Clifton Strengths Assessment

“What will happen when we think about what is right with people rather than fixating on what is wrong with them?” – Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D

All people have a unique combination of talents, knowledge, and skills – strengths – that they use in their daily lives to do their work, achieve their goals and interact with others. When people understand and apply their strengths, the effect on their lives and work is transformational. People who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged in their work and three times more likely to say they have an excellent quality of life.

People who focus on using their strengths:

  • are THREE TIMES as likely to report having an excellent quality of life
  • are SIX TIMES as likely to be engaged in their jobs

The CliftonStrengths assessment contains 34 strengths spread across the four domains: influencing, relationship building, executing and strategic thinking.

The CliftonStrengths assessment is an easy to use online assessment that takes about 40 minutes to complete. Once completed, participants receive a full report of either their top 5 or FULL 34 strengths, depending on the option selected. See below, examples of the reports:

Once a participant has their report, they can use this to agree to a further development plan with their managers or coach.

How does the assessment work?

The CliftonStrengths assessment measures the presence of talents in 34 general areas referred to as “signature themes”. These signature themes represent how you naturally think, feel and behave as unique individuals.

The assessment presents 178 items to the respondent. Each item consists of a pair of potential self-descriptors, such as “I read instructions carefully” versus” I like to jump right into things”.

The respondent is then asked to choose from that pair the statement that best describes him or her, and to what extent that chosen option is descriptive. The respondent gets 20 seconds to respond to a given pair of descriptors before the system moves on to the next pair.

Upon completing the CliftonStrengths assessment, respondents receive a report displaying their top 5 (most dominant) themes.