CliftonStrengths Application - StrengthsFinder Activation Course

How can you get CliftonStrengths application on the team after your training?

At Lead Through Strengths, you're in good hands. We help you apply CliftonStrengths through the "Strengths Activation Course" and the "Manager Activation Course," which is included in the purchase of your team event.

What is this StrengthsFinder Activation Course, exactly?

We call it "the rest of the training" that happens after our live event. It's a 12-week program, delivered by email, to each participant directly. Each week, participants get a quick strengths content snippet to help them take the learning further.

We know that CliftonStrengths application is a desirable thing, yet we also realize that people are busy and they'd delete emails if they required an hour of work each time.

With that philosophy in mind, we aim for a 10-15 minute experience. Each week we give them an interesting piece of CliftonStrengths data. We follow that up with a quick exercise they can do to go deeper with strengths.

As an example, they might receive some interesting CliftonStrengths data on the most commonly-paired talent themes and least-commonly paired talent themes. People love learning when they have a unique combination of strengths, like Woo + Relator in the same Top 5. Then they'd have a quick, 5 minute video to introduce a strengths concept, such as how strengths can fuel your energy at work. Then they'd get an online resource and activity if they want to take that concept further.

Does the StrengthsFinder Activation Course get introduced during the live session?

Absolutely. We introduce it at the end of each training event. They learn what to expect, and how they can use the 12 weeks of content as a way to keep their strengths alive (and growing) at work.

People often ask for concrete steps for application at the end of training events. This is a perfect way to keep it alive and help your team building event feel like more than "the flavor of the month" personal development.

When does the first StrengthsFinder email get sent?

Typically, they get Week-1 content on the same day as the training. There are a few exceptions, like if you're rolling out 12 sessions over 2 days. In large CliftonStrengths rollouts, we often coordinate the start time into a single day. Outside of that, it's going to arrive within 24 hours of the training event.

Should I send you a list of which CliftonStrengths participants should receive the Manager version?

No need. It's a consolidated process that simplifies life for you and the participants. In the first StrengthsFinder Activation Course email, the program intended for all employees, there's a link for them to self-enroll in the Manager Activation Course.

In our experience, it's usually only the people managers who sign up. Occasionally though, others sign up because they're stoked about strengths and they want all of the CliftonStrengths application ideas they can get. No harm there! It's all included in your purchase, so there's no need to worry about extra sign ups.

Do managers receive both emails in the 12-week activation course? How many will they receive?

This is good to know about. If a manager opts into the Manager version, they will be getting 2 emails per week: 1) the regular Strengths Activation Course, and 2) the Manager Activation Course. Most people save the emails in a folder and think it's an awesome resource.

If anyone feels like it is too many emails to deal with, they can easily unsubscribe from one of the sequences.

How can I make the most of our CliftonStrengths application after the training event?

Look for Strengths Champions to nominate.

Usually, there's a participant who is exceptionally excited about strengths-based development. Call that person your Strengths Champion.

Give them 5 minutes at the top of staff meetings to chat about the exercises they did in the 12-week activities. Allow them to formally debrief or present some of the info from the 12-week activation course to give it legs. They can be the person who turns a solo exercise into a group conversation.

When you want CliftonStrengths application on the team, leverage the people on the team who are excited about this new way of approaching work. You'll be amazed at how much energy some people want to give to this philosophy.

Can you send me a weekly list of who has opened the emails so we can track who is participating in the CliftonStrengths application process?

This isn't something we've chosen to actively track. It's a metric fraught with peril. As you probably know, you can set your email to not send delivery receipts. Also, many people will read the entire email in the preview pane, which would not register as "read". This leads to under-reporting.

On the other hand, someone could skim all of the content and not act on it. Of course, skimming and acting are different. The best way to assess participation is to see it in action at work. Make the strengths conversations happen. Recognize strengths when you see them in action.

In addition to the above, it's expensive to manually report out on read-rates by event. In order to keep prices in line with the market, we have not made this part of the service. If we charged clients to report out on this manually over 12 weeks, we'd have to raise event prices by $1,000, which doesn't seem in line with the value you get from the info.

The last email in the Employee Activation Course ends with this sentence: "PS This is the last formal action tool in the Activation Course. From here out, we'll send you bonus weekly tips to help you continue." Can you tell me more about the bonus weekly tips?

You bet. There's an infinite amount of CliftonStrengths application that could be done. So we don't want to stop the learning for enthusiastic people.

After the formal 12-week process, it switches to a quick strengths snippet. They're mostly from StrengthsFinder Q&A fueled by our past participants and podcast listeners.

For example, you'll see things like a deeper dive on what the 4 CliftonStrengths colors mean, how to use strengths under times of stress, or what to do if you think you have some troublemaker talents.

Do you have a summary we can send out to participants?

Not as an all-in-one tool. The delivery is set up through an email technology. The drip method has proven effective because participants don't have to digest it all at one time. More importantly, when we offered resources in one big summary, people told us that they saved the file and never looked at it.

After early experiments many years ago (and awesomely-honest feedback from participants), we learned that the best system is to drip it out over time in small chunks.

What's the difference between the manager-version and the everyone-version?

The manager version, which we call the Manager Activation Course, is all about getting CliftonStrengths application through 1:1 conversations.

Each week, the manager gets a topic they can bring to a staff meeting and to team member 1:1's. It's really practical, and totally focused on helping leaders have strengths-focused conversations.

Since leaders usually don't "do strengths" as their job, it feels like a lot of work to think of new strengths conversations all the time. We get past all of that by giving them scripts and conversations they can make their own. This makes leading and coaching through strengths feel more natural - and not like a big, heavy thing added to their plate.

For the everyone-version, which we call the Strengths Activation Course or the Employee Activation Course, we're focused on the self-reflection part of strengths.

They get interesting StrengthsFinder data and tools. Most of the content is aimed at their individual performance and how to get results through their strengths.

The big idea of the Strengths Activation Course is to get CliftonStrengths application - to go beyond the words in the report and use them in their real lives.