Leadership Domains (Part 10)

How do I use this day to day?

Hopefully many of you are asking the question of how do you use this information about the four CliftonStrengths domains. But before I answer that, let’s do a quick recap.

Miss the first parts? Read them here. 

Quick summary: Gallup found more than 400 talents, or ways people think, feel, and behave that can be productively applied to become more successful at anything. I have applied this coaching to leadership, sales, relationships, parenting, even health & fitness hacks. Of those 400 talents, they were grouped into 34 talent themes or “Strengths.” These were further simplified into four domains or categories. 

Even if you don’t know anything about Gallup CliftonStrengths or know your results, these four domains are easy to explain, understand, and (most importantly) to use. 

The four domains are Strategic Thinking, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Executing. 

People who prefer Strategic Thinking like … thinking. They ask questions, ponder, come up with ideas, and think. Strategic Thinking is a great help when you need to figure things out and know where to go. It can also hinder you (or your team) when you get stuck in analysis paralysis and never get anything done. 

People who prefer Influencing like getting other people to do things. To listen to them, like them, value them, do what they say. When you need the help of people to get “buy in” from your team or another team, these are great people. Many times, one way Influencing hinders is when everything becomes about the prodding and they come across as used car sales people. 

People who prefer Relationship Building are all about other people. They care for others, cry with them, help them, work with them, build them up, and take care of them. These are the invisible glue that holds teams together and can be a great asset and help for the team. Relationship Builders in overdrive might become overly emotional and freeze when their emotions (or more likely those of the people around them) become too much. 

People who prefer Executing like to get things done. They do work. When you need things done, this is a great help. But when you need something else like figuring out where to go or what to do, convincing other people to do something, or just need an emotional support shoulder to lean on that can hinder instead.

So what do you do with this info?

If you are an individual contributor, figure out which quadrant(s) you are and lean into them. Your job is to figure out what you do best in life and line up as much of that in your day to day work that you can that aligns with your supervisor’s expectations of you.

Now if you are a supervisor, your first job is as an individual contributor because if you haven’t figured out what YOU do best, you won’t be able to do the next job. Your job is to help everyone on your team figure out what THEY do best and align that with what you need each of them to do.

If you are in a relationship and/or have kids, you can also use this knowledge to connect better with your partner and kids. 

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