A huge part of what I believe in as a coach is the power to really listen to people and find out their truth. I truly believe that if we all took the time and energy to understand one another a little better, a lot more would be right with the world. This is why I believe in the blending of two approaches–finding a person’s “why” and their “how.”
Introduction to Strengths and Enneagram
What is Clifton Strengths?
Clifton Strengths, previously known as StrengthsFinder, is a highly reliable assessment tool developed by Don Clifton after 50 years of research into what makes individuals successful. The Clifton Strengths assessment is a 144 question assessment that is used to identify top strengths from a list of 34 possible talents, helping people to understand their talent themes, or things they do best that fulfill them.
Understanding the Enneagram
The Enneagram is a framework for 9 different personality types that boil down to differentiation in motivations and desires. The idea is that a person’s core Enneagram type describes 9 different ways in which people see the world.
How Do Strengths and Enneagram Complement Each Other?
Strengths in Relation to Enneagram Types
Finding out your Top 5 Clifton Strengths helps you to understand the 5 tools in your toolbox that you tend to pull out in every interaction. You usually find that most strengths in your top 5 will correlate with the descriptions associated with your core Enneagram type. For example, I’m a Type 3 “The Achiever”, and my top 5 strengths are Futuristic, Strategic, Learner, Activator, Achiever.
Clifton Strengths tells us what’s in our “toolbox”; what are our every day strengths that we rely on to get things done, but that also fills our bucket. The Enneagram framework helps us to understand our reason for being, our desires, motivations, and why we do what we do, say what we say, and make the decisions that we make.
Combining Enneagram Insights with Strengths
Your Enneagram core type tells us more about your desires, motivations, fears, and can be a pretty good indicator of behavior, especially if you know your wing. But the Enneagram is difficult to predict based on a person’s actions alone. While Clifton Strengths, which are the tools you use every day to achieve your goals, are your how, the Enneagram is your why and a person’s “why” is hard to see because it doesn’t manifest in the form of the same actions for everybody.
For example, as a Type 5, my co-worker’s first strength “Strategic” manifests itself as quiet, tactical observation as he uses his Intellection (another top 5 strength of his) to think of a conclusion/solution to move forward. On the other hand, Strategic (Strength #2 for me) manifests itself as energetic brainstorming and open dialogue with others to evaluate new ideas to process them out loud together when finding solutions at work.
Steps to Integrate Your Strengths and Enneagram Type
Identifying Your Strengths
If you haven’t already taken the Clifton Strengths Assessment, contact me at mdamon21@gmail.com for a discounted price or visit Gallup.
Discovering Your Enneagram Type
Take this free Enneagram test (takes about 15 minutes) and do not pay for the report. Your results will be the largest slice in the pie chart and will be identified as the first word (your Core Type as a number, written out) of the results paragraph. If you have trouble interpreting your results, that’s what I’m for, reach out to me and we can schedule a Discovery Session.
Integrating Your Strengths and Enneagram Type
Once we have your results for both assessments, we will have a clearer picture of your why and how! I offer several types of coaching sessions that combine insights from both tools. Can’t wait to show you your unique toolbox and how we can use it to get you where you want to go.
Benefits of Integrating Strengths and Enneagram for Personal Growth
Enhanced Self-Understanding
Knowing both your why and how will help us better be able to determine an action plan to move forward and help you achieve your personal and professional goals. The results from both assessments help you to see a clearer picture in why you think, act, feel, react, communicate, and behave the way you do and how we can harness this to your benefit.
Improved Self-Development
Together, we can work together to help you understand your why through your Enneagram typing and examine your level of health on the Enneagram health scale. From there, a focus on parlaying your “toolbox” through Strengths gives us the tools we need to execute real change.
Strengthened Relationships and Team Dynamics
Once you gain a higher level of reflective self-awareness, you will innately want to have your friends and family take the assessments too! It’s crazy how much we are able to unlock and learn about one another. I, myself, and dozens of others I’ve coached have seen the benefits of this hybrid approach to improving team dynamics and relationships.
If you’d like to learn more, head to our Free Resources page for books to read on both tools or email me at mdamon21@gmail.com to schedule a session.
FAQs
- What are the main differences between Clifton Strengths and Enneagram? Clifton Strengths focuses on identifying your natural talents, or your “how” while Enneagram helps to determine your “why” or motivations for doing things.
- Can I be more than one Enneagram type? Everyone is a mix of several types because we are all unique! But one dominant Core Type will arise for you that feels more correct than the others when it boils down to it.
- How can understanding my Strengths and Enneagram type help my career? Definitely. I use both of these tools in my coaching and in the workplace. Both tools provides you with data to increase your level of self-awareness, allowing you to better be attuned to what you like to do and together, we can assess if you are using your Strengths in productive ways to honor that.
- How accurate are Clifton Strengths and Enneagram assessments? While no assessment tool is 100% accurate, both Clifton Strengths and Enneagram have been widely used and recognized for their validity and reliability.
- Where can I take the Clifton Strengths and Enneagram assessments? You can take the Clifton Strengths assessment on Gallup.I recommend you take the free Enneagram assessment here.