that you do. Here, here are what mine looks like.

Strengths Resources: CliftonStrengths for Students

Jim Collison 15:18
Yeah, and there are, there's no end to the ways to do this, right? It's, every, and I would imagine every university or every setting finds a way that uniquely works for them and their culture, so to speak, their school culture, in whatever that is. I think there's a great question out there from Michele, who says, I mean, it'd be great if there are additional resources, which support students taking the inventory and what, what it could lead to. Are there any resources which can be highlighted in the Gallup resources for this purpose? And I just, I kind of think about our move to Gallup Access, right, as, what kind of resources are available, physical resources are available for institutions or for folks looking into this that may be available through Gallup Access now?

Janet Gibbon 16:01
Yeah, great question. So we just made that shift within the past couple of months. So we're shifting CliftonStrengths for Students. We've revamped that report. We've really shortened it and condensed it and made it kind of more bulleted, and, I want to say, digestible for students. We've learned that students of today's age, they're not, the Insight Guide was a little bit long for them to kind of flip through. So we really took kind of the best part and the meat, meat and potatoes part out of, out of that Insight Guide and said, you know, here's really kind of this talk track and ways to really support you strategically and with intentionality. And we also just revised what that language looks like. That's available on the Gallup Access platform, along with digital versions of the CliftonStrengths for Students book. There's resources around articles, development, ways to aim your strengths in different mannerisms and with different situations. So that's a great way to, like, have some autonomy in your learning, I think, for your students. And then, when you think about in the classroom, you know, really integrating it into their curriculum and thinking about, How does that show up in different classes and in different ways across academically?

Jim Collison 17:11
And it doesn't have to all be academic settings, right? I mean, are there ways to use strengths outside -- as we think about student organizations, or we think about some of the fun things that go on outside (not that class isn't fun; I'm sure it is, but I never found that particularly fun). But outside the academic settings, are there things that can be done for, for those kinds of settings as well?

Janet Gibbon 17:35
Yeah, absolutely. So some of our college campus or university campuses have strengths fairs, where there's tables set up with individual strengths for, you know, if you want to learn about Activator^® or Woo, here's a faculty or staff member. But here's also a student, so if you want to have that peer-to-peer connecting conversation. A lot of our university partners that are best practice -- Furman University kind of comes to mind. They're a great one that really uses their student ambassadors, so that they can have these one-on-one, natural touch points and conversations with these students while they're not in class; they're outside of class. And they're resident assistants and just individuals that are a part of the student's life, but aren't, I want to say they're, they're not sitting in rows with the student; they're sitting in a circle, or they're really just doing life and walking along that journey with them.

Do Gallup's Campus Strengths Solutions Scale?

Jim Collison 18:25
For, as we think about Furman, I mean, they're a big school, and I think some, I mean, does this, do our solutions scale? Does it matter if you're a 50,000-student campus or a 5,000-student campus? Can this scale up both ways or down both ways?

Janet Gibbon 18:41
Yeah, absolutely. No, so the nice thing about strengths is it is, it is a equity-based employer. So it is, it doesn't have any limitations, when you think about size. I mean, of course, when you have a smaller university, oftentimes, you can move the needle a little bit quicker if you have that immediate buy-in, such as out of Furman, compared to larger university, I can think of University of Tennessee or Georgia Tech or West Virginia, they're just kind of right here in my backyard. But really, strengths. I would say, from a scalability standpoint, Jim, it's really just getting the fundamentals right and the foundation, so really making sure faculty and staff have that contextual knowledge to be able to support students -- that's going to be really kind of your bread and butter. You know, ideally, we want our students, they might want to be there for 10 years. I know I want to go back to school; we talked about this.

Jim Collison 19:31
I know. It's gotten really cool, right? Not the college I went to 20 years ago.

Janet Gibbon 19:36
Way better. Way better. But, you know, when we think about faculty and staff, like, they're ideally our champions and the ones that are staying on the campus. We want our students to succeed. We want them to go to the next tier. So really allowing our faculty and staff to be able to be immersed in strengths at various levels. So we provide some custom workshops and learnings for faculty and staff members. Of course, there's our certification program as well, for those that can have the time to take a little bit deeper of a dive. But really making, I say scalable in that sense, where we're really supporting meaning faculty and staff where they're at, No. 1, so that they can then have those authentic conversations with their students. And then also layering in, just like Furman, those student ambassadors and student leaders, to be able to have kind of those one-to-one, I call them kid-to-kid. I, I was a professor before I was at Gallup, but I still called my, my students kids, and I recognize that they're not. But, you know, just that peer-to-peer kind of conversation and have that language that might resonate a little bit more clearly with somebody that's going through the, the same situations and scenarios as themselves.

Best-Practice Strengths-Based Campuses

Jim Collison 20:43
I want to be clear; you're never too old to be on campus, right? So never too old. Never too, it's never too late to go back. You mentioned Furman. We, we've got some exciting things going on at West Virginia University. And you just came from that. Can you, and as you were talking about it, the excitement just kind of -- as you think about what they're doing, what's going right? I mean, can you just highlight a few of those things as well?

Janet Gibbon 21:07
Yeah, yeah. Well, kind of to circle back to your question around scalable solutions, so when I first had a conversation with their stakeholders, it was a year ago last summer. And it was when we had our CliftonStrengths for Students premium platform, and there was a minimum code requirement to be on that platform, because we really wanted to make sure that it was for those larger initiatives, striving impact and helping make a little bit more seamless. At that time, it was 700 codes. And they were concerned that they wouldn't be able to meet kind of that quota, if you will. And we just talked through, you know, whether or not it just, it made it a little bit easier of a user experience.

Janet Gibbon 21:44
But as we started to kind of onboard them as a partnership, we really started to roadmap and be strategic on, you know, what are we wrapping this around? And again, it was, it was the mission of purpose, you know, and how do we need to tie this to the Purpose Center? We had leadership buy-in from President Gee from the beginning. So that was, you know, obviously helped with us to be able to move forward. They just finished him, when I was just there, they've given strengths to over 10,000 faculty, staff and students in over a year. And strengths is like wildfire on campus. I was with a therapy dog that had their strengths yesterday that stole my heart; I couldn't fit it in my luggage. They, they are measuring, we have a baseline measurement we're providing to new students at new student orientation, just to kind of see where they're at before they start their strengths journey. Because again, it will layer into every level across all 4 years. And then we also really talk through the parent audience. West Virginia has a lot of first-generation students. So they created a custom 2.0 book alongside of us to give their parents, so that the parents can take CliftonStrengths and then have a conversation on a common level or common ground with their students.

Janet Gibbon 22:57
So when I say, you know, when we think about scalable, it's really about scaling it up to kind of what are those needs of that university? What are those needs of that population? You know, that might look and feel different, obviously, across campus cultures, but they were really intentional of thinking about, you know, what audiences needed their greatest support? And then how are we measuring those outcomes? How do we know that what we're doing that we're getting it right? So, you know, measuring our, our students; measuring our parents -- we provide them a parent survey -- so just kind of having some benchmark and some, some awareness. And we do the same with Furman too, when we think about measurement, to just kind of have that reset, recalibrate, make sure we're doing things right here. And where do we need to kind of course-correct?

Jim Collison 23:37
I love this idea. You just sparked an idea -- during freshman orientation that the parents get the opportunity to take it. And then there's a, there's the first, maybe a Thanksgiving, here in the United States, we celebrate Thanksgiving at the end of November. All the students go home. It's kind of, they've been at school long enough to kind of take the shine off of everything. They've already hated their roommate by that point, right, some of those kinds of things. But to get that experience going between, I, just thinking of this, you talked about this, this, you know, this 2.0, this custom work that we did for the parents. What an important, what an important time! And maybe through the whole university experience, for parents to really not just understand their students' strengths, but their own and how those interact. I know when I found that out about my kids, it made me a better parent. And, man, there's a lot of things in there to work with. You got me kind of thinking now. Like, Reilly take a note behind the scenes, we need kind of like a CliftonStrengths Podcast for Students thing going on. I don't know how we're gonna do it. But let's think about that going forward.

Keeping Strengths Top-of-Mind

Jim Collison 24:38
Couple of comments from the chat room out there. Lisa says, she says, I'm using strengths in an undergraduate leadership class, and it's just great for them, in the middle of things, to have time each week to stop and focus on how they can be their best selves. Janet, as we think, she uses this term, "each week." How important are what we're seeing in our data is that this stays top-of-mind on a regular basis? Can you talk a little bit about that?

Janet Gibbon 25:03
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, one of the questions I get asked a lot, Jim, is kind of, you know, what do we do next? How many times do we need to, you know, have these strengths-based conversations? And, you know, at Gallup, we say a minimum of 6. That's not the secret sauce; that's not the end-all, be-all. You know, go beyond that. You know, I know one of our university partnerships that's a large university has 9 in the first semester with a lot of their students. So, you know, those touch points, when we think about exactly what Lisa's doing, informal and formal. So that would be more of a formal touch point; she's really providing the environment and the space for that conversation and that, that dialogue to occur.

Janet Gibbon 25:41
But then providing those informal touch points too, which oftentimes kind of come with those visual cues. You know, if you've got the buttons or the keychain or the lanyard, you know, you're recognizing and seeing kind of some Connectedness^® across campus in that regard, or through RAs, or sororities, fraternities, athletic departments -- lots of different ways that those students can have what we call, this is organic touch points. But it's so important, just like, you know, I'm trying to get back in shape for my old school collegiate athletic days. And if I said, I only have to run 6 times this year, and I'll be in shape, probably, probably wouldn't hit the mark. But, you know, the more reps that you have and the muscle flex that you get with strengths, obviously, the better in tune your students are going to be to utilizing their strengths, projecting them, using them, not only in their student-based experience but in their personal lives, too.

Strengths Campus: Engagement Benefits for Faculty, Staff

Jim Collison 26:35
Yeah. And I think to use that athletic experience that you had as an example, every, every strengths touch point doesn't need to be a sprint. Sometimes it just needs to be a short, a short duration or some heavy lifting or some, maybe some longer running -- some of those kinds of things. So, but, but the more frequent, the better. As we think about, Janet, we've got just a few minutes left in here. And I want to think about some hard-core recommendations for, for faculty and staff to utilize CliftonStrengths as a tool for engagement. Because we know, we know that if the students know their strengths, they're more likely to be engaged in the education they're getting, right, in this case. So can you talk about, just as we, as we wrap this up, some, some recommendations?

Janet Gibbon 27:20
Yeah, absolutely. So faculty and staff reap the benefits and rewards from CliftonStrengths just as much as students. So when you think about engagement, you know, that we found that those faculty and staff members that know their strengths but also have had the time to develop them, you know, be it through that coaching aspect or just through kind of those, those collaborative groups that occur on campus, they're 6 times more likely to be engaged. So when we think about, you know, just the retention of our faculty and staff and the overall wellbeing and making sure that, you know, when they show up to work each day, it's hard to be there for a student when you're struggling yourself from burnout or just your overall wellbeing. So using CliftonStrengths, you know, for kind of your own internal ability to kind of show up and show up with your best foot forward.

Janet Gibbon 28:06
And when we think about strengths being spread across faculty and staff, the big thing is not, you know, when we're thinking about how they're going to support students, the big thing is not to kind of "voluntold" somebody. You know, like, Jim, you are now going to go take place in this learning and then support all of these students; it's giving them the autonomy to join in that initiative. Strengths takes off like wildfire -- they, there's a little bit of FOMO that happens as strengths starts to really catch on, on college campuses. So if they're not initially bought in, you know, it's never, it's never wise to force that buy-in; just allow them to see what's going, going on and occurring around them naturally and organically, but really diversifying who those faculty and staff members are that are, are bought into the initiative, you know, across that campus culture, so that you can have kind of these little fires that are really going to kind of join together to create that, that overarching, you know, large fire, for lack of a better term. But, you know, it's really having that intentionality. And then for those that might be a little bit more Analytical^®, you know, obviously, anytime we can have data, to say, you know, what we're doing here is in the numbers, and we're seeing that. And not only, like, feeling it on campus, but we also can see it through the numbers and see that needle move. That really helps to support that approach as well.

Jim Collison 29:25
Kim adds to that in chat. She says, All students at Furman have their first two formal strengths development touch points through our Pathways program -- their program; 2-year cohort based on advising and mentoring class for academic credit at Furman. We pop into various upperclassmen academic spaces in the 3 years and 4 with content scaled beyond what they get out of Pathways. That's their way of doing it. And super, super great to hear. And there's, I mean, there's multiple ways to kind of get this thing done, Janet, we're out of time, unfortunately. But I want to ask you, if, if we have institutions that are interested in partnering with us on this, what's the best way for them to get in contact with us, so we can kind of get that process rolling?

Janet Gibbon 30:05
Yeah, absolutely. So I think you can obviously always just go to Gallup.com and reach out, or through our Education page -- there's a landing page on that website. You can just quickly fill out your contact information, and it will route you to the right pathway to get down. And then also, there's a chat feature and functionality on there as well.

Jim Collison 30:23
The chat feature works really well on that, to get that done. You can also, if you send us an email -- coaching@gallup.com -- you don't have to be a coach to use that email address. With your inquiry, we'll get that routed to the right person and get that back to you for -- Janet, thanks for taking time. I will say Sabrina, I want to make sure you're included on this. She asks this question, and this is going to be a common question for university students in the next couple years: I took it, last time I took it, it was 2019. Maybe you took it as a student? How often do you recommend taking it? You can, Sabrina send me an email: coaching@gallup.com. That's a bigger question than we can answer in this time that we have there. Send us an email, and I'll get back to you with an answer. Janet, thank you for taking the time here to be with us. And I appreciate it. We'll remind everyone, we'll make this recording available. It'll be on LinkedIn right after we're done here. And we'll make it a part of The CliftonStrengths Podcast, and we'd love to have you subscribe to that as well. Head out to any podcast player and just search "CliftonStrengths" or "Gallup," and you'll see that there as well. And we'd love to have you subscribe, so you never miss an episode. Thanks for joining us today. We'll be back. Make sure you follow the CliftonStrengths page right there on LinkedIn, so you know when we're doing these; we do these all the time. If you've got any comments on stuff you'd like to have us cover, leave it there as well. Thanks for coming out today. With that, we'll say, Goodbye, everybody.

Janet Gibbon's Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Strategic, Achiever, Woo, Arranger and Maximizer.

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