Improve Team Dynamics with CliftonStrengths Assessments
It can take more time to gain mutual understanding and build relationships on remote and hybrid teams. Weak ties make it harder for teams to click. Jumpstart relationship building and strengthen employee ties with CliftonStrengths.
CliftonStrengths boosts team dynamics
A CliftonStrengths assessment measures and identifies an individual’s natural talents and strengths. For teams, the insight can be transformative. It helps to “explain” others’ actions, unlock synergies, identify gaps, foster psychological safety, and provide a common language.
Read team members’ actions
The power of CliftonStrengths is magnified when entire teams take and then reviews their results together. It familiarizes everyone with each other’s strengths and provides a window of understanding into co-workers’ actions and behaviors.
This knowledge is especially helpful in a remote environment where miscommunication can happen more frequently. Instead of making negative assumptions about a co-worker’s intent, their greater understanding allows them to give the benefit of the doubt.
The CliftonStrengths experience creates a common language that binds individuals together as a team and leads to a greater sense of trust, which is foundational for stronger relationships.
Buoy manager insight
CliftonStrengths helps managers figure out the best way each employee can contribute to the team. And identify strengths the team lacks. To make up for any gaps that exist, managers can help develop the missing strength internally, lean on a different strength, or decide if recruiting someone with those strengths could benefit the team.
And, looking at how an employee’s strengths and yours might naturally align or cause friction can offer clues about the best way to communicate with them.
Amid change, CliftonStrengths gives managers a shorthand to understand individual behaviors, identify team strengths, tactics to support your team.
Strengthen team culture
CliftonStrengths gives team members a framework for understanding themselves individually and as a team. They learn to better communicate, anticipate each other’s actions, step up when necessary, and work more in sync with each other.
With encouragement, team members come to value each other’s strengths and contributions. As the bonds between co-workers are strengthened, the team culture strengthens too. They share a grounding framework in CliftonStrengths—an asset especially for teams with mixed tenure, generations, geography, and schedules.
Enhance team performance
A strong team culture is necessary for innovation. Employees only take the risk of sharing ideas and opinions when they feel a sense of trust and psychological safety.
When you understand how team members’ strengths complement each other, you can channel individual efforts into the most appropriate tasks and projects. You can also avoid situations where differing strengths might cause friction. For example, employees who are strong in ideation take the lead during the initial phase of designing a new program, then step back so those who are strong in execution take over.
CliftonStrengths gives everyone a personality cheat sheet when new employees join the team. As they get acquainted with each other, you might hear, “You’re strong in Learner, me too! You and Bob are both futuristic. Have you met him yet?”
How CliftonStrengths improved team dynamics for two organizations
Two recent experiences illustrate how CliftonStrengths assessments made a positive impact on two organizations.
Even though a team from our first organization was meeting regularly, they felt like their wheels were spinning with no forward movement. The manager told us they thought the team had a communication problem. But the results of their CliftonStrengths assessments told a different story.
Their team was full of big thinkers who had plenty of great input about projects, but few of them were comfortable making a final decision. After reviewing their CliftonStrengths results together, they understood how to leverage the strengths of certain team members to ensure final decisions were made. The team began making progress and their morale improved remarkably.
Our second organization took the CliftonStrengths assessment during their transition to a fully remote workplace. The results showed many employees ranking high on the Intellection strength. Because this type processes information internally, they tend to think more about tasks than doing them.
This insight led managers to view communication practices from the Intellection perspective. The constant distraction and disruption from team members “pinging” was the last thing Intellection folks needed. Instead, leaders encouraged their Intellection employees to schedule “do not disturb” time on their calendar so they could get more work done.
Many staff are also strong in Relationship Building and Strategic Thinking—two areas that benefit from regular interaction with teammates. Managers encouraged more informal meetings so employees could still get the same opportunities for connection they had in the office. Employees who are high in Intellection—or other traits that value brainstorming and iterating on ideas—also benefit from having these occasions to bounce ideas off someone.
Understanding individual strengths and how those interact within teams allows managers, team members, and organizations to set themselves up for continued productivity and success. At Achurch, our certified CliftonStrengths consultants help interpret assessments and craft solutions to bring out your team and organization’s best. Learn more about how we use CliftonStrengths assessment and coaching with remote and hybrid teams.