This fall the College of Arts & Letters Leadership Fellows kicked off by taking the Clifton Strengths Inventory (www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths). The strengths below are my top five:
- Learner
- Achiever
- Ideation
- Individualization
- Strategic
When we debriefed the findings in a workshop setting, we saw that almost everyone in the room shared at least two of them and usually three. Learner, Achiever, and either Ideation or Intellectualization were almost omnipresent. What surprised me is how much the other two strengths in each person’s top five varied across the faculty. As we discussed our reactions to these lists and their implications, it became apparent how much those differences illustrated the ways that the same positions and roles can be interpreted and embodied very differently by different individuals.
We may not all be equally eager to investigate and apply the Strengths framework, but these terms have provided a heuristic and positive terminology for analyzing and articulating how we work together currently and how we can collaborate more productively. Considering how much we have to strategize about and dream of achieving, the framework can make a valuable asset.
