Re-Release: Four Things StrengthsFinder Cannot Tell us about a Person (podcast)

Hello, everyone, it’s Steph Wahlund, and we’re in week three of our Holiday podcast break. We’re also helping Nathan’s voice recover from his tonsil surgery. Personally, I think it’s an excuse to get some time away from his four kids and binge watch the complete season of the Mandalorian on Disney+.

During this time we decided to re-release some of our favorite episodes from the archives. One of my favorite podcast episodes was Episode 28: 4 things StrengthsFinder cannot tell us about a person from season 1 which came out in April of 2018.

I really liked it because often people expect simple answers to some really complex questions. Questions like, “I have Intellection, who would I partner best with?” or “what strengths should someone who works in Sales have?”. CliftonStrengths is not a fortune teller and people are infinitely unique. In this episode you hear how each individuals Context, Culture, Character and Consistency drastically alter how you answer some of these most common questions that impact how we live into our Strengths.

Although we hope that knowing your Strengths helps you feel known, understood, and free, we never want you to feel boxed in by them. Instead, we want you to use them as a platform to stand on.

As you listen to this episode today, perhaps for the second time, think about people you may have made assumptions about based on their Strengths. Or, if you’re hoping to hire someone based on their Strengths, what are some questions you could ask them in regards to the four C’s mentioned previously to gain a better understanding of their narrative?

Finally, think about how the Context, Culture, Character and Consistency of your background have shaped how your Strengths manifest in your life? What can you learn from that reflection?

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.