Clifton Strengths Finder
Clifton Strengths Finder
Sarah Delannoy
Immaculata University
In many cases, people find it difficult to label or categorize their natural talent. Because one is unaware of their natural talents, he or she experiences. During Gallup’s research on identifying talents, they discovered Throughout the course of Clifton’s work on studying talents, they discovered that the majority of people do not have careers that purse their natural talents (Rath, 2007). Out of 10 million people they surveyed, 7 million people were not engaged at work. When these individuals were not able to use their strengths they reported to dread going to work, have more negative than positive interactions with colleagues, treat customers poorly, tell friends what a miserable company they work for, achieve less on a daily basis, and have fewer positive, creative moments in the workplace (2007). To fix these problems, Clifton created a measuring tool in 1999 to categorize and identify talents. First, Clifton wanted to base his research on what is right with people instead of one’s weakness. Based upon previous tests, Clifton started studying work environments and how measuring one’s raw talents could be developed into strengths. He states that a talent is a “naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied” (Harter, Hodges & Lopez, 2005). Next, he states that strength is an extension of a talent. In other words, if one has the gift of communicating well, then with practice, he can develop his talent for talking into a personal strength such as public speaking.
Due to Clifton’s belief of studying talents in individuals, he worked with Gallup to start construct the strengths finder. Gallup an organization known for its research on employee selection. To identify these talents, Clifton worked with Gallup to design interviews that were given to people in academic and work settings. The interviewed looked at the roles a person had at their
Sarah Delannoy
Immaculata University
In many cases, people find it difficult to label or categorize their natural talent. Because one is unaware of their natural talents, he or she experiences. During Gallup’s research on identifying talents, they discovered Throughout the course of Clifton’s work on studying talents, they discovered that the majority of people do not have careers that purse their natural talents (Rath, 2007). Out of 10 million people they surveyed, 7 million people were not engaged at work. When these individuals were not able to use their strengths they reported to dread going to work, have more negative than positive interactions with colleagues, treat customers poorly, tell friends what a miserable company they work for, achieve less on a daily basis, and have fewer positive, creative moments in the workplace (2007). To fix these problems, Clifton created a measuring tool in 1999 to categorize and identify talents. First, Clifton wanted to base his research on what is right with people instead of one’s weakness. Based upon previous tests, Clifton started studying work environments and how measuring one’s raw talents could be developed into strengths. He states that a talent is a “naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied” (Harter, Hodges & Lopez, 2005). Next, he states that strength is an extension of a talent. In other words, if one has the gift of communicating well, then with practice, he can develop his talent for talking into a personal strength such as public speaking.
Due to Clifton’s belief of studying talents in individuals, he worked with Gallup to start construct the strengths finder. Gallup an organization known for its research on employee selection. To identify these talents, Clifton worked with Gallup to design interviews that were given to people in academic and work settings. The interviewed looked at the roles a person had at their
References: Anderson , E., Clifton , D., & Schreiner, L. (2006). Strengthsquest: discover and develop your strengths in academics, career, and beyond. (2nd ed., pp. 1-336). New York: Gallup Press. Harter, J., Hodges, T., & Lopez, S. (2005). The clifton strengthsfinder® technical report: Development and validation. Gallup, Inc., 1-39. Rath, T. ( 2007). Strengthsfinder 2.0. (1st ed., pp. 1-183). Gallup Press. Schreiner, L. (2006). A technical report on the clifton strengthsfinder ®with college students. Retrieved from www.strengthsquest.com/../StrengthsQuest_Technical_Report.pdf