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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

Introduction: Exploring Human Potential

I was introduced to Clifton Strengths about four years ago when I first started working at WellDyne. My boss at the time, Barbara, told me about this wonderful tool that provides insights into people’s strengths. She told me the whole idea behind the concept was centered around nourishing what’s “right” with people rather than focusing on what’s “wrong” with them.

Fast forward a few years to late 2021/early 2022, I was more and more interested in personality and behavioral assessments and the idea of implementing them to enhance team rapport at work. I had helped Barbara facilitate several of these types of sessions including both Clifton Strengths and Wiley’s DiSC.

I fell in love with the “aha!” moments trainees had and how much it seems to “crack their shells” and get them to open up and be (sometimes hilariously) honest with each other about REAL THINGS. I was hooked.

In April of 2022, I started my Clifton Strengths Coaching Certification, and met a class full of unique and incredible human beings–all interested in getting to know more about people, just like I was. It was an indescribably uplifting experience.

Understanding Clifton Strengths

Origins of Clifton Strengths

Last spring, the son of the man who roomed with Dr. Donald Clifton (the man who developed Clifton Strengths formerly known as StrengthsFinder) was my facilitator for my coaching certification cohort. It almost seemed surreal hearing his stories and how deep of a connection he had to the research and development of this entire system. I feel so lucky to have been taught by Al Winseman–he was the best!

Anyway, he told us that Dr. Donald O. Clifton, the “father of strengths-based psychology,” developed Clifton Strengths as a tool based around his research of successful executives in the United States over the course of 50 years. His research found out what themes these people all shared and turned them into his 34 Strengths or “themes of talent”.  He based this concept to focus on improving what was already working for people instead of remediating their failures and weaknesses.

The Science Behind Clifton Strengths

The Clifton Strengths assessment is based on extensive research and a robust psychometric model, providing insights into an individual’s innate talents and capabilities. Here’s a little about the science behind it:

• Nearly 29 million people worldwide have taken the assessment (as of Jan 2023)
• Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed journals support the construct validity of the CliftonStrengths assessment
• The assessment demonstrates internal consistency and test-retest reliability, meaning the results are consistently accurate over time
• Don Clifton initiated early work on strengths and received a Presidential Commendation from the American Psychological Association (APA) in 2003 as the father of strengths-based psychology and the grandfather of positive psychology for his efforts
• Research conducted by Gallup and others has shown that using CliftonStrengths in workplaces and educational settings leads to improved performance, greater work and life satisfaction, higher levels of well-being, and more robust team dynamics

The Power of Strength-Based Development

The Benefits of Strength-Based Approach

The idea behind a strengths-based approach comes from the root of positive psychology. It isn’t a far stretch from rewarding positive behavior in that you tend to do more of what you’re good at, don’t you? Well, our strengths tell us what we are naturally talented at and also what “fills our bucket”. Knowing this, we can create action plans to move toward our goals KNOWING the tools that will get us there and make us happy along the journey.

Discovering Your Unique Strengths

The Role of Clifton Strengths Assessment

The Clifton Strengths Assessment is widely used in Fortune 500 companies today. Winning awards last year were Estee Lauder, Stryker, Regions Bank, and the University of Tennessee, among others. My company uses it and we give the assessment to all people leaders who are interviewing at our company. Leadership looks at the insights prior to interviewing and sometimes I suggest strengths-aligned questions to ask. It gives us great insights on how candidates go about solving problems and communicating solutions.

Interpreting Your Results

When coaching using Strengths, we work together to help you understand what each theme (strength) really means and more importantly, we discover, together, how that shows up for you. You need to understand how it shows up for you in your everyday life in multiple situations so we know just how to harness it to work more effectively for you.

Leveraging Your Strengths for Success

Aligning Strengths with Goals

Successful people are not just aware of their strengths; they align their goals with these strengths. By doing so, they ensure that they are on a path that maximizes their potential and leads to lasting success.

Overcoming Challenges Through Strengths

This is my favorite part of coaching using Clifton Strengths. It’s like we know the tools in your toolbox that you use every day, are comfortable with, and like using–now for the fun part! We get to create a plan where we figure out how to use what you’ve already got working for you in a way that will supercharge your happiness. It’s about being intentional.

The Impact on Personal and Professional Life

Long-Term Effects of Strength-Based Development

All in all, I would say that the Clifton Strengths system helps individuals to cultivate a growth mindset, enhance their resilience, boost self-confidence, and foster a more fulfilling and meaningful life. It helps people find direction by confirming what they suspected about themselves all along and them harnessing them power to its maximum potential.

Conclusion: Unleashing Your Full Potential

Interested in hearing more? E-mail me today at mdamon21@gmail.com to ask me any questions you have. Believe me, once you know your strengths, no one can take that power away from you. YOU are the person who is going to propel yourself forward. Now, we’ve got the tools Let’s do this!

FAQs

1. What is Clifton Strengths? Clifton Strengths is a psychological assessment tool that identifies a person’s unique sequence of 34 themes of talent, focusing on individual strengths (what you enjoy doing and are talented in).
2. Why should I take the Clifton Strengths assessment? The assessment will help you identify your natural talents, enabling you to focus on what you naturally do best, leading to improved performance and satisfaction. E-mail me at mdamon21@gmail.com to find out more.
3. Can I use my strengths to overcome challenges? Absolutely! Recognizing your strengths can provide innovative solutions to challenges and is a secret weapon that you can use to overcome obstacles and I’m happy to help you create an action plan.
4. How does Clifton Strengths impact personal and professional life? Embracing your strengths can lead to increased engagement, performance, resilience, and self-confidence, transforming both personal and professional lives.
5. What are the long-term benefits of a strength-based approach? A strength-based approach cultivates a growth mindset, promotes resilience, boosts self-confidence, and fosters a more fulfilling and meaningful life. Very helpful with communication and understanding yourself and others better.