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Through learning more about your unique talents, you can begin to incorporate those into your life as a way to enhance both your personal and professional development.

What is a talent theme?

Talent themes are qualities that are natural patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. These are enduring traits that are present throughout an individual’s life. An equation we use to describe this is Talent X Investment = Strength.

As you practice and invest in developing each talent theme, talents can turn into strengths. According to CliftonStrengths for Students, a strength is “consistent, near perfect performance in a task.”

How can you use CliftonStrengths for Students for your own professional development?

By understanding your own unique talents as well as those of others, you can collaborate to complete tasks more effectively. Through learning about other talents and the domains that talent themes fall into, it can provide insight into the behavior of others and contribute to more effective leadership skills.

CliftonStrengths for Students is a useful tool when considering your roles. What energizes you? What tasks do you enjoy and complete most effectively? Seek out experiences in both your personal and professional life that enable you to use your talents and develop your Strengths.

How can you talk about your talents with others?

Talents can be discussed in terms of transferable skills. Talking about your talents during interviews can help with answering behavioral questions and having examples of how you excelled in previous roles. When updating your resumes, CVs, and cover letters, make sure to incorporate your talent themes. This may not mean listing that specific term (Relator), but think about how you use it in your job (prioritizing interactions with students to serve as a mentor to history majors.) Being able to identify and articulate your talents to others can show a greater amount of insight and understanding of what makes you successful and how you bring about that success. 

Resources

Gallup has produced articles, activities, and in-depth information about CliftonStrengths for Students talent themes. For more information about CliftonStrengths for Students and how to utilize it both for yourself and for working with others, visit the CliftonStrengths for Educators Resources page.

CliftonStrengths for Students is an effective tool to assist you in your development as a teacher as well as facilitate the creation of a Strengths-based classroom.

How can you incorporate your talents into your role as a teacher?

The following are reflection questions to assist you in thinking about your talents in regards to your own teaching:

• How do you use your talents in a teaching role?
• What’s the most energizing part of your job?
• What’s the least energizing aspect of your job?
• What are some additional ways to implement your talents in regards to teaching?
• How are you currently using a Strengths-based approach in your classroom?
• Are there ways of incorporating a Strengths-based approach further in the classroom?

How can I use CliftonStrengths for Students with my class?

CliftonStrengths and a Strengths-based approach can also be utilized in classes, whether those are seminar courses or introductory courses for students new to a major or university. To facilitate CliftonStrengths for Students, first learn about the different talent themes and ideas for application.

Activities to Facilitate Group Work

CliftonStrengths for Students can also be used to partner students up for group work, either grouping students with complementary talents or encouraging them to learn about other students’ talents. By having your students understand how others use their talents, it can create a more positive and productive environment for group work. In addition, if any concerns or issues arise, students can use their talents to address those problems or learn more about another students talents to understand how that person functions.

Additional Resources

Gallup has produced articles, activities, and in-depth information about CliftonStrengths talent themes. There are also technical reports, which detail the research behind the assessment and results. For more information about CliftonStrengths for Students and how to utilize it, visit the CliftonStrengths for Educators Resources page.

I took CliftonStrengths for Students in the last several years. How do I access my results?

If you took CliftonStrengths prior to Fall 2023, go to the CliftonStrengths homepage and log in using your email address and password. The Signature Theme Report contains your CliftonStrengths assessment results. If you do not remember your password, do not recall the e-mail address you used, or have other concerns, visit Gallup’s Help Center page for instructions on how to continue.

If you took CliftonStrengths in Fall 2023 or after, you can find the link your results at the top of your e-mailed receipt, in the follow-up e-mails you received from Gallup describing each of your top five talent themes, or e-mail tmurphy7@ivytech.edu.

What’s the difference between a talent and a strength?

Talents are qualities that individuals are innately good at and are natural ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. When you take the CliftonStrengths assessment, it will tell you your top five talent themes out of a possible 34. As you invest time and energy in applying those five talent themes, they will turn into Strengths.

Will taking CliftonStrengths for Students help me decide on a career or major?

CliftonStrengths for Students will not tell you what career to pursue. However, knowing your unique talents can help you to seek out opportunities to excel and can help you in job search process through interviewing, resumes, etc. Your talents can also help you to determine what type of role would be a good fit for you based on your talents and where you fit into the Four Leadership Domains. 

What is the theory that CliftonStrengths for Students is based on?

CliftonStrengths for Students was developed out of a framework of positive psychology and studying what makes people successful and happy. Research shows that employees who knew what their Strengths were and used them daily tended to much more satisfied and successful. Further information and technical reports can be found about the validity of CliftonStrengths can be found on Gallup’s website.

Will my talents change?

Since your talents are natural patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving, it is likely that they will remain consistent. However, for some people who take CliftonStrengths several years apart (such as during their freshman and senior years), it is possible for several of your talent themes to remain the same and for a couple to change. Those were likely talents that were in your top 10 previously, but you have implemented those more in your life recently.

How do I address my weaknesses?

It is more productive to focus on your talents since it is easier to go from good to great than to work on your areas of weakness only to be mediocre at those things. If you do have areas of weakness, how can you use your talents to overcome those? For example, someone may have Strategic in their top five but does not have Harmony. If there is a conflict between team members, the individual could use their Strategic talent to determine how to get the team members to work together and accomplish their goal.

While each talent has benefits, there can also be a “shadow side.” For example, an individual who has Deliberative is adept at researching and making thoughtful decisions. However, if that person is experiencing stress or not using their talent in a healthy way, a shadow side might be that they are indecisive and delay making a decision since they need more information.

Why can I only see my top five?

Gallup suggests that individuals can make greater strides by focusing on a more select number of talents to really develop and intentionally use in your life rather than having a list with all 34 talents.

How likely is it that someone else has my same five talents?

As Gallup reports, the likelihood that another person has the same five talent themes is 1 in 278,000. The likelihood of meeting another person with the same five talents in your exact order is 1 in 33 million.