Introduction

In my previous article, I highlighted 6 potential reasons why people find it difficult to implement CliftonStrengths in their workplace: 

1. Alternative tools
2. Price
3. Ease of understanding
4. Level of accuracy
5. Effectiveness of tool
6. Commitment 

This list is not exhaustive, but it aims to capture the primary and most common reasons why people may question the necessity of CliftonStrengths. 

In this short article, I’ll address the first reason – Alternative Tools.

You may also choose to revisit the main article before this, or click on any of the other 5 reasons that speak to you. 

Addressing Alternatives

Among all the reasons laid out, I consider this to be the most compelling. It is undeniable that other profiling tools possess their unique strengths and advantages (e.g., ease of understanding, price-points, usability….) and I do not want to claim that CliftonStrengths comes out on top, without first addressing the 5 other reasons. 

However, to address this briefly, let us compare it with another widely used tool – MBTI.

MBTI is a type-based tool that helps put individuals into different personality types. It measures a combination of four functions:

1. How individuals naturally prefer to take in information
2. How individuals evaluate the information
3. How individuals gain energy and focus attention
4. How individuals deal with the outside world

The profiling results then represent the individual’s preferences (or types) in these categories.

On the other hand, CliftonStrengths is a trait-based tool that measures the presence of talent in 34 different areas (called themes) in individuals. This tool measures the natural patterns of the way individuals think, feel or behave, in a way that can be productively applied. The profiling result then presents one’s Top 5 most dominant talent themes, in order. 

To highlight the precision of this tool, consider this. In order to find someone in the world with the exact same Top 5 dominant talent themes as you and in the same exact order, you are looking at a likelihood of one in 33 million!

This precision is precisely what is most important in profiling tools. Nobody likes to be stereotyped or pigeon-holed into certain characteristics, but everyone wants to be unique. CliftonStrengths in short offers this precise approach to one’s uniqueness, and truly allows an individual who took the test to say:

“Yes, this is exactly who I am!”.