History of StrengthsFinder®

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The StrengthsFinder® test, developed by the Gallup® organization (famous for its Gallup® polls) first came into the public eye in 2001, thanks to the publication of Now, Discover Your Strengths. The self-help book was written by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton, who was the chairman of Gallup®.

More than 2 million copies of the StrengthsFinder® book were sold, and individuals and teams began using the StrengthsFinder® test to identify personal strengths.

Based on the notion that every person has certain strengths, StrengthsFinder® has broken these strengths into 34 categories, or themes.

Each of the 34 strengths falls into one of four domains (areas): Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking.

To come up with the set of 34 strengths, the Gallup® Organization initially interviewed more than 1.7 million professions, across a variety of fields. Gallup®’s research led to the development of categories, which they labeled as “talent themes,” but most people refer to them as strengths.

The StrengthsFinder® test identifies a person’s top 5 strengths, and it is based on “positive psychology,” or what is “right” about people, not “wrong” with them.

In 2004, the name of the personality assessment was changed to “Clifton StrengthsFinder®,” in order to pay tribute to Don Clifton, who died in 2003.

In 2007, Gallup® updated the test and released the new book, StrengthsFinder® 2.0.

The StrengthsFinder® name has been changed to CliftonStrengths® assessment, but the actual test remains the same.

As of 2024, 31 million people had taken StrengthsFinder®.

For more information about our StrengthsFinder® services or to schedule your free 30-minute consultation, call Elizabeth Mahoney at (303) 729-0611, or email info@strengthscoachingandtraining.com.

Note: Based in Colorado, we specialize in StrengthsFinder® training (remote and on-site) for teams and managers. In addition to offering StrengthsFinder® training for small businesses and corporations, we also offer StrengthsFinder® training for non-profit organizations.