Should I Retake the CliftonStrengths Assessment?

I’ve written a few posts about the CliftonStrengths assessment recently, which have prompted questions from the community. Two of those questions stood out to me because I get asked these a lot. In this week’s Ask Michele, I’ll answer the second question. (Read my answer to the first question about the accuracy of your Strengths results.)

Question No. 2: Should I retake the CliftonStrengths assessment?

This question often comes from people who answered the questions with their personal life in mind and not their work life (or vice versa).

The short answer is, no, you don’t need to retake the CliftonStrengths assessment.

But I understand why people ask that question, so let me offer some insights.

The assessment questions are aimed at identifying your Top 5 Strengths; your natural patterns of thinking, and behaving. This “wiring” doesn’t change whether we are at work, at home, volunteering, or playing pickleball.

What is Rank Order vs. Functional Order of CliftonStrengths?

What can vary is the Strengths we call upon in various situations. When you receive your Strengths results, they are given to you in Rank Order (numbers 1-5 based on your answers).

But there’s also something called the Functional Order, which can change based on what is being asked of us, the situation we are in, etc.

And, as mentioned in the last CliftonStrengths post, we may also see numbers 6-10 show up on the scene (you can unlock more than just your Top 5 Strengths if you’re curious, but please refer to the last post!).

Strengths Work in Pairs

Another factor to consider is that our Strengths usually work in pairs. This is one of the reasons your Strengths can look so different compared to someone else with similar Strengths because we use them in different combos. It’s a whole new way to think about mixing and matching!

CliftonStrengths Don’t Change

All these factors can play into how are Strengths show up. They don’t fundamentally change, but they can look different depending on our circumstances.

That’s actually a topic for another day… what happens to our Strengths when we are under pressure or stressed out? Or what happens when we overuse a Strength? More to come.

CliftonStrengths Assessment: Your Strengths at Work vs. at Home

I have a client who had an amazing epiphany about why her Strengths looked so different at work than they did at home. At work, the needs and expectations were different, and she regularly used her Strengths of Developer and Responsibility in her work.

At home, not only did the needs change, but the cast of characters were different, too. Her husband also had the Strength of Responsibility, so there was someone to share the burdens and pressures. At work, the buck stopped with her. At home, her need to tap that Strength was lessened.

Ready to Learn More About Your Strengths?

In summary, whether you were thinking of your work life or your personal life when you took it, you don’t need to retake the CliftonStrengths assessment.

It’s all quite fascinating and not always as straightforward as it would appear when your Top 5 Strengths are revealed.

If you are interested in learning more about using your Strengths to develop yourself or your team, I’d love to chat more about that. Contact me to learn more!