Unlocking Potential: How CliftonStrengths Benefits Students

In the landscape of higher education, institutions are constantly seeking innovative methods to enhance the overall student experience and improve outcomes. One such approach gaining traction is the use of CliftonStrengths, a tool designed to help individuals identify and cultivate their natural talents. By focusing on strengths rather than weaknesses, students can unlock their full potential and achieve greater success in college and beyond.

Understanding CliftonStrengths

CliftonStrengths is an online talent assessment developed by the Gallup Institute and created by Don Clifton. It identifies innate strengths and talents, and it helps individuals discover their top areas of talent, so that they can develop and apply these skills more effectively. The assessment consists of a set of 177 paired statements where individuals choose which ones best describe them. This evaluation focuses on statements about your strengths and skills, rather than personality. The assessment measures your unique talents - your natural patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving and categorizes them into the 34 CliftonStrengths themes. Gallup defines a Strength as the ability to provide consistent, near-perfect performance in any given activity.

Following the assessment, you’ll receive a detailed report highlighting your five key strengths. These five CliftonStrengths themes teach you how to transfer an understanding of yourself into your daily activities.

The 34 themes are divided into 4 domains: Relationship Building, Influencing, Executing, and Strategic Thinking.

Benefits of CliftonStrengths for Students

Increased Self-Awareness and Personal Growth

For many young adults, college is a pivotal moment in life to develop self and social awareness. In the context of higher education, CliftonStrengths aids students in recognizing their unique strengths, promoting self-awareness and personal growth. Recognizing your talents allows you to see how they influence your behaviors and interactions with others. It’s essential to gain strengths awareness is an important step to understand how your talents impact your interactions with other people. Likewise, learners can apply their openness to engage and understand others to reflect on the benefits of cross-cultural relationships. Moreover, as you learn your own talents, you will notice and appreciate the special skills of others.

Enhanced Student Engagement

Student engagement is a pivotal factor in propelling student success. Multiple studies demonstrate that incorporating CliftonStrengths into higher education predicts higher student engagement. For instance, research involving students from the University of Minnesota revealed that participating in strengths-based mentorship significantly predicted higher scores on the student engagement index. This holds true even when accounting for variables such as gender, race/ethnicity and other CliftonStrengths-related interactions (e.g., discussing it with peers or in a first-year experience course). In addition to strengths-based mentorship, researchers have also established a relationship between strengths self-efficacy and engagement. People who focus on their Strengths are more likely to have higher levels of engagement, productivity, and well-being.

Improved Retention and Graduation Rates

Despite recent increases in student persistence and retention, 41% of college students surveyed in 2022 considered stopping their coursework in the past six months. Research across various higher education institutions represented in our review shows that a strengths-based approach can help students stay enrolled. For example, another study with students from the University of Minnesota found that first-year students who reported having a strengths-based advising discussion were 1.53 times more likely to return for their second year of school. Compared with their peers, they were also 1.9 times more likely to graduate with a bachelor’s degree within four years. Additionally, a study of students attending Oklahoma State University found preliminary evidence that the retention rate of first-year students increased among students enrolled in a college that incorporated CliftonStrengths into an introductory course.

Career Discovery and Development

The CliftonStrengths are a powerful tool for career discovery and development. After reviewing your strengths, you can do a tailored career or job search based on your talents. You can also use your CliftonStrengths for interview preparation. Many interview questions focus on strengths and weaknesses, and you can anticipate these types of questions to answer based on how you have used your strengths in the past. Knowing your CliftonStrengths can help you select courses in areas where you excel. The CliftonStrengths test allows you to gain the self-awareness to determine the best tools and resources that will enable you to shape your unique academic experience.

Integrating CliftonStrengths into Campus Culture

To optimize student outcomes, integrating CliftonStrengths into campus culture necessitates a deliberate and strategic program design.

Examples of Integration

First-Year Experience Courses: Incorporate CliftonStrengths as a component of the First-Year Experience course curriculum.
Strengths-Based Advising: Implement strengths-based advising approaches to guide students in making academic and career decisions.
Mentorship Programs: Establish strengths-based mentorship programs to provide students with guidance and support.
Workshops and Events: Offer strengths-based workshops and events to deepen students' understanding of their talents.
Success Coaching Sessions: Provide students with opportunities to participate in success coaching sessions focused on implementing their strengths.

Overcoming Misconceptions

One of the most prominent misconceptions about the CliftonStrengths Assessment is that it focuses on personality, like the Myers-Briggs personality test. Instead, the evaluation focuses on statements about your strengths and skills. It's important to emphasize that CliftonStrengths identifies innate talents and abilities, rather than labeling personality traits.

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The Learner Theme

Gallup StrengthsFinder Learner definition: People exceptionally talented in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. To put it succinctly, those with Learner among their Top 5 or Signature Themes love to learn. It isn't necessarily the usefulness of the information that excites those with Learner talents; that is more of a hallmark of Input. It's taking a class, signing up for a webinar series, reading a series of articles that delve deeply into a topic, getting an advanced degree -- these are activities that light up Learners. People high in the Learner StrengthsFinder theme are inquisitive, but this is not typically expressed in asking a lot of random questions about any or all topics. Learners can take pleasure in random learning opportunities like online classes, seminars, lecture series or workshops. But those with high Learner CliftonStrengths talents may also seek to become subject matter experts themselves, learning whatever they need to in order to achieve mastery.

When you coach those with Learner in their Top 5, helping them claim both the "helps" and the "hinders" of the theme is critical to productive aiming. You love to learn -- and you love to help others learn as well, which makes you a natural teacher. Your Learner talents may lead you to mastery of a particular subject area. Just because you love to learn, and you see knowledge as its own benefit, don't assume that is true for others. Depending on your other themes, you may prefer to learn alone and can get lost in your world of learning. Having mastery of a particular subject area does not necessarily make you the only expert in the room.

In order to productively aim Learner -- or any -- talents at a particular goal, an individual must have: 1) self-awareness about the theme's power, edge and vulnerabilities; 2) an understanding of how the theme finds expression in day-to-day thinking, feeling and behaving; and 3) knowledge of how to regulate the theme to maximize the potential positive outcomes that can be realized through intentionally applying a strengths-based approach.

Power, Edge, and Vulnerabilities of Learner

The Power and Edge of Learner: Those with Learner among their Signature Themes find a deep satisfaction in putting the time and effort into learning a new skill, concept or methodology.

The Vulnerabilities of Learner: Often, for those with strong Learner talents, learning is its own objective. Coaches can assist clients in realizing and claiming the expression of Learner by helping them explore instances in the past when this theme was particularly useful.

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Coaching Questions for Individuals with the Learner Theme

What are you learning about at the moment?
How do you learn best?
What has been your greatest success -- either at work or in your personal life?
With whom do you enjoy discussing ideas?
How would you describe a great day at work? How do your Learner talents contribute to those best days?
What new learning would most benefit your team or your organization?
Who could benefit from your expertise?
Are there any products or parts of your organization that you would like to learn more about?
What is the greatest value your Learner talents contribute to your team?

Self-Regulation

Self-regulation occurs when individuals know which of their talents to use in particular situations, or know which talents to combine to amplify, accelerate, activate, soften or moderate that talent. For example, sometimes those with strong Learner talents can slow a team down by going off on tangential issues that, while interesting, have little to do with the goals the team is charged with accomplishing. In situations like this, a coach can help the client find other talents that might yield better results. Also, coaches can help clients explore different theme combinations.

The Uniqueness of CliftonStrengths

No - you are one in 33 million! Your CliftonStrengths top five, in its exact order, is unique to you. Over 30 million people around the world have completed the CliftonStrengths assessment and learned their top five talents. There is a one in 33 million chance that two people will share the same top five. Coming to an understanding of your CliftonStrengths may take some time and self-reflection - be open to the surprising results that you may encounter as you get to know your unique set of Strengths!

The chance of you getting the same Top 5 Result as someone else is 1 in 34 million. You are uniquely powerful! The results are highly customized and differ based on the combination of your top CliftonStrengths. For example, if you and a friend both have Relator as your #1 strength, the descriptions of how it shows up for each of you will be different based on your surrounding CliftonStrengths!

What to Keep In Mind When You See Your Results

Since the I School provides the Top 5 Report only, you may not see all domains represented (for example, you might only have two or three of the domains in your Top 5) - this is OK and totally normal! Themes are neutral and they are not labels. Note that names of themes don’t necessarily describe what they mean (for example, “Restorative” does not relate to keeping peace & “Woo” doesn’t mean you love to party!) - be sure to read through your report & chat with a career services advisor about it.

1:1 Coaching to Interpret Your Results

The CliftonStrengths assessment is one resource and lens to help you see your natural tendencies & strengths. You might be surprised reading content you never realized about yourself, or perhaps nodding your head with everything the report is saying. Regardless, it is a lot of information to take in and we suggest processing your results with one of the I School career advisors. Participating in 1:1 coaching will help with the following:

Unlock your potential & help you tackle challenges
Help you focus on doing more of what you naturally do best
Understand your strengths and weaknesses, and how to manage them
Increase your professional development
Support you in a career transition
Help develop you as a leader
And more!

Strengths-Based Development

Society often focuses more on what is wrong with you than what is right with you. We often think about our weaknesses first. Strengths-based development is different - first it focuses on what people do well. After, it works on emphasizing and developing those strengths to help individuals become even more productive.

When you work on improving your weaknesses, you can only get so far… but when you invest in your strengths, the potential is endless! We can find power in our differences, it’s what makes us unique.

How It Can Be Helpful For Your Career

Explore potential career pathways
Assist in self-advocacy such as during promotions or negotiations
Building your personal brand
Developing answers to common interview questions such as “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”
Raising awareness of your unique leadership style & capabilities

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