Skip to main content

Poole Faculty, Staff Gain Personal Insight with CliftonStrengths Assessment

NC State Gateway
NC State Gateway

Last fall, when Poole College’s first-year undergraduate students arrived on campus, they completed the CliftonStrengths for Students assessment, a tool to help introduce them to one aspect of leadership development: understanding their personal strengths. Strengths are what individuals do well naturally and what energizes them. Results of that exercise provided a foundation upon which they and their advisors continue to build. Jenkins MBA students also complete the assessment as part of their Leading People core course.

This spring, the college’s faculty and staff were invited to complete the assessment. More than 75 have done so thus far. I was one of those, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that my career path reflects my identified strengths: journalism. I then asked faculty and staff members who completed the assessment to provide their feedback – what they learned, what surprised them – via an email interview. Their story follows. – Anna Rzewnicki

Leigh Shamblin, director of leadership at Poole College
Leigh Shamblin, director of leadership at Poole College

But first, a little about the CliftonStrengths for Students assessment. To date, more than 20 million individuals have taken the assessment, which consists of 177 questions and takes between 30 and 45 minutes to finish. After answering the questions, individuals learn their top five strengths (out of a possible 34), as well as strategies that they can use to build on these strengths.

Leigh Shamblin, director of leadership at Poole College, met with the participating faculty and staff members to discuss their results as a group, and expects to have additional meetings about twice a year. She stressed that CliftonStrengths is a “win-win assessment as all strengths are viewed as equally valuable.” Following is feedback from those faculty and staff members who recently completed the assessment. 

Focus on What You Have

Maria Potepalova, Assistant Director of Internal Communications
Maria Potepalova, Assistant Director, Internal Comms

“I learned not to focus on what’s missing but what you have,” said Maria Potepalova, assistant director of internal communications in the college’s communications and media relations office.

“It was fascinating that the strengths finder provided explanations of how and why I do things at work a certain way,” she said. “I think the assessment not only helped me to be more aware of my own strengths so I can capitalize on them, but that it’ll also help me understand other people’s strengths more and their unique way of working.”

Srini Krishnamurthy, associate professor of finance, said he found the exercise intriguing. “I have not consciously tried to assess myself – my strengths and weaknesses, etc., even though I do assessments all the time for my students. I thought it was a good time to be on the other side – being assessed instead of being the assessor.”

Srini Krishnamurthy, Associate Professor of Finance
Srini Krishnamurthy, Associate Professor of Finance

About the process, he said, “I thought there were a few defining themes that seemed to guide most of my responses. This was my first indication that maybe there is something systematic in what I do and how I behave – my actions seem to derive from a few core factors.”

He cited one of his results: “Your analytical theme challenges other people: Prove it. Show me why what you are claiming is true. In the face of this kind of questioning, some will find that their brilliant theories wither and die.”

“I was surprised by this,” Krishnamurthy said, “since this is virtually exactly what I do in the class. I tell the students that they will shoot up trial balloons – their analyses of business situations – and I would try to pop their balloons in different ways, basically putting their thought process through a very stringent stress test: Can it stand up under sharp scrutiny? It seemed so close to what I do in my classes,” he said.

The assessment tool also offered a cautionary note about people who have an analytical strength: “It is hoped that your analysis is never delivered too harshly. Otherwise, others may avoid you,” Krishnamurthy said. “I think this is something I should pay particular attention to, since student characteristics are changing all the time and it is quite possible that students may be afraid and not be willing or prepared to put themselves through this scrutiny. Fear of failure is not good for learning, and I may have to emphasize it more in class, so the students can understand why and how this process is valuable,” Krishnamurthy said, adding that he may share his assessment results with his students.  

As Krishnamurthy experienced, the Top 5 report provided to individuals includes information on how to build on your strengths, as well as feedback on how you might “show up” to others when overusing your strengths.

Teaching Assistant Professor of Information Technology and Business Analytics
Teaching Assistant Professor of Information Technology and Business Analytics

Sarah Khan, Poole teaching assistant professor of information technology, said, “I am a proponent of personal assessments. They allow us to explore and discover traits about ourselves which can be beneficial personally and professionally.”

In the process of answering the questions, she learned that she can get impatient and should have dedicated more time to the process. “I just wish I would have paid due attention to those questions equally,” she said.

About the results, Khan said, “I had some idea about my strengths but this test categorized it and gave vocabulary to my strengths. It is very important to know about one’s strengths by name and what they mean.

“Among other things,” she said, “I found that my ability to understand multiple perspectives and relationship building can help me excel in my classroom. We, as academics,  encounter diversity at a personal and professional level, and I found out that these two strengths can help me build a connection in such a setting, which is very important for being a teacher.”

Looking ahead, Khan said, “I will try to learn more about my strengths, and how I can utilize them in my personal and professional life.

“I think everyone should take some time out of their busy schedules for this. It is by no means a complete revelation about one’s personality type and all the strengths. However, whatever we can learn about ourselves can go a long way,” she said.

Maximize Individual Strengths in Teams

Gallup, the organization that created and offers CliftonStrengths, has further divided the 34 strengths into four domains that all teams need to cover in order to be effective:

  • Executing: How do you make things happen?
  • Influencing: How do you influence others?
  • Relationship Building: How do you build and nurture strong relationships?
  • Strategic Thinking: How do you absorb, think about and analyze information and situations?

These domains describe how people and teams use their talents to work with information, make things happen, influence others and build relationships. Individuals do not have to have Top 5 strengths in each domain (and most do not). Rather, teams that want to maximize their effectiveness should be able to capitalize on the individual strengths of team members in each of the domains.

Associate Director of Student Programs and Career Services
Associate Director of Student Programs and Career Services

Kelly Hardy, PHR, associate director for student programs and career services in the Jenkins MAC Program at Poole College, said she was surprised “that belief was a strength for me and that my belief system impacts my decision making. 

“While I know that my beliefs make up a huge part of who I am and I how I respond to the world around me, it’s important that I am also cognizant when my belief does not leave room for biases. The belief strength can be described as someone that is passionate, steadfast, knows where they stand, family-oriented, ethical and responsible,” she said.

“What I loved most about this experience is that we are taught not to focus on what we were missing from the leadership domain – executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking – but to ultimately understand our strengths and maximize them when working with other teams. And, when we understand more about other people’s strengths, we can build upon them by giving them tasks that will allow them to thrive,” Hardy said.

“Also, I look forward to seeing the results of my team’s strengths so we can learn from them collectively and determine what areas we are strong in and in what areas we may need to ‘buy, build or partner’.

“Finally, we learned about our ‘basement’ barriers, which allowed us to understand our personality a little more when we are not thriving in our strengths. That gave me insight to some of my behaviors when I feel stressed. So, when I am aware of these behaviors I can understand what is ‘lacking’ and try to shift or change to align more with my strengths,” she said.

Apply Insights

Poole College faculty and staff members who have not yet completed the CliftonStrengths assessment can still do so. “We will keep offering workshops for faculty and staff, probably two per semester. I also encourage intact teams to take the assessment. We can offer individual team sessions to help them work together more effectively,” Shamblin said.

She also offered some recommendations for those who have completed the assessment.

  • Think about how you can build on your strengths in your current job and talk with your manager about that. Your manager may be able to identify additional opportunities for you to use your strengths in your current role.
  • Share your results with others who are important in your lives – team and family members – and think about where you might need to buy, build or partner in both your personal and professional lives. 
  • Talk to your team members about your strengths, but also about things you don’t like to do. Team members with different strengths can use this information to divvy up assignments in ways that feel more powerful to individuals on the team. By building on each other’s strengths, teams are more likely to be productive and have less conflict.

For more information about taking the CliftonStrengths assessment, having an individual Strengths coaching session (free of charge), or opportunities for your team to discuss and build on strengths, contact Leigh Shamblin at lsbrown2@ncsu.edu.