The Transformative Power of CliftonStrengths: A Journey of Positive Psychology and Personal Growth

In this episode of the Leadership Vision Podcast, hosts Nathan Freeburg, Dr. Linda Schubring, and Brian Schubring delve into the history, evolution, and profound impact of CliftonStrengths, a tool derived from positive psychology that has been shaping lives for 26 years. They discuss how focusing on strengths and self-reflection can lead to transformative experiences for individuals and teams. The conversation explores the power of positive narrative, the tool's role in professional practices, and the importance of understanding and leveraging one's strengths. We also reflect on personal experiences and invite listeners to share how CliftonStrengths has impacted their lives.

00:16 The Evolution and Impact of CliftonStrengths
00:44 Significance of Focusing on Strengths
01:08 Personal Reflections and Listener Engagement
01:51 Historical Context and Adoption of CliftonStrengths
03:16 The Why Behind CliftonStrengths
06:07 Changes and Integration in Professional Practices
11:07 The Power of Self-Reflection and Positive Narratives
16:35 Concluding Thoughts and Final Reflections
19:03 Closing Remarks and Resources

Chapters

• 0:00 Impacts of Strengths & Positive Psychology
• 12:45 Power of Strengths-Based Conversations
• 18:45 Exploring Strengths and Positive Team Culture

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

You are listening to the Leadership Vision Podcast, our show helping you build positive team culture. Our consulting firm has been doing this work for the past 25 years so that leaders are mentally engaged and emotionally healthy. Hello everyone, my name is Nathan Friberg and today, on the podcast, dr Linda and Brian Shubring and I reflect on the evolution and impact of CliftonStrengths, a tool with origins in positive psychology that's transformed the lives of millions of people over the past 26 years. As you may know, brian was at the forefront of this tool being introduced to the world, and, while we have many other tools in our proverbial toolbox, this one has stuck around and it's one that we keep coming back to over and over again, which we'll discuss In this episode. We discuss the significance of focusing on strengths, the role of self-reflection and how integrating these insights into professional practices can lead to transformative experiences for individuals and teams.

Speaker 1: 0:58

You're going to get to hear about the importance of positive narrative and personal development and the lasting influence of CliftonStrengths in cultivating a deeper understanding of oneself. This was a really fun conversation for us to record, as we reflected on how we have seen the tool being used over the years, how it has changed, how we have grown as a result of it, and we would love to hear from you what are some of the ways that your knowledge or understanding of your strengths has changed because of this tool, as it has morphed and developed over the years. Send us an email, connect at leadershipvisionconsultingcom or go to our website, leadershipvisionconsultingcom and just tell us how this tool has changed you, how knowledge of your strengths has changed over the years. All right onto the show.

Speaker 2: 1:58

So Brian and I were talking the other day and we were talking about people that came into the strengths movement and people that are extending StrengthsFinder, cliftonstrengths around the world and and it just dawned on me it was like, wow, it was 1998. And 26 years ago Brian was in at the release of the StrengthsFinder and and it's every once in a while. It's just curious to me, like why do we keep using it every once in a while?

Speaker 2: 2:24

it's just curious to me, I'm like, why do we keep using it? And we have a whole host of reasons why. We have a whole host of reasons why to know that that not very many people had taken the psychometric at the time to now 32 million people and counting there. There is such a privilege to be a part of this movement, of helping people recognize what's great and brilliant and beautiful in them, and it's obviously a tool that that we keep using. So, as we were talking, I just couldn't help but shake the fact that there are a lot of things that you dream about and let go of really quickly, and this is one of the through lines, this and triathlons and running those kind of things as well but this one is is unique, and so I'm wondering about your why my why is that CliftonStrengths is rooted in positive psychology.

Speaker 3: 3:21

Taking that perspective on a human being that there's something beautiful and brilliant about you that is unique only to you, and that way of looking at an individual as unique and distinct and differentiated from every other human being in the world, that really captured my attention. And as much as that captured my attention, what made this practice even more meaningful was that the language of strengths is quickly uploaded into someone's vocabulary. The words that describe strengths are easily recognizable. And then the third thing that kept me in it was how often this language can be misunderstood and misinterpreted and quickly go from focusing on what's right and unique and beautiful about each one of us to what isn't. And that's the wrestle is because as much as people love to talk about what's right about them, we as human beings are also quick to note what's wrong about us too.

Speaker 3: 4:25

And as the years have progressed and as people have become more aware of the stories they tell themselves, of how their self-image has been influenced by social factors or by other people's voices, that can remind us of what is right about our humanity can be really in not just informative, but be really influential in in helping us level, set how we see ourselves, helping us regulate the stress and the pressure that we have for ourselves, as well as to our strengths, can serve as a reminder of what is authentically who we are at the core, what it is that we bring into any type of situation and that's what keeps me rooted in it, because whenever we can press pause in someone's life, ask them to do some type of self-reflection not on what's broken, but on what's beautiful. People come to life in that and when that happens, that is a positive emotional experience that draws a greater connection to oneself and that can have a lasting impression on someone's life. That's why I stay in this.

Speaker 1: 5:38

So I just Googled since it came out, the CliftonStrengths has been completed by 32,913,753 people, so 33 million. So 33 million. I mean, it's probably like one of those ticker things that goes up. Brian, you started at the early days when a couple of hundred, maybe a few thousand people have taken it. It's changed the name a couple of times. Is there any? Not not technically, but there. Is there anything like what are some of the biggest changes you've seen in? I don't even know what I'm asking here in the way that maybe people understand it. I mean 32 million people. I still run into people all the time. We've never heard of this. Yeah, maybe just leave it that broad, like what are some of the biggest changes you've seen in 26 years since this thing first debuted in the way I don't know? Society accepted, people accepted the?

Speaker 3: 6:33

biggest change that I've seen is the amount of people that want to integrate this language into a professional practice. Yeah, yeah, whatever that is, whether it's a solopreneur, a coach or some CHRO that wants to integrate strengths into their professional practice within an organization.

Speaker 3: 6:55

Amongst all the other assessments, that they use that quick uptake that has significantly changed, and I believe that that result or that activity is a direct reflection on how powerful this tool is. There are many cultural experiences that can transcend someone's reality, that remind them of their bigger purpose, and I believe that this language of strengths, this tool, can do the same thing, and I've seen it over and over again through the years of people who go through a process of taking this tool online, receiving their results back and having some type of transformation or transformative or formative experience with it that they can't let go of, and they want to share it with someone else. Whenever people, whenever human beings have a transcendent experience, they want to share it with someone else. They want someone else to hear their own story, they want to share that feeling that they felt, and that's what I'm seeing, or that's what I have seen with the strengths movement. Is this really fast uptake in people wanting to integrate this experience into a professional practice of some type?

Speaker 2: 8:20

The population that Brian was originally working with was the 18 to 35 year old, and that was a data set that Gallup did not have a lot of, and so, if I think and that was about 20, 26 years ago so those 18 year olds are older but thinking about all the university students that we have worked with over the years, all the high school juniors and seniors that we've worked with over the years, and the ones that had significant conversations, they didn't just take the psychometric, they didn't just take the test and memorize the results, but when they had significant conversations, it changed the trajectory of their life, who they surrounded themselves with, the kinds of places that they chose to work or to live or to be, that they chose to work or to live or to be.

Speaker 2: 9:16

Although strengths you know some of them may have shifted and changed over the years, one of the things that I've been impressed with is I'm hoping that it's changed the trajectory of where people can feel the most satisfaction, happiness or even flourishing, although some of the numbers don't always reflect that. I do think that this shared language was a game changer. But strengths is just one of the many kind of assessments or psychometrics out there. Brian, I want to know, because you were charged in the program that you were administering, you were charged with having a psychometric and an assessment, if you zoom out like, what was the significance of having those two tools to help identify leaders?

Speaker 3: 10:08

Well with CliftonStrengths as a psychometric. It is helping us identify the cognitive patterns and pathways of how we behave, how we think, how we form relationships and our emotions. That's something very internal, and a psychometric can give me that. An assessment, then, is the expression, the extension of what's happening on the inside to the outside, and an assessment is something that's more psychological, more personality based, and that is usually the lived experience that people have one with another, and so when you put these two things together, an assessment helps us explain the interaction between people and a psychometric helps us explain the influence, the real motivation and desire behind that relational experience. So when those two types of tools come together, it can provide a really powerful punch for people to understand really, not only how they're preferring to show up with other people, but what is the true motivation and inspiration behind all that?

Speaker 2: 11:06

Yeah, that's good.

Speaker 3: 11:07

Now back to the original question. What keeps me using this tool is one when, when people press pause and really do some reflection on what these new words, these new like this language of strengths and this is to description what it means to them there's this awakening and reckoning that happens, and awakening of oh my gosh, and this confirmation of this is totally who I am, or an awakening To, oh, this is who I am two very different awakenings, but it is a clear as day reflection on on who you are. And that's an awakening. And, like Linda mentioned earlier, this language of strengths can also serve as a reckoning, this way of saying, oh man, I'm on the right path, or I don't know if I am.

Speaker 3: 11:57

And we have been in thousands of conversations where we're talking to someone and they're having a moment of reckoning Like am I in the right place? Am I in the right relationship? Am I surrounded by the right people? Am I being asked to do the right thing? Am I in the right relationship? Am I surrounded by the right people? Am I being asked to do the right thing? Am I pursuing my dream? Is my perception of myself limiting myself, or is my perspective of who I am just now becoming a reality, and that's a point of reckoning, and the satisfaction that comes and being alongside someone when they're having that moment because they need help, like they're looking around, like who's going to help me understand what am I going to do now?

Speaker 3: 12:38

That's important stuff. That's a really important conversation. So we often find ourselves standing with someone at an intersection where they're faced with many choices. We are not there to tell people more about what a strength means. We're there to help them observe and become more aware of the opportunities presented to them.

Speaker 3: 13:05

In those conversations you know that something meaningful is about to happen, because in the next few steps, a person's going to determine the direction that they're going to be headed for potentially several years down the road. That has a lot of implications and to me that seems to be extremely important work, because the work that we do happens within a professional business context where people are having a face-to-face conversation with a live human being. That conversation is about their life, their lived experiences, their meaningful relationships, their hopes and their dreams, many of which they haven't spoken out loud to many people, and we're there sharing this moment with them. That is when we help people feel more human, feel more alive and give them permission to be kind to themselves, as well as to be grateful for the moment of development that they're about to start.

Speaker 2: 14:04

And for me, that's where the strengths for me has been the most life-giving or generative when we're really sitting with someone and we almost push all the papers aside, we push all the strengths words aside, and we're not like doing flashcards with them, like where does this strength show up, where does this strength show up, but instead it's this conversation and just letting someone have the freedom to speak about their life, and then Brian and I do the strengths detecting.

Speaker 2: 14:39

We're the ones that are trying to find the strengths or notice them in their stories, and when we begin to reflect back some of the things that people say is like well, I thought we were just talking in that moment, I thought that was just like the chit chat before we got into it.

Speaker 2: 14:55

When, instead, we are listening to people's stories, we're listening to the language, the tempo that people are telling the stories in, and for us and for me, I think why I'm still a part of the strengths movement is is I've seen it bring healing.

Speaker 2: 15:15

I've seen people put their shoulders back and say, all right, this is who I am and this is how I want to show up in the world. And it's usually in those moments when people want to pay it forward and they want to help somebody else and they want to give those experiences of being known, seen in an environment, and to realize that's where engagement happens, that's where greater productivity happens, that's when we become more connected and effective leaders. And so, for me, I'm proud that Brian was in at the release of StrengthsFinder. He carries it through to today and we're still learning. With every conversation that we have with someone, we're learning the nuances, we're learning the different historical pressures that are on people today and and getting a a lesson in the new observable talents, of strengths that show up as a result of being in this world at this time.

Speaker 3: 16:22

We will never outgrow the need or outpace the need to know ourselves and what is good and right about who we are as a person.

Speaker 1: 16:31

I love that. I love that so much, and I feel like this is not only a good place to end, but also just to point out how 26 years I took it for the first time at the very end of 2002. So, 22 years and I'm still learning about it. You're still learning about it. It's continuing to evolve and grow and change and, yeah, I would just encourage our listeners to continue to be on that journey to understand what's right about you.

Speaker 1: 17:02

Brian, you said at the very beginning, one of the things you like about it is it's based on positive psychology. And I love that so much as well because I think that in this world where there's so many people constantly telling us what's wrong with us, it's refreshing to have that. My daughter, who's reading has been a challenge for her, and she's like I'm going to read this book together and I'm going to highlight every word that I know, and I was like, well, why don't you just highlight the words that you don't know? And my wife was like, uh, she's actually doing that from a more strengths-based, positive perspective.

Speaker 2: 17:36

I was like all right, let's go, let's do that, and so almost the entire book is highlighted, so it's lovely, but uh final thoughts.

Speaker 3: 17:47

There are so many negative narratives that surround us every moment of every day and there are so many different platforms that influence us to continue to have that negative dialogue. And there are so many different ways to look at and interpret who we are as people. Why not choose a positive and healthy way to see ourselves? And it just so happens that the language of strengths is a positive way to view ourselves, our potential and our possibility as individuals. Why not begin to sow the seeds of a positive narrative with this language?

Speaker 2: 18:26

At the same time, strengths isn't an excuse for bad behavior or bad character, and so when you focus on what's right and positive, I think it's just that recalibration and moving to yep highlight the words. You know, Nathan, I think I'm going to use that one. Yeah, it's good.

Speaker 1: 18:49

Well, brian and Linda, thank you for this sort of a little walk down memory lane, but also, I think, just reiterating kind of our philosophical approach to strengths, and I hope that listeners can kind of get some value from this.

Speaker 1: 19:01

So, thank you, thank you and thank you listeners for listening to the Leadership Vision Podcast, our show helping you build positive team culture For more resources, about developing your strengths the strengths of your team or the strengths of your entire organization. You can click the link in the show notes or visit our website, leadershipvisionconsultingcom. And if you have questions about anything you heard in this podcast or learning more about how we might help your team, do that send us an email. Connect at leadershipvisionconsultingcom. I'm Nathan Friberg.

Speaker 2: 19:30

I'm Linda Schubring.

Speaker 3: 19:32

And I'm Brian.

Speaker 1: 19:32

Schubring and on behalf of our entire team thanks for listening.