Stop Fixing Weaknesses. Start Discovering Strength
Over my 27 years of working with people across organisations, I have noticed something interesting.
Ask someone about their weaknesses, and they can usually give you a long list.
Ask them about their strengths, and they often pause.
We have spent decades building performance management systems that identify gaps, highlight shortcomings and create improvement plans. Yet, somewhere in this process, we have forgotten a fundamental question:
What is already extraordinary about this person, and how can we help them use it more effectively?
This is precisely why I find Gallup CliftonStrengths, formerly known as StrengthsFinder, such a valuable tool in the world of coaching and people development.
It changes the conversation from what is missing to what is possible.
The problem with conventional people development
Think about a typical performance review.
A manager tells an employee, “You are excellent at building relationships, but you need to become more analytical.”
The employee walks out remembering only one thing: I am not analytical enough.
The next six months are spent attending analytical skills workshops, reading reports and trying to become someone they are not naturally inclined to be.
Meanwhile, their extraordinary ability to build relationships remains largely unexplored.
What if we approached development differently?
What if we asked how that employee’s relationship-building talents could contribute to customer retention, team engagement, business development or leadership?
This does not mean ignoring weaknesses. It means recognising that development should not be limited to correcting deficiencies.
Sometimes, the greatest opportunity lies in what people already do exceptionally well.
What exactly is Gallup CliftonStrengths?
Developed by Gallup, CliftonStrengths is a talent assessment that identifies an individual’s natural patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving.
The framework identifies 34 talent themes organised into four domains:
- Executing
- Influencing
- Relationship Building
- Strategic Thinking
The assessment helps individuals understand their dominant talent themes and explore how these can be developed into strengths through investment, practice and application.
What makes the framework particularly interesting to me is that it gives people a vocabulary for understanding themselves.
Someone who naturally connects with others may discover themes such as Relator or Woo.
Someone who enjoys imagining possibilities may recognise Strategic or Ideation.
A person who instinctively takes responsibility may identify strongly with Responsibility.
These are not labels that define someone’s entire personality. They are starting points for deeper conversations.
And that is where coaching becomes powerful.
A coaching conversation that changes everything
Imagine a senior leader who believes she is not sufficiently assertive. She compares herself with colleagues who dominate meetings, speak loudly and make quick decisions. Over time, she begins to believe that her quieter leadership style is a disadvantage.
Now imagine a coaching conversation that explores her natural talents.
She discovers that she is particularly effective at understanding people, building trust, recognising individual contributions and creating alignment. Instead of asking her to imitate an aggressive leadership style, the coach helps her explore a different question:
“How can you use your natural ability to build trust while developing the confidence to communicate difficult decisions?”
Suddenly, the development journey changes.
She is no longer trying to become someone else.
She is learning to become a more effective version of herself.
This is an illustrative example, but it reflects a principle I have seen repeatedly in leadership development: self-awareness becomes useful when it translates into deliberate action.
Why I believe strengths-based coaching matters
In my experience, one of the biggest challenges in executive coaching is helping successful professionals recognise the behaviours that have contributed to their success.
Many leaders can articulate their targets, business strategies and operational challenges.
But ask them why people trust them, why certain situations energise them or why they consistently perform well in particular circumstances, and the answers are not always clear.
CliftonStrengths provides a structured starting point for exploring these questions.
I see five particularly valuable applications.
First, it builds self-awareness. People begin to understand why certain tasks energise them while others require considerably more effort.
Second, it creates a common language. Teams can discuss differences in working styles without automatically interpreting them as shortcomings.
Third, it supports more personalised coaching. Rather than giving every leader the same development plan, coaches can explore how each individual can apply their talents to specific goals.
Fourth, it encourages better conversations between managers and employees. Development discussions can include contributions, opportunities and aspirations alongside performance gaps.
Finally, it helps people take ownership of their growth. When individuals understand their talents, they can make more deliberate decisions about how to invest in them.
Of course, an assessment alone cannot create these outcomes. The quality of the coaching conversation, the individual’s willingness to act and the organisational environment all matter.
How organisations can actually use CliftonStrengths
I would encourage HR leaders to move beyond treating strengths assessments as a one-day team-building exercise.
The real value begins after the assessment.
Consider a leadership team in which one member excels at execution, another at influencing stakeholders, another at building relationships and another at exploring future possibilities.
Instead of expecting everyone to approach work identically, the team can explore how these different talents complement one another.
A manager might ask:
“What does this person naturally bring to the team?”
“Where can we create opportunities for this talent to contribute?”
“Which capabilities must still be developed for the role?”
“How can team members collaborate more effectively?”
These conversations can inform individual development plans, leadership coaching, team effectiveness workshops and career development.
However, strengths assessments should not replace performance evidence, structured competency assessments or fair selection processes. Gallup specifically advises against using CliftonStrengths to screen candidates for hiring.
The purpose is development, not putting people into permanent boxes.
A simple 30-day strengths development exercise
For coaches and HR professionals who want to translate assessment insights into action, I suggest the following approach.
Week 1: Discover
Complete the official assessment and explore the individual’s dominant themes.
Ask the person to identify three situations in which they felt particularly effective.
Week 2: Reflect
Explore how their talents contributed to those situations.
Ask colleagues for specific examples of the value they see the person bringing to the team.
Week 3: Apply
Choose one meaningful business or personal development goal.
Identify how the individual’s talents can be deliberately applied to achieve it.
Week 4: Review
Discuss what changed.
What worked? What did not? Which talents were overused? What additional skills or support are required?
The outcome should be a practical development plan, not simply a report sitting in someone’s inbox.
Strengths can also become weaknesses when overused
This is an aspect of strengths-based development that deserves more attention.
A leader with a strong sense of Responsibility may struggle to delegate.
Someone who naturally builds relationships may avoid difficult conversations.
A highly strategic thinker may spend too much time considering possibilities without moving into execution.
A person who enjoys achieving may find it difficult to slow down.
The answer is not to suppress these talents.
It is to develop the awareness required to use them appropriately.
This is where an experienced coach can help the individual recognise the difference between a talent being productive and that same talent becoming counterproductive.
A strength is not an excuse for ineffective behaviour.
It is a resource that must be developed and managed.
My reflection: People are not development projects. They are possibilities.
One of the most rewarding moments in coaching is watching someone discover a capability they had previously taken for granted.
Sometimes, what feels ordinary to us is precisely what makes us valuable to others.
The ability to listen.
The instinct to connect people.
The discipline to execute.
The courage to challenge conventional thinking.
The patience to understand complex situations.
These qualities may appear effortless to the person possessing them. That is often why they go unnoticed.
As coaches, managers and HR leaders, our responsibility is not simply to identify what people lack.
It is to help them recognise what they possess, understand where it creates value and develop the capabilities required to succeed.
Gallup CliftonStrengths offers a useful framework for beginning that journey.
But the assessment is only the beginning.
The real transformation happens when awareness becomes action, action becomes capability, and capability creates meaningful results.
Perhaps it is time we changed the first question in our next performance or coaching conversation.
Instead of asking, “What do you need to improve?”
Let us begin with:
“When are you at your absolute best, and how can we create more opportunities for that version of you to show up?”
That one question could open an entirely different conversation.
Developing people. Transforming leadership. Creating possibilities.
#LeadershipDevelopment #ExecutiveCoaching #CliftonStrengths #StrengthsBasedLeadership #PeopleDevelopment #HumanCapital #SuccessStudios
