5  clifton Strenghts to use 

 Many years of research conducted by The Gallup Organization suggest that the most effective people are  those who understand their strengths and behaviors. These people are best able to develop strategies to  meet and exceed the demands of their daily lives, their careers, and their families.  A review of the knowledge and skills you have acquired can provide a basic sense of your abilities, but an  awareness and understanding of your natural talents will provide true insight into the core reasons behind  your consistent successes.  Your Signature Themes report presents your five most dominant themes of talent, in the rank order  revealed by your responses to StrengthsFinder. Of the 34 themes measured, these are your “top five.”  Your Signature Themes are very important in maximizing the talents that lead to your successes. By  focusing on your Signature Themes, separately and in combination, you can identify your talents, build  them into strengths, and enjoy personal and career success through consistent, near-perfect performance.  

Competition  

Competition is rooted in comparison. When you look at the world, you are instinctively aware of other  people’s performance. Their performance is the ultimate yardstick. No matter how hard you tried, no matter  how worthy your intentions, if you reached your goal but did not outperform your peers, the achievement  feels hollow. Like all competitors, you need other people. You need to compare. If you can compare, you  can compete, and if you can compete, you can win. And when you win, there is no feeling quite like it. You  like measurement because it facilitates comparisons. You like other competitors because they invigorate  you. You like contests because they must produce a winner. You particularly like contests where you know  you have the inside track to be the winner. Although you are gracious to your fellow competitors and even  stoic in defeat, you don’t compete for the fun of competing. You compete to win. Over time you will come to  avoid contests where winning seems unlikely.

  Focus 

 “Where am I headed?” you ask yourself. You ask this question every day. Guided by this theme of Focus,  you need a clear destination. Lacking one, your life and your work can quickly become frustrating. And so  each year, each month, and even each week you set goals. These goals then serve as your compass. 2 helping you determine priorities and make the necessary corrections to get back on course. Your Focus is  powerful because it forces you to filter; you instinctively evaluate whether or not a particular action will help  you move toward your goal. Those that don’t are ignored. In the end, then, your Focus forces you to be  efficient. Naturally, the flip side of this is that it causes you to become impatient with delays, obstacles, and  even tangents, no matter how intriguing they appear to be. This makes you an extremely valuable team  member. When others start to wander down other avenues, you bring them back to the main road. Your  Focus reminds everyone that if something is not helping you move toward your destination, then it is not  important. And if it is not important, then it is not worth your time. You keep everyone on point.  

Achiever  

Your Achiever theme helps explain your drive. Achiever describes a constant need for achievement. You  feel as if every day starts at zero. By the end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to  feel good about yourself. And by “every day” you mean every single day—workdays, weekends, vacations.  No matter how much you may feel you deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of  achievement, no matter how small, you will feel dissatisfied. You have an internal fire burning inside you. It  pushes you to do more, to achieve more. After each accomplishment is reached, the fire dwindles for a  moment, but very soon it rekindles itself, forcing you toward the next accomplishment. Your relentless need  for achievement might not be logical. It might not even be focused. But it will always be with you. As an  Achiever you must learn to live with this whisper of discontent. It does have its benefits. It brings you the  energy you need to work long hours without burning out. It is the jolt you can always count on to get you  started on new tasks, new challenges. It is the power supply that causes you to set the pace and define the  levels of productivity for your work group. It is the theme that keeps you moving.  

Deliberative 

 You are careful. You are vigilant. You are a private person. You know that the world is an unpredictable  place. Everything may seem in order, but beneath the surface you sense the many risks. Rather than  denying these risks, you draw each one out into the open. Then each risk can be identified, assessed, and  ultimately reduced. Thus, you are a fairly serious person who approaches life with a certain reserve. For  example, you like to plan ahead so as to anticipate what might go wrong. You select your friends cautiously  and keep your own counsel when the conversation turns to personal matters. You are careful not to give  too much praise and recognition, lest it be misconstrued. If some people don’t like you because you are not  as effusive as others, then so be it. For you, life is not a popularity contest. Life is something of a minefield.  Others can run through it recklessly if they so choose, but you take a different approach. You identify the  dangers, weigh their relative impact, and then place your feet deliberately. You walk with care.

 3 Futuristic 

“Wouldn’t it be great if . . .” You are the kind of person who loves to peer over the horizon. The future  fascinates you. As if it were projected on the wall, you see in detail what the future might hold, and this  detailed picture keeps pulling you forward, into tomorrow. While the exact content of the picture will depend  on your other strengths and interests—a better product, a better team, a better life, or a better world—it will  always be inspirational to you. You are a dreamer who sees visions of what could be and who cherishes  those visions. When the present proves too frustrating and the people around you too pragmatic, you  conjure up your visions of the future and they energize you. They can energize others, too. In fact, very  often people look to you to describe your visions of the future. They want a picture that can raise their  sights and thereby their spirits. You can paint it for them. Practice. Choose your words carefully. Make the  picture as vivid as possible. People will want to latch on to the hope you bring.