How to Get the Most of Your CliftonStrengths Debrief Session

Congratulations on taking your CliftonStrengths assessment. It is the beginning of your strengths-based development journey and it will have a tremendous impact on both your professional and personal life. Your CliftonStrengths report gives you a ranked order of your 34 talent themes:

• Your dominant talent themes which are most like you

• Your supporting talent themes that you rely on from time to time

• Your lesser talent themes that reveal what is most unlike you

You are Uniquely Powerful

We are as unique as our fingerprints! Mathematically speaking, there is only 1 in 33 million chance that someone else has the same talent themes in the same sequence as you. This mathematical calculator shows that.

First Glance at Your Report

As you look through your report, you may experience any or all of the following expected thoughts/emotions:

• “Oh ya, that’s like me.”

• ”Hmm … not sure about that.”

• ”Oh, my [specific talent theme] is at 34. Does that mean I can’t/don‘t have [fill in the blank] and that’s my weakness?”

The CliftonStrengths assessment gives you an entirely new language to describe yourself in a positive way. Now, you have 34 new words to describe where your greatest opportunity of potential lies. As with any new language, you will need to understand it and take time to become familiar with it. It is easy for clients to misinterpret their CliftonStrengths result and this is the reason why a CliftonStrengths Report Debrief session with a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach is needed.

5 Steps to Getting the Most Out of the Debrief Session

The CliftonStrengths report debrief session is a cornerstone and essential first step to all our coaching sessions. As such, we encourage clients to come prepared.

1. Share Your Report with Three People

Choose at least three people who know you well — ideally a combination of people in different aspects of your life. Invite them to read the report and point out specific situations where they saw these talents in their interactions with you.

2. Go Through Your Signature Theme Report (at least twice)

This report gives you a detailed explanation of your top five talent themes. Think of them as definitions. Highlight sentences or phrases that resonate with you and strike out that don’t.

3. Go Through the Personalised Insights in Your CliftonStrengths 34 Report (at least twice)

This is unique to you, i.e. if you look at the report of another person who shares the same talent theme (even at the same ranking), the write-up will be different. This is because the personalised insights description is based on your theme dynamics, i.e. each theme’s personalised description takes into account the person’s other talent themes. That’s the genius of the CliftonStrengths assessment and algorithm.

Here is an example of the personalised insights for the Relator talent of two different persons.

4. Set Aside 90 Minutes of Uninterrupted Time

Yes, our debrief session does take 90 minutes and I can assure you that it will fly past. It will be a journey of self-awareness and “aha” moments where you discover how your innate talents (the way you naturally think, feel and behave) have manifested in your life. We will also select some dominant talent themes and look at how you can develop them into strengths and how to manage weaknesses that get into the way of your success.

To maximise the session, ensure that it is done in a conducive space and time that is free of distraction.

5. Do the Two Pre-session Worksheets

Our clients will receive two pre-session worksheets intended as/for:

• Background information for the Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach

• Time for clients to reflect prior to the session

Interested to lead your life from a place of your talents and strengths? Schedule a complimentary 30 minutes discovery call and kickstart your journey to greatness.

Together we achieve,