The Office of Student Activities and Leadership is excited to utilize the CliftonStrengths Assessment with many of our student organizations and leadership programs. Students beginning their CWRU Strengths Journey start with a 30 minute online assessment. Over 8 million people have taken this assessment to become clued into their talents and strengths potential.
The CliftonStrengths program is based on six principles of human nature & behavior:
- You have a group of talents within you
- Your greatest talents hold the key to high achievement, success, & progress at levels of personal excellence
- Becoming aware of your talents builds confidence & provides a basis for achievement
- Learning how to develop & apply strengths will improve your levels of achievement
- Each of your talents can be applied in many areas including service, relationships, learning, academics, leadership, & careers
- As you develop & apply strengths, achievements will increase & you will experience greater & more frequent successes
Strengths Overview
- Assessment gives students their top 5 signature themes of strength
- There are 34 possible signature themes of strength
- Each signature theme contains your natural talents
- The themes play off of each other so two students can have the same strength with differing talents described
"I think it is one of the best tools I have ever been introduced to. It really redefines team work for me, especially as a person who used to have a hard time relying on other people on the same team!"
"StrengthsQuest has helped me identify the best parts of me, and knowing this has allowed me to move forward confidently, using and growing the strengths that I have to constantly better myself and my communities."
"Taking StrengthsQuest and seeing my results allowed me to take back my strengths. No longer was I just bossy, but I was an influencer who maximized situations, and was able to command a room. Reading how they made me who I was and helped situations allowed me to grow into myself instead of shrinking back."
Frequently Asked Questions
The StrengthsQuest experience starts with the CliftonStrengths Assesment, a web-based assessment that provides you with your Top 5 Signature Themes of Talent. This is a starting point for self-discovery and a strategy for success in multiple areas of your life. CliftonStrengths is used by over 600 colleges across the U.S. and in companies across the world.
The chances of having the exact same Top 5 Signature Themes of Talent in the exact order as someone else is 1 in 33.39 million. The chances of having the same Top 5 Talent Themes as someone else (but in a different order) is approximately 1 in 340,000.
Gallup defines a talents as: "a naturally recurring pattern of thought, feeling or behavior that can be productively applied." They define a strengths as: "the ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance in a specific activity. To have a strength, first you must identify your talents, and then should work on acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary to help you apply your talent to an activity or situation."
The talents you identified under your signature themes are natural, recurring patterns of thoughts, feelings, or behaviors. The talents found in your Signature Themes are things you do naturally—like breathing. You can't not do them. You actually do them without even trying. You are given only five themes so that you can hone in on your most dominant talents thus providing your greatest opportunity for strength.
The strengths-based approach is not about ignoring weaknesses or striving to be well-rounded. It is important to be aware of areas that are not strengths; however, instead of spending a lot of time and energy trying to turn those weaknesses into strengths, figure out ways to manage those weaknesses so that they don't prevent you from being successful.
When team members understand and utilize their strengths they are more likely to be productive and engaged members. Strong teams are well rounded and capitalize on the unique strengths of each individual members. Keeping the four domains of leadership strength in mind, organizations can be more aware of their team balance and can be more mindful or dividing projects based on talent.
Visit the StrengthsQuest website for more information! If you have taken the assessment, log on to your account and review your action items. These action items provide ideas for utilizing your talents in your academics, relationships, extracurricular involvement and other areas of your life!
Clifton StrengthsFinder®, StrengthsFinder®, StrengthsQuest®, and each of the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder theme names are trademarks of Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.