Leading with the Belief StrengthsFinder Talent

From misalignment to alignment.

January 3, 2024
Belief inspiring sunrise

Today’s world constantly invites leaders to compromise their values. But leaders, teams and organizations who can consistently stay focused on their core values and principles will have the most staying power and impact. 

Leaders with the strengthsfinder belief talent can weather these storms and maintain a long-term commitment to their values and beliefs. 

Learning how to lead from your belief strength means you don’t have to compromise but instead can get to the end, knowing you did it right. 

Does life ever feel like a hack rather than on purpose?

Belief StrengthsFinder TL;DR

The belief StrengthsFinder talent means you have consistent core values. These values and principles orbit around your purpose and drive your behavior and interactions with others.

You don’t want to merely do work. You want to make a difference. As a leader, you need to know there is a purpose in the work you do. 

If you’re already familiar with StrengthsFinder, you can skip over the next section.

What is StrengthsFinder?

SterengthsFinder, now CliftonStrengths, is an assessment based on strengths psychology. The fundamental premise is you will get farther by maxing out your strengths rather than trying to improve your weaknesses. 

I’ve seen numerous leaders grow as they identified their talents and turned them into well-developed strengths. But you don’t have to be a leader to benefit from StrengthsFinder, and you can apply it to more than just work. 

Understanding your strengths and weaknesses helps you better understand and live out your unique design.

Belief is just one of the 34 different strengths measured by StengthsFinder. When you take the assessment, you will get back your top 5 strengths. You can pay for an ordered list of all 34, but I wouldn’t recommend that the first time you take the assessment.

Focus is critical to developing your strengths. Keeping just your top 5 in view helps you make meaningful growth in the areas of your life with the highest leverage and impact. 

How do you lead well with belief in your StrengthsFinder top 5?

So you’ve taken the StrengthsFinder assessment, received your results and found belief in the list. Now you’re wondering how to grow or leverage this strength in your leadership. 

I know what it's like to have an un-betrayable commitment to your values. I want to help you as a leader live and lead consistently with your values.

These are three strategies I’ve seen leaders with the belief strengthsfinder talent use to live from their values.

  1. Wholistic purpose.
  2. Highlight values.
  3. Look for alignment.

Learn to recognize behaviors when you're over-leveraging your strengths to the point that they become liabilities. And discover the path back to health.

Holistic purpose.

It’s common today to try and compartmentalize our lives into work, family, friends, faith, interests, etc. But you and I are each whole people. Whether at work, home or out on the town, what we do both reflects and shapes who we are.

You are one person, living one life. What will matter at the end of it?

When someone has compartmentalized their life, and the different compartments hold competing values, they will carry that friction inside them. Their life will feel out of alignment. 

You will feel this even more acutely if you have the belief Strengthsfinder talent.

The solution is to identify a holistic purpose and set of values. You are one person, living one life. What will matter at the end of it? It will most likely be your relationships and whether you lived according to your values.

It can be hard to step back enough to have perspective on the whole of your life. That’s why I created a 5-day journey to living from your priorities. It will help you begin at the end and work back to what values and principles guide how you live today. 

Highlight values.

Not only do people hold individual sets of values, but teams and organizations hold shared value sets. Sometimes they are well articulated and directly influence the group's behavior; other times, they are unspoken but still drive how the community operates. 

You don’t have to compromise but instead can get to the end, knowing you did it right.

Most commonly, teams or organizations have two sets of values. One that is neatly written but quickly forgotten. And another that, while opaque and hidden, influences how they actually behave.

This dissonance can lead to a soulless feeling at work.

If you are a leader, you are responsible for identifying the values that drive your leadership. Take time with your team to articulate the values guiding your operations. I find it most effective to name the values based on what it looks like to live them out.

When you’re done, don’t just print them out and stash them away in a drawer. When making decisions or plans, ask how the current option allows the team to live out their values. 

Look for alignment.

Alignment with your values isn’t just for work. When you become clear about what you believe and value, it will influence everything. It will shape where you live, who your friends are, and how you spend your time.

Leaders, teams and organizations who can consistently stay focused on their core values and principles will have the most staying power and impact.

Once you have identified your values, take time to audit areas of your life in light of them. When you see misalignment, make adjustments. This could mean choosing to volunteer toward something that aligns with your values. Or it could mean making a career change.

These changes won’t be easy. But alignment across domains of your life brings peace and contentment.

Next steps for StrengthsFinder belief.

As you learn to lead using your belief strength, you can guide yourself and others from misalignment to alignment.

When you get to the end, you’ll know you did it right. No more having to compromise to do your job. Instead, you can stay focused amidst distraction or temptation, experiencing a deep sense of meaning.

Action Plan

Leaders with the belief strength can struggle with an antipattern of extremism. Learning the strengths antipatterns will allow you to continue growing as a healthy, intentional leader. 

You are on an extraordinary journey to living and leading from your strengths. You can explore the list below to learn about the rest of your top 5 strengths.

Frequently Asked Questions

StrengthsFinder

So do I totally ignore my weaknesses and just focus on my strengths?

Strengths-based growth doesn’t encourage you to ignore your weaknesses but not to spend too much time trying to turn them into strengths. Instead, you may need to find team members or systems to fill in your gaps.

Learn more about how StrengthsFind influences your leadership.

There are strengths I think I have; why didn’t they didn’t show up in my top 5?

For some people, their strengths ranked 5, 6 or 7 are almost even. You could also be misattributing a skill or behavior to a specific strength.

Learn more about how StrengthsFind influences your leadership.

Should I pay to see all 34 strengths?

Seeing your other 29 strengths can help give you a fuller picture. But initially, someone should focus on further developing those top 5 strengths rather than trying to give attention across the list. Once you have a good grasp on what it looks like to lead from your top 5, it can be helpful to explore the rest of the list.

Learn more about how StrengthsFind influences your leadership.

What’s the difference between a talent and a strength?

A talent is your natural way of thinking or behaving. A strength is a talent developed over time through knowledge, skills and practice.

Learn more about how StrengthsFinder influences your leadership.

Ready to level up your company? Get in touch today!