CliftonStrengths Top 5 vs Full 34 Report – What’s Better?
The winner for most: CliftonStrengths Top 5
Based on budget, we usually recommend the Top 5 to start. If you're beginning to focus on strengths at work, you'll likely want to do a facilitated kickoff event with your team. Given the investment for hiring a training company, administering the CliftonStrengths assessment, and paying for travel - most of our customers start with the Top 5 report.
As of January 2024, Gallup created a new Top 5 strengths report, and it's excellent. You get 17 pages of content to help you identify and apply your top natural talents at work. Since it's less than 1/2 of the price of the Full 34 assessment, most of our strengths-starter customers buy the Top 5 Report for their team kickoff.
Bottom Line: The CliftonStrengths Top 5 report is awesome. It's plenty-robust for your initial team offsite and some follow up conversations. If budget or approvals limit you, go for the CliftonStrengths Top 5.
The case for premium: CliftonStrengths Full 34
If you have the budget, go for it. The CliftonStrengths Full 34 report gives you an additional 26 pages of deep-diving on your strengths. We love how there is a heavy focus on the Top 10 most dominant natural talents. This gives people a lot of room to resonate with their strengths and get excited about their development.
You also get to see the whole stack rank of talent themes, from 1-34. You get the added benefit of clearer insights about blind spots and things that might drain each person at work. Plus other goodies, as we'll describe below.
This is the premium option. If you have a small team, the change in budget may not sway you at all. For larger teams, it swings your price tag by thousands, which leads many teams back to the Top 5. Never fear, you can always upgrade your Top 5 and turn it into a Full 34 report later - and you don't have to re-take the assessment.
Bottom Line: The CliftonStrengths 34 report is the premium option. More is more, if you have the budget. Nonetheless, most teams "unlock" their existing CliftonStrengths Top 5 report once the team has shown a keen interest in continuing the momentum through strengths.
What do you get in a CliftonStrengths Top 5 vs Full 34 Report?
What you get with CliftonStrengths Top 5
- Your top 5 strengths - the standard definition of that talent theme
- How each strength makes you unique - 5 boxes for each of the 5 strengths that reflect your unique version of that talent theme, based on your answers in the assessment
- How each strength pairs with the other 4 strengths to give you a unique flavor of thinking and approaching the world
- Action ideas for applying your top 5 strengths at work to help you succeed
- The strengths domains - a primer on what the four colors mean
What you get with CliftonStrengths Full 34
- Everything in the Top 5 Report, plus:
- StrengthsFinder 2.0 eBook
- 20-minute self-paced e-learning module to dive into each strength and action items
- 26 additional pages of strengths nuance on your strengths
- A stack rank of all 34 potential talent themes. This shows your dominance from number 1 through number 34 in a stack rank of intensity.
- A special section on blind spots that can help you see where a dominant talent could be getting overused or misapplied at work
- Your "periodic table of strengths" visual that shows your strengths in the context of the four domains of talent (the four colors)
Other strengths options to consider
Not to throw more at you, yet...we are. There are actually four more core report types to know about.
- Upgrade from Top 5 to 34 - this is an "unlock code" that lets you turn your Top 5 into a Full 34 report without having to retake the assessment.
- Strengths for Sales - for sales teams, biz dev teams, or those focused on selling ideas.
- Strengths for Managers - for people who lead people or functions.
- Strengths for Leaders - for people-managers who have a team that reports to them.
If you want to buy a single report, the easiest way to get one at the lowest retail price is to get a CliftonStrengths code here.
If you want a consult to help you walk through options for your team's development, tell us more on this Contact page. We can customize something for you, based on your team size and situation.
We've helped teams with a massive budget range - from as small as $10.00, and as large as $300,000.00. You have options.
As an international speaker and facilitator, Lisa Cummings has delivered events to over 15,500 participants in 14 countries. You can see her featured in places like Harvard Business Publishing, Training Magazine, and Forbes. She specializes in virtual StrengthsFinder training for teams. When she’s not out spotting strengths in people, you’ll find her playing drums, rescuing dogs, or watching live music in Austin, TX. Her Top 5 StrengthsFinder Talents are: Strategic | Maximizer | Positivity | Individualization | Woo.