Strengths for You

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.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.

Activities to learn more

  • At My Best and  A Closer Look are introductory activities to help you begin thinking about a Strengths-based approach and understanding the types of tasks and settings in which you excel.
  • Critical Activities and Talents is a handout that assists in detailing how you use your talents in your current occupation and additional ways to implement your talents in your job.
  • Leadership Domains are helpful for thinking about talents in broader terms. By understanding what domains your talents fall into, you can gain additional insight into your personality as well as how to work better with others based on their talents.

Strengths dumbbell

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. Here’s an example.

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.