Four Things StrengthsFinder Cannot Tell us about a Person (podcast)
Welcome to the next installment of the Leadership Vision Podcast, where we share our expertise in the discovery, practice, and implementation of StrengthsFinder.
Today on the podcast, Brian Schubring and I are going to be talking about the four things StrengthsFinder results cannot tell us. Strengths tell us a lot about what a person brings to any situation. It can tell us how they will show up in a relationship and what their potential capacity is for whatever the job might be. However, at Leadership Vision, we are learning more and more about the things Strengths CANNOT tell us about a person.
Specifically, StrengthsFinder does not reveal a person’s context, their culture, their character, or how consistently they show up.
Strengths tell us how to approach something, how someone will show how they might make a good partner. Time and time again, we’re being asked questions about a person that StrenthsFinder just cannot answer.
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About Context, Culture, Character, and Consistency
StrenthsFinder reveals a lot of things that are extremely helpful for us to reference when we are interacting with individuals. However when we look at these four words, context culture character and consistency, StrengthFinder does not give us clues to those things.
Context refers to a person’s background. The context within which they were raised. If we ask specific questions about someone’s past, like,
- “Where did you come from?”
- “What kind of family system were you raised in?”
- “Did you move around a lot?”
When we ask those types of questions, we will have some understanding of how their past has shaped who they are today.
Culture brings with it reinforcing values that are pre-existent to your showing up to that culture. StrengthsFinder does not provide any indication of the reinforcing values of culture. We have done work in dozens of countries. Each of these countries and regions within countries has a different set of cultural values. Those cultural values influence how a person’s Strengths may show up.
We don’t know the character-logical balance within a person through Strengths alone. That character logical balance will be displayed through their behavior, through their conversations through their work ethic. A big question to ask here is about the type of integrity a person has in their character when they are showing up in various contexts.
Consistency is a key indicator of how quickly one can develop relational trust with someone. This is about doing what you say you’re going to do. Consistency is necessary for there to be relational trust built between people. For Strengths to be genuinely generative, there needs to have this element of consistency applied to it. Potential Strength can only grow through consistent opportunities to develop Strength. The reliability of someone’s Strengths within a particular culture or context will only improve when given a consistent opportunity for someone to lean into that.
About The Leadership Vision Podcast
The Leadership Vision Podcast is a weekly show sharing our expertise in the discovery, practice, and implementation of StrengthsFinder. Leadership Vision uses StrengthsFinder to work with People, Teams, and Culture. We believe that knowing your Top 5 Strengths is only the beginning. In fact, our highest potential exists in the ongoing exploration of our talents. Subscribe to the Leadership Vision Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.
Please contact us if you have ANY questions about anything you heard in this episode, or if you’d like to talk to us about helping your team understand the power of Strengths.
