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StrengthsFinder and Psychological Type

I traveled up to Sacramento yesterday to attend the April CCC-APT meeting. Erin Passons presented “Discover Your Strengths: Combining StrengthsFinder and Psychological Type”.
I’ve been a fan of the Gallup StrengthsFinder since discovering it over a decade ago. Until now, however, it simply hadn’t occurred to me to consider how StrengthsFinder Talent (Theme) combinations might intersect with Type – a failure of imagination on my part, obviously!

When I first took the StrengthsFinder, in 2006, my reaction to my “signature themes” report was “OK, that looks like me”. Yesterday, revisiting my report again, I could see that these themes also look “INTJ”.

Some notes from the presentation, for Type practitioners interested in possibly adding StrengthsFinder to their toolkit:

  • A Talent, in StrengthsFinder terms, is “a naturally occurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be used productively”.
  • As is the case with Type, people don’t change much over time. Your Talents are innate.
  • Like Type, StrengthsFinder is a tool for self-development. It is not a tool meant to be used in making hiring or promotion decisions, nor is it a predictor of success in a given role.
  • StrengthsFinder can be useful for helping people who may be having trouble determining their best-fit Type.
  • The StrengthsFinder assessment is only available online. It includes 177 questions with a 20 second time limit for each. Users can’t “mull over” a question or go back. A user can answer “neutral” (or not answer) a maximum of 90 questions before the program is unable to produce a result.
  • Results from the StrengthsFinder include a person’s top 5 or “signature themes”, out of a set of 34 possible themes.
  • As with Type (i.e. whole type >> a combination of function/attitudes), the combination of themes in the top 5 is important.
  • It may be possible to “guess” someone’s Type through conversation; it’s more difficult to guess StrengthsFinder themes from the outside.
  • The MBTI “emphasizes similarities” between people of the same Type or Temperament. The StrengthsFinder “emphasizes uniqueness”.
  • Type theory says that stress puts us “in the grip” of the inferior functions. StrengthsFinder (similarly) says that stress emphasizes the “less productive” aspects of your Themes.
  • A focus on strengths, rather than on “weaknesses”, can lead to increased engagement and improved performance for employees.
  • Gallup has found that the chances of being engaged at work if leadership does not focus on strengths are 9%. This rises to 73% if leadership does focus on strengths!
  • Employees who can focus on strengths are 6 times as likely to report success in their role and 3 times as likely to say they have a high quality of life.
  • Much of Gallup’s work is with employees in the workplace, but they do have two educational divisions, one for Higher Ed and one for primary education.
  • There is a version of the StrengthsFinder for children (approx ages 10 – 14), called StrengthsExplorer.

Although Erin never mentioned Temperament specifically, I saw a lot of correlation between Themes and Temperament during the presentation. I was also interested to see the (obvious to me) correlation between the four StrengthsFinder Leadership Themes and the Berens’ Interaction Styles!

StrengthsFinder Theme   Interaction Style
Executing   In-Charge
Influencing   Get Things Going
Relationship building   Behind the Scenes
Strategic Thinking   Chart the Course

In summary, I think StrengthsFinder would be an excellent addition to any Type practitioner’s toolbox!

Many Thanks to Erin for coming up from San Diego to present (and a huge thank you to my friend Julie for the ride from N. Concord BART to Sacramento!)

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