Most common challenges in managing any of the StrengthsFinder Talent Themes

By Dries Lombaard
Strategic Leadership Institute and NeuWorx Coaching

Over the past 18 months I wrote on each of the 34 Talent themes and some of the most common challenges in managing them well.  I took the insight from my experience through hundreds of sessions of Strengths Coaching over the past decade.

This is a very helpful resource for Strengths Coaches, leaders, managers or anyone striving to build more on your own Strengths.

My foundational principle for this series is as follows:  "A well-managed talent becomes a strength...but a miss-managed talent becomes a detriment."  
This very principle also forms the core of my Strengths Coaching sessions.  I never use the cliche that "your strength becomes your weakness", simply because I do not believe it to be true.  Your Strengths will never be your weakness because it will never weaken or drain you.  But, it may very well become your detriment...wrecking your dreams, relationships and even your health.

I believe the awareness of your Talents by understanding their contribution is a very small step in the start of your Strengths journey.  The real challenge is managing the patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving of each of the 34 Talent themes well.  I have witnessed countless of lives change with the knowledge and skill of well managed talents.  Only then can you truly claim it to be your Strength.  Otherwise is may well simply be your detriment...

Herewith the list of all 34 the StrengthsFinder Talent Theme articles on how to manage it well. Simply click on the one you want to read about.

I will also welcome any comments or feedback from your side - you are after all the expert on your own talents!


Enjoy!


Executing Talents:

Managing your Achiever
Managing your Arranger
Managing your Belief
Managing your Consistency
Managing your Discipline
Managing your Deliberative
Managing your Focus
Managing your Responsibility
Managing your Restorative

Influencing Talents:

Managing your Activator
Managing your Command
Managing your Competition
Managing your Communication
Managing your Maximizer
Managing your Self Assurance
Managing your Significance
Managing your WOO

Relational Talents:

Managing your Adaptability
Managing your Connectedness
Managing your Developer
Managing your Empathy
Managing your Harmony
Managing your Individualization
Managing your Includer
Managing your Positivity
Managing your Relator

Thinking Talents

Managing your Analytical
Managing your Context
Managing your Futuristic
Managing your Ideation
Managing your Input
Managing your Intellection
Managing your Learner
Managing your Strategic

Being predominantly EXECUTIONAL

The 34 Talent Themes, as researched and defined by Gallup in the late 90's, was later "clustered" into four different groupings.  Although ongoing research is backing this specific grouping of Talent Themes, one should still realise that talents cannot be treated as a specific formula.  Instead, it is much more like art - mixing different colours bring forth a unique blend. The same with the art of cooking: you could formulate a recipe, but mixing unique ingredients and spices always has its own aroma and taste. And talents are about a unique mix...
Gallup research has shown that the 34 Talent Themes (and, note that it is called "themes" for a reason) are used within specific context most of the time. The 34 different themes of predominant thinking, feeling and behaving can be divided into four clusters, namely "Executing Themes", "Influencing Themes", "Relational Building Themes" and "Strategic Thinking Themes". (You can read more about the research on this in "Strengths Based Leadership" by Tom Rath (Gallup Press).

In the next series of posts I would like to elaborate on each of the four "clusterings", as I like to call them.  First, the Executional Themes...

Gallup sorted the so called Executional Themes as Achiever, Arranger, Belief, Consistency, Deliberative, Discipline, Responsibility, Restorative and Focus.

The first thing to keep in mind when studying these themes as being "executional", will be to keep in mind that each one refers to a predominant pattern of thought, feeling and behaviour. Interaction and dynamics between two or more talent themes has a definite and strong impact on each theme...thereby influencing and colouring the way the specific theme is manifested and used.

Overall, the 9 Executional Themes has shown to have a definite drive towards "getting things done".  You could relate it to the so called "task orientation", or, when referring to the DISC profile, towards the D and C quadrants (generally speaking, but not as simplistic). Again: this should be approach as dynamic and interdependent.

Within the drive towards getting something done - mostly something tangible - each of these themes has a specific strong element. This element can be explained as follows:

• Achiever - goal oriented; "ticking the to-do list"
• Arranger - multi tasking; organizing the bigger picture
• Belief - value driven results
• Consistency - meet the ends within fairness and boundaries
• Deliberative - questioning the outcome and facts
• Discipline - results through routine and structure
• Responsibility - driven towards results through ownership
• Restorative - the drive to fix things, make it work or restoring wholeness
• Focus - hitting the target; zooming into the details.

Should you have some of the above Executional Themes within the higher level of your Talent Profile, it is most likely that the specific talent(s) will be the dominant drive towards getting things done or you reaching specific goals.  A combination of two or more of these themes - especially within the top 5 grouping of your talents, will have a definite effect of an overall pattern towards executional (task oriented) thinking, feeling and behaving.

Sometimes you get it that someone has an overwhelming mix of a specific clustering - like 4 or even 5 out of 5 within their top 5 Talent Themes. In such instance someone will be an "do-er" or executioner to the extreme... they will be very strong in getting things done, reaching goals and hitting the target.

The cluster trap

Something that one must be very careful not to do, is to fall into the trap of generalization of these clusterings.  Not having specific Executional Themes high in your mix, does not mean that you cannot get things done, hit the mark, reach the goal or be responsible for executional duties.  Skills can be learned. That is the edge we have of being human.  But when it comes to sustainable energy, and outlasting the rest within a field, someone with strong Executional Themes will be more suited towards a situation of getting things done, in the same manner that someone with strong Relational Themes will be more suited towards a situation where people and relational interaction is predominant.

I would love to hear your views and experience on specifically the Executional Themes.  If you have some of them, how do you experience them in practice?  If you do not have them high, do you compensate? How?  If you are a coach or Talent Guide, what is your experience of this topic?  Please post your comments.

Next time I will elaborate on the so called "Influencing Themes".

- by Dries Lombaard
Founder and Owner: Africanmosaic

Visit our Website:  www.africanmosaic.com