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The best teams in business and organizations are well-rounded. When your team has a wide range of strengths, you have a stronger team. A team with strengths spread across people strengths (Relationship Building and Influencing strengths) and task strengths (Executing and Strategic Thinking strengths) are better able to accomplish all that needs to be done.
StrengthsFinder® Domains
In StrengthsFinder®, the 34 strengths fall into four main areas, which are known as StrengthsFinder® domains:
- Relationship Building (people strengths)
- Influencing (people strengths)
- Executing (task strengths)
- Strategic Thinking (task strengths)
Individuals on your team don’t need to have strengths in all four domains. In fact, team members with their top 5 strengths in just one domain can make one-of-a-kind contributions, and team members with their top 5 strengths spread across all four domains can also have significant impacts. No individual strength or combination of strengths is better than another.
Teams That Are Missing Strengths
People often ask, “What if our team is missing some of the 34 strengths?” It’s rare to find a team that has all 34 strengths. Your team doesn’t need all 34 strengths to be strong and successful.
How can you fill gaps if your team doesn’t have all 34 strengths? By looking at the power of the individuals on your team and their unique combination of strengths.
For example, we did a StrengthsFinder® team training for a group of twenty-nine people who worked at a church. None of the staff members had the StrengthsFinder® strength of Empathy in their top 5 strengths, and this really bothered them.
However, when we looked more closely at the strengths they did have, more than half of the team members had Relator® in their top 5. Most of them also had either Connectedness® or Developer®. While they might not have necessarily felt what other people were feeling, they were hard-wired to go deep, make connections, and help people take the next steps.
Reasons To Identify Each Team Member’s Strengths
Once you know each team member’s strengths, you not only understand which individual strengths you have on your team, but also the unique strengths combination of each team member.
As you’re building your team or replacing team members, you can intentionally hire to fill gaps in team members’ strengths. For example, if you need someone to advocate for your team with other teams inside or outside your organization, you’ll want to look for Influencing strengths. Or, if you’ve recently added analyzing responsibilities to your team and your current team members have primarily Executing and Relationship Building strengths, then you’ll want to add someone who has Strategic Thinking strengths.
Hiring New Team Members Based on Strengths
When hiring new team members, you don’t need to look for exact-match StrengthsFinder® strengths (e.g. the strength of Analytical® because you’re now doing more analysis. For example, a team member who has the combination of Intellection® and Deliberative® or who has the combination of Strategic® and Competition® might be great at analysis.
By understanding not only each team member’s top 5 strengths, but also the genius that arises out of the combination of those strengths, you’ll be better equipped to build a powerful team.
For more information about building a team around strengths or our StrengthsFinder® team trainings, please call to schedule a free consultation, (720) 312-8737, or e-mail contact@strengthscoachingandtraining.com.
Note: In addition to providing individualized StrengthsFinder® (CliftonStrengths®) training, we also offer customized StrengthsFinder® workshops and remote training on StrengthsFinder (delivered via conference calls).
Ann Strong has more than 25 years experience in coaching and training and 14 years experience in StrengthsFinder®. She works in Denver, Colorado, and Santa Fe, New Mexico as well as with clients throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Check out these resources for team building with StrengthsFinder®:
Team Building For Remote Teams: How To Use StrengthsFinder®
What Are The Top Strengths That Make A Good Team
What To Do If Your Team Is Missing Strengths
How To Resolve Team Conflict With StrengthsFinder®
What To Do If Your Team Doesn’t Want To Take StrengthsFinder®
How To Use StrengthsFinder® To Assign Projects And Roles
How To Use StrengthsFinder® For Pre-Employment Screening
How To Onboard New Team Members Using StrengthsFinder®
Why Hire A StrengthsFinder® Trainer For Team Building
StrengthsFinder®: Train The Trainer