Latest / Ambitious Podcast / EP.87: CliftonStrengths Explained: What Helped Me Lead, Sell, & Scale w/ Rosie Noel | The Ambitious Podcast

Transcript

EP.87: CliftonStrengths Explained: What Helped Me Lead, Sell, & Scale w/ Rosie Noel | The Ambitious Podcast · Ambitious Podcast

0:00
The copy paste, it really doesn't work.
0:02
We're all looking for an easy button.
0:04
We're all looking for a blueprint.
0:05
I thought I'm a coach and I'm supposed to have this avatar of
0:09
thinking and being. And I want to follow their road
0:12
map to get there. There is no perfect set of
0:15
strengths for any given role. I've coached with many CEO's.
0:19
They are not all high competition.
0:21
The people that work from their strengths every day are 9% more
0:25
productive. I was still able to do really
0:28
well as a sales closer, but I leveraged my social work skills,
0:33
the. True easy button if there was 1
0:36
is focusing on doing it your way.
0:38
Hello and welcome back to the Ambitious Podcast.
0:41
Today I am really excited because you and I are going to
0:44
be diving in with Rosie. Rosie is someone that I have had
0:47
the absolute pleasure of being able to get to know on a deeper
0:50
level and also work with from a capacity of leadership coaching
0:55
and really learning how the different strengths we have as
0:58
entrepreneurs impact us in our ability to lead, in our ability
1:01
to execute, and frankly in our ability to scale.
1:04
So I'm joined today by Rosie Noel, who is a leadership coach
1:07
and a Clifton strength expert who actually spent years in
1:10
Fortune 500 consulting before transitioning into
1:13
entrepreneurship herself. Rosie specializes in helping
1:16
high achieving leaders understand their unique
1:18
strengths and use them intentionally to get better
1:21
results, while also making sure they feel more energized in the
1:24
work that they do. What makes Rosie's approach
1:27
really unique is that she's kind of debunking this myth that
1:31
there is this one type of avatar of entrepreneur and also that
1:35
there's a right way to be a successful CEO or successful
1:39
business owner. Through the Clifton Strengths
1:41
Assessment, which she now calls your Leadership Fingerprint,
1:45
she's going to help you to discover how to work from your
1:47
natural talents instead of trying to copy somebody else's
1:50
playbook, which I know myself, I have also tried and fallen
1:54
victim to in the past. So let's overview a little bit
1:57
of what you're going to learn by tuning in.
1:58
Today. She's going to discuss why
2:00
there's no perfect set of strengths for any role.
2:03
She's worked with CEOs who have 0 strategic thinking themes and
2:06
successful salespeople who are terrible at networking, yet
2:09
they've all been able to thrive in their unique areas.
2:13
She also discusses the Japanese concept of Icky Guy and how
2:16
finding the intersection of what you love, what you're good at,
2:19
and what the world needs and what you can get paid for
2:22
actually will be your reason for being.
2:24
She discusses her three core strategy framework for getting
2:27
things done, deciding if you actually to do it, if you can
2:30
outsource it to someone else who actually has that strength, or
2:33
how to do it authentically using the strengths that you have.
2:37
She'll also unpack why the copy paste mentality of following
2:40
somebody else's business blueprint is actually the
2:42
hardest path to success. The difference between being
2:46
drained is also the thing that she's going to unpack for us and
2:49
why there's a huge difference between working hard versus
2:52
being energized by the work that you do, and how this actually
2:55
will reveal whether you're working through your Clifton
2:58
strengths or not. She also will discuss the
3:01
difference between being drained by hard work versus being
3:04
energized by it and how this reveals whether you're working
3:07
from your Clifton strengths or if you're actually fighting
3:09
against your natural wiring. This is truly an episode that I
3:14
will tell you, you are going to want to take notes on.
3:17
I will immediately give you the action of going and following
3:20
Rosie's content and her marketing.
3:23
She did this Clifton strengths assessment on me and gave me a
3:26
lot of feedback and insight around how I operate and what
3:30
that looks like When I integrate that awareness, my understanding
3:34
into my business and the impact it can have.
3:36
It has already, since meeting her, made massive impacts on the
3:39
way that I approach my business day-to-day.
3:41
So with all that being said, let's get into today's episode.
3:52
Hello, you guys, and welcome back to Ambitious.
3:54
Today we are joined by the incredible Rosie.
3:57
Rosie, thank you so much for being on Ambitious and for being
4:00
here. Thank you.
4:01
I'm so excited. I love an opportunity, any
4:03
opportunity to have a conversation with you both
4:05
privately or you know, publicly. So thank you.
4:08
Well, I, on the note of privately, I will tell you guys,
4:11
the reason that I'm very excited for today is that I've had the,
4:14
the privilege of being able to talk to Rosie privately about
4:17
what she's going to share today. And you guys obviously know that
4:20
I'm like a strategy and a data nerd.
4:22
And so we're also both that way in her respect of what she's
4:25
going to talk about today. She is that way as well.
4:27
And so it blew my brain the level of like comprehensive
4:31
assessment that she was able to provide in a short amount of
4:33
time. So I cannot wait to be able to
4:36
kind of unpack that and dive into all of that today.
4:39
I would love to just give a little bit of context and a
4:41
starting point of, you know, obviously today we're going to
4:44
be talking a lot about leadership and strengths and
4:47
skill sets for entrepreneurs. And I would love to just have
4:50
you maybe give a little context as to like, how did that, you
4:54
know, topic or focus come to be something that you dive into now
4:58
today? Gosh, OK, I love to tell stories
5:02
that are way too long, so let me just do my best.
5:05
Yeah, that's OK. That's.
5:06
OK. And whenever people ask me, I'm
5:08
like, well, let me take you back to when I was 18 years old.
5:10
Yeah. But yes, I guess to share a
5:13
little bit about my journey, I went to college to be a high
5:16
school math teacher. I burnt out just from student
5:19
teaching. So then I went into becoming an
5:21
actuary, which people, especially entrepreneurs there,
5:25
If you've been an entrepreneur your whole life, you don't
5:27
really know what that is because it really only exists in the
5:29
corporate world. But imagine like ACPA on
5:32
steroids. Like it's just super intense
5:35
math nerd kind of stuff. And I was in consulting,
5:38
financial consulting in the corporate world for Fortune 500
5:41
companies. And then I was burning out too.
5:44
And I was realizing it's kind of like when something isn't
5:47
working, your body starts to tell you that message that
5:52
you're not willing to listen to. And so I was experiencing
5:56
depression and just like low energy, everything just felt
5:59
like I was trudging through life.
6:01
And so I discovered coaching and went through a two years to get
6:07
my coaching certification and then transitioned within my
6:10
organization to become a coach. So all of that was great.
6:16
I felt very aligned in the career that I had chosen.
6:19
But then I started to realize as I was going through that, that
6:23
even though I loved what I was doing, I didn't love where I was
6:26
doing it. And so I had finally found this
6:29
alignment. And I like to talk a lot about
6:31
Icky Guy. Are you familiar with that
6:33
concept? I have heard of it passing me,
6:36
but I wouldn't say I spent a lot of time in it, no.
6:38
OK. OK.
6:38
So I'm excited to. No, I'm excited.
6:42
I'm like, OK, yes, yes. So when I was going through my
6:45
coaching journey, I learned about this concept of Icky guy,
6:49
which is a Japanese concept that stands for or means a reason for
6:53
being. And it's the intersection of
6:55
four things. So it's what you love, what the
6:58
world needs, what you can get paid for, and what you're good
7:02
at. And when you can check all four
7:06
of those boxes within your career, that is something that
7:10
gives you a reason for being right.
7:13
And so I had finally found a career that checked all four of
7:17
those boxes. And I thought that that was
7:19
going to be it. But then I realized there were
7:21
still this like feeling of that something was off because of the
7:25
environment that I was doing it in.
7:27
And right, so in the corporate world, it just got to be like, I
7:31
felt like I wasn't able to use my strengths.
7:33
I felt like I wasn't shining. I felt like the work that I was
7:36
doing wasn't valued. Personal development is not
7:39
valued in the corporate world anywhere near the same way as it
7:43
is in the entrepreneurial world. And so I started my coaching
7:49
business on the side while I was in the corporate world.
7:53
And what I discovered when I was doing both, which was, you know,
7:57
I was working 80 to 100 hours a week, it was exhausting.
8:00
But even when I was like doing, working such long hours, what I
8:04
found was I was more lit up in what I was doing because I was
8:10
doing it in an environment where my work was more valued, right?
8:14
Entrepreneurs just valued personal development work, which
8:16
is what I do as a coach. So I felt like my work was more
8:20
valued and because of that, I was able to use my strengths
8:25
more. And I didn't really realize that
8:29
in the corporate world until I started entertaining something
8:32
else. That part of why I was
8:34
struggling in that environment was because the strengths that I
8:36
have were just kind of going underused and they were
8:39
tempered. And so after, you know, doing my
8:44
side hustle of starting my, my 40 hour a week side hustle of
8:47
starting my business, I left my corporate job at the end of 2023
8:52
and to just focus solely on my business.
8:55
And it's been a journey and it was a big transition.
8:58
And I'm, I'm still moving, I'm almost two years into starting
9:01
my business and it's I'm still moving through and constantly
9:04
evolving. But I found that I am able to
9:09
shine so much more because I, I'm touching the, the four boxes
9:12
of the icky guy, while I'm also able to work from my strengths
9:16
and honor the things that I value and kind of cultivate that
9:19
more. So that's the long winded way of
9:22
kind of sharing my journey of one of the many transitions of
9:25
of my life, my most recent, you know, career and even personal
9:28
development journey over the last two years.
9:31
Well, they say that like, you know, entrepreneurship is the
9:33
most aggressive personal development journey that anyone
9:35
can go on because I think it just, it brings everything that
9:39
you're not acknowledging or hiding from or that maybe you
9:43
just haven't dealt with all to the surface in the moments of
9:47
each day. I love that you shared that
9:49
aspect of like environment versus the the skills aspect,
9:52
because I'm curious, how did you come to distinguish that it was
9:58
environment? Because I think so many of us,
10:00
at least I, for myself and I know for some of the peers that
10:03
I've chatted with, there's been these moments where something
10:06
doesn't feel like the only word that comes to mind is like
10:08
aligned and something doesn't feel aligned in the way that
10:11
you're operating or the way that you're working.
10:14
And so sometimes we have this belief that we just need to push
10:16
harder. We need to like work harder or
10:18
spend more hours and, or like, maybe I should apply myself
10:20
differently or maybe I should like take a different approach.
10:23
How did you kind of come to determine that the environment
10:26
was a big factor in what was kind of leaving you feeling like
10:30
that lack of fulfillment in a way?
10:32
Yeah. So it's interesting there.
10:35
There's a couple of things, but I'll I'll first take it from
10:38
like the strengths lens. And just for context, like I
10:41
talked about the concept of working from your strengths.
10:43
And I know we'll talk a little bit about that, but one of the
10:48
ways to know that you're working from your strengths, like your,
10:51
your natural talents and abilities are that you feel
10:55
energized by what you're doing. It might feel hard, like nobody
10:59
gets away with not working hard, right?
11:02
As an entrepreneur, as a high achieving or high performing
11:05
leader, hard work is supposed to be hard, but it's not supposed
11:10
to feel draining or de energizing.
11:12
If you feel like you're working hard, but it's filling up your
11:15
tank, you're feeling energized by it.
11:18
That's typically a sign that you're working from your
11:20
strengths and also that you're doing it in the right
11:24
environment. And I'll, I'll kind of get to
11:26
your, to parsing out like strengths versus environment.
11:29
But all of I, I wanted to at least mention, I think there's
11:32
so much, especially in at least like American culture.
11:35
We're like, hard work is supposed to feel hard.
11:37
Just push your head down, move through it, make it work.
11:40
And, and yes, I think if you are high achieving or high
11:43
performing, like we've all gone through that.
11:45
And that's essentially what was happening for me in the
11:48
corporate world. But I started noticing I was
11:51
like when I started to do try things in a different
11:57
environment, when I was working on the side, doing my coaching
12:00
business, I was like, I'm exhausted, right?
12:02
Like I was working so much, but I felt excited about it.
12:06
I felt energized. I felt like it was like filling
12:08
up my cup even if I was tired. And so that's typically again, a
12:14
sign that you're working from your strengths and that you're
12:16
working in the right environment.
12:18
If you feel like you are constantly drained de energized
12:23
when you're just trudging through it, typically, like I
12:26
said, it's a sign that you're not working from your strengths
12:29
or you're not in the right environment or both.
12:31
And what I will also say, I think for me that was an aha,
12:36
once I became an entrepreneur was that I was working really
12:41
hard to change the environment that I was in.
12:45
And that started to be de energizing.
12:47
I was in the corporate world. I was very people focused.
12:50
I love personal development and I felt like I was always pushing
12:53
and pushing and pushing. I was on the executive team and
12:55
I was pushing the other executives to be people focused.
12:59
And it started feeling very exhausting again, and not in an
13:05
energizing way. Not like I'm doing the hard work
13:07
and it's feeling good. And it wasn't until I started
13:10
entertaining being an entrepreneur that I was like,
13:14
wow, like this environment feels like, yes, it's hard, but I feel
13:19
excited about it. And that's when I realized like
13:22
I instead of trying to change and tweak the environment that I
13:26
was in, that my energy would be better spent changing to a new
13:31
environment. So I don't know, that's not like
13:34
the clearest it, it's very mucky, right?
13:36
There's not like a clear way of really saying like this is the
13:40
road map to do that, but it really is paying attention to
13:43
your energy. Like hard work is hard, but it
13:45
shouldn't feel miserable. If it feels miserable, that's a
13:48
sign that you have to listen to and figure out like what is it
13:52
and and kind of play with that. Well, I think what well, two
13:55
things I take from that is, and you mentioned something, it's
13:57
it's wild that you said what you said because I listened to a
13:59
podcast this morning. It was knowing the exact same
14:01
thing it was saying. There's these two sides that we
14:03
get of, of messaging of like purpose or fulfillment.
14:07
The one side is that classic quote where they say like, if
14:10
you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life.
14:13
And then there's the people who say like, leave your passion as
14:15
something separate. And then you have your work
14:18
because if you work in your passion, eventually it all
14:20
becomes work. And so the thing that I, I think
14:23
what ends up happening is we get stuck in this middle of, we're
14:25
trying to figure out, OK, is this my passion or do I like
14:28
this, or am I exhausted because I don't resonate with a mission?
14:32
Or is it just because I'm genuinely working a lot of
14:33
hours, right? And trying to kind of sort it
14:35
all. But the aspect of environment
14:37
that I took from that was the fact that you really wanted to
14:40
have a mission and feel like you're planting seeds toward a
14:44
mission that was moving in a direction that you actually felt
14:48
like you had control over. In the sense of like, the more
14:51
effort you put in, you could see that turn into something versus
14:54
if it's in a larger structure, you only kind of have your
14:57
bucket where you can influence. Whereas I feel like now probably
15:00
with your coaching, it's just infinite influence because of
15:03
this, right? Your mission kind of gets to be
15:04
a lot bigger and broader. The strengths you mentioned,
15:08
obviously I know is like the heart of a lot of what you do in
15:10
coaching, in leadership coaching.
15:12
So you mentioned, you know, strengths are something that
15:16
you're not going to feel probably exhausted by.
15:18
What were some things that came up for you or some awarenesses
15:22
you had that you're like, I feel like I'm not working in my
15:24
strengths? Like obviously one of them was
15:26
that you felt really tired. Was there anything that kind of
15:29
I guess came up for you almost like a symptom that made you go
15:31
OK, I want to re evaluate here. Yeah, So a couple of things.
15:37
And and just for context, this is something I rolled out in the
15:40
corporate world. I, I know you've taken the
15:43
assessment, right. But the organization Gallup,
15:45
they're a large management consulting company.
15:48
They do a lot of polls, like a lot of people knows, they know
15:51
Gallup because of their polls, but they created an assessment
15:53
called Clifton Strengths. It used to be called Strengths
15:55
Binder. And when I discovered that we
15:59
ended up rolling it out at my organization and that I really,
16:04
I really took to that because one of my strengths is to
16:09
naturally recognize the strengths in others.
16:11
What makes them unique, what lights them up.
16:13
That's part of what I do in coaching, right?
16:15
I think everybody is unique in a special in their own way.
16:18
And so identifying what that is and working from that has always
16:21
naturally energized me. And so strengths have become
16:25
such a core tool to my coaching because one, right when you take
16:30
an assessment, it kind of gives you words on a paper and it
16:33
gives you language for things that you're like, I thought
16:36
everybody did this, right? I didn't realize this was
16:38
something only I do or like, yeah, wow, that that is me.
16:42
I just, I never thought about it because this is so natural to
16:45
how I behave. And so when I, like I said, I
16:49
took the assessment, it took me a long time to really understand
16:52
it. But one of my strengths in in
16:56
this report, which is true about me, it's been true about me my
16:58
whole life, is I am a person that's very rooted in my values.
17:03
There are certain things for me that are black and white or
17:05
right and wrong. And like, that's something I
17:08
naturally do. It's not always a strength.
17:10
Sometimes that gets in my way, right?
17:12
Just just because I do it naturally doesn't mean it's
17:14
automatically a good thing. But I found that in the
17:19
organization, my, my values were essentially getting stepped on.
17:23
Like I felt like I was so people focused and I, I felt like I was
17:28
constantly fighting this fight to say, wow, we are promoting
17:33
these people to be in even more elevated leadership capacities,
17:39
but they're terrible people leaders and they don't care at
17:41
all about people. But you're promoting them
17:43
because you're afraid to lose them and they're really good at
17:47
bringing in revenue, but you're going to give them an even
17:50
bigger team when they're already terrible leaders and their team
17:53
has a lot of turnover, but you just want to keep them happy.
17:55
So for me, like some of that stuff was going against my
17:58
values. And so then that was that was
18:00
draining to me because I felt like I was constantly fighting.
18:03
So it's like noticing that there was really essentially A
18:06
misalignment between my values and the values of the
18:10
organization. What they said their values were
18:12
and what their values actually showed up as were different.
18:15
And so that was 1. And I would say the other one is
18:18
like, one of my strengths is it's called input in the
18:23
assessment language. But what it means is I like to
18:26
collect, archive, aggregate data information.
18:31
Like I love to take things in that I think are useful and have
18:35
utility. And I get energy that this
18:37
strength gets energy from sharing that information.
18:41
And I found when I was doing that in the corporate space, it
18:44
would just fall flat. I'd be like, oh, hey, I I read
18:47
this article and I researched it and I want to implement it.
18:50
And it'd be like, yeah, that's interesting.
18:52
And then I'd spend hours like, you know, navigating different
18:55
relationships, trying to get stakeholder buy in.
18:58
So then finally convince them and then they do it at 10% of
19:02
what it actually could have been.
19:04
And so that's where it felt like, gosh, I'm trying so hard
19:07
to like do these things that I know will help us and move us
19:10
forward and everybody's on board with.
19:12
But then it would take the wind out of my sails were like
19:14
nothing would happen with it. And so that was like the, my
19:18
strengths were essentially getting like stunted or stepped
19:21
on because of the environment. So it's like that constant, like
19:25
the wind was getting taken out of my sail.
19:28
The wind was getting taken out of my sails.
19:29
I don't know if that's the phrase, but.
19:32
Well, like and I kind of for anyone who's curious and we're
19:35
going to we're obviously dive into it, but the, the assessment
19:37
was actually something that Rosie did with me.
19:39
And the way that I, if I could like to still it down to
19:41
simplify it would be that this is basically, as I see it,
19:46
almost like the leadership assessment or the CEO
19:49
assessment. And it could obviously be used
19:50
in corporate as well, but obviously in the context of
19:53
business would almost to me be seen as like personality test
19:57
meets love language. And what I mean by that is like,
20:00
I think personality test in the sense of you really start to
20:03
understand yourself and how you operate and kind of like the,
20:07
the, the system that is you. But I think the love language
20:10
side is something so many of us are, you know, aware of.
20:14
And as you said, like you start to realize the impact of others
20:17
with that and you start to realize, OK, well, what do I
20:20
need from an environment that I'm in?
20:22
What do I need from team members that I interact with?
20:25
And there's like more of that interpersonal side.
20:27
So it's like understanding you. But then I think the phase two
20:30
that I took from it was like understanding you in context of
20:33
others. So I'm curious when, you know,
20:36
you did the assessment and obviously we can dive into
20:39
exactly what it is. When you did the assessment, did
20:42
you feel like you're like, I feel validated as in like you
20:45
felt like you saw yourself or were you like, oh, these are not
20:49
what I thought my results would be like?
20:50
Was it a surprise to you, or did it feel like you finally got the
20:53
validation of understanding how you operated?
20:56
Yeah, that's a great question. And yes, when I work with
21:00
clients that are taking it for the first time, it's usually one
21:04
of the two where they're like shocked and they're like, or I
21:08
expected to be this, but it was, it was not that.
21:11
Or they're like, wow, I feel really seen.
21:13
And for me, when I first saw it, I was like, I was shocked and I
21:18
was like, what my, because my results, I expected to be all
21:23
there. You know, there's four different
21:24
domains and I expected to have a lot in the relationship building
21:29
domain. And I, I did, I had three of my
21:33
top 10 strengths were in the relationship building domain,
21:36
but I LED with strategic thinking and I was like, I'm a
21:39
coach. I should be relationship
21:41
building like that should be, I should have the most
21:43
relationship building. My empathy was, you know #16 out
21:48
of 34, I was like, I should have high empathy.
21:51
I'm again, you know, so I went into a little bit of scarcity
21:55
and, and I always say, like it took me an entire year to
21:59
understand what my #1 strength was, which was that input of
22:02
like, I like to aggregate things and then share them.
22:05
And so it was very much a journey to understand and then
22:09
embrace my strengths. And that really is the journey
22:12
of, of the concept of strengths is like understand what they
22:16
mean, embrace them and say, yes, this is who I am.
22:20
And then ultimately learn how to use them intentionally.
22:23
They're already natural to you that the test just helps you
22:26
identify the things you naturally do, think and feel.
22:30
But the goal is to say, now that you know you're already doing
22:33
these things every day without trying, how do I start to use
22:36
them intentionally? But you have to understand what
22:39
they are and embrace that that's who you are in order to get to
22:41
that place. So it took me about a year of
22:45
really understanding and embracing, and now I feel like
22:49
every time I talk about strengths, I like unlock a tiny
22:52
little nugget. Even with my clients, I've been
22:54
working with somebody for six months and we just like unlocked
22:57
this new aspect. And it's somebody I've had a
22:59
relationship with for years, but we unlock this new aspect of his
23:02
strengths. And we've been working for six
23:04
months together, right? Like it just goes so deep.
23:07
And that's also what I love about it too, is like, I'm
23:09
always learning about my own. And when I work with clients,
23:13
I've, I've clients have had for years that we're still like,
23:15
wow, I never realized how it shows up in this way.
23:19
And now let's use that to our advantage, right?
23:22
So at this point I don't even remember what your question was,
23:25
but hopefully I got too. I got too excited.
23:27
It's. OK, I love it.
23:28
I'm the exact same way. I'm the same way.
23:31
No, when you did when you did the assessment with me, I will
23:34
be very honest. I so I, I got like the e-mail
23:36
and I was like, here's your results.
23:38
I'm like amazing and it, it felt like so exciting and like I'm
23:40
going to have everything that I thought about myself be
23:42
validated and I was so wrong. I opened it and I had this
23:47
aspect of like same, like you and I was like, this is not,
23:50
this is not good because I thought I'm a coach and I'm
23:52
supposed to have this avatar of thinking and being and all these
23:58
are what my are supposed to be my dominant.
24:00
And I remember that you had run the same test for my partner and
24:02
his results are what I wanted my results to be.
24:05
And I was like, no, that's how I'm supposed to be because I'm a
24:09
coach. And this is how again, I leave
24:10
my business with empathy. I lead with values, right?
24:13
And so I remember when more of like the strategy side came
24:18
through as a more dominant in mine.
24:20
Initially I remember saying to him, I felt an insecurity
24:24
because I thought, Oh my gosh, does this mean I'm, you know,
24:27
cold? Does this mean that I don't
24:28
actually have a relationship focused?
24:30
And I, my mind started to go. And then when you started to
24:33
really explain, OK, here's the assessment, here's what it means
24:37
and here's how you can decipher it.
24:39
It started to really make sense because you started to say, I
24:42
bet you're probably the person who does XY and Z.
24:45
And I was like, yes, and I bet you're the person who went
24:47
decision probably needs this, this and this.
24:49
And I'm like, yes. And then you start to really see
24:52
outside of just the numbers exactly what it means in
24:56
day-to-day life or business for you.
24:58
And so for the person listening, if they're like, I've never
25:01
heard of Clifton's strengths, what might be like your synopsis
25:05
of kind of what they could picture or what that experience
25:07
would look like if they wanted to do this assessment for
25:10
themselves and kind of learn how to integrate this awareness.
25:12
Yeah, yes, great question. So the assessment, it's
25:16
something you take one time. So it's not, you know, and, and
25:20
I in my corporate life, if you're familiar with the disk
25:22
assessment, I also would train and coach on the disk
25:25
assessment. And I'm familiar, you know, with
25:28
Myers Briggs or any of Graham, there's all these different
25:30
ones. But typically in business
25:31
settings, the most common are disc and Clifton strengths.
25:36
And so with Clifton Strengths, it's unlike other assessments
25:41
where it is something you're meant to only take one time.
25:43
You would really only retake it if you went through like a big
25:48
traumatic life event that really like forever changed you, right?
25:52
If you had a near death experience or you had something
25:55
like that where you just kind of are are have a totally different
25:59
outlook on life and the way that you show up.
26:01
So it's something you take one time and it's really intended to
26:04
uncover like your raw DNA, meaning it's identifying the
26:09
things you naturally do, think and feel the most of and the
26:12
things you do think and feel the least of.
26:15
And so even though we use words like strengths, it's really
26:18
identifying your talents. The things you do, think and
26:21
feel the most of are identified in the reports.
26:23
The things you do think and feel sometimes, and then things you
26:26
do think and feel not at all. You don't think and feel
26:30
typically right. And the goal is to say, OK, the
26:34
things I do think and feel all the time, they're always on.
26:37
Where are they already showing up as strengths?
26:39
Where am I already using these things to my advantage, right?
26:42
Like one of your strengths, I was just peeking at them as as
26:45
you were talking like is achiever, right?
26:47
That's like achiever is like more is more.
26:50
I can get a lot done. I get satisfaction from working
26:53
hard. I typically set the pace if I'm
26:56
on a team, I set the pace of work for a team because I like
26:58
to work fast and I like to work hard.
27:01
And they derive a sense of satisfaction from that, right?
27:05
And so if that's in your top 10 Clifton strengths, there's 34
27:09
themes, right? Your and your top 10 themes.
27:12
When you, when you look at your assessment results, it's just
27:15
telling you the things you do, think and feel the most of.
27:17
You're probably using your, I know this about you, right?
27:21
You're using your achiever already as a strength in many
27:23
ways, but just because it's up high, the things you do, think
27:28
and feel the most of, they're not automatically strings.
27:31
There's probably times in your life where your achiever has
27:33
gotten in your way, where you've burnt out.
27:35
People that are high achiever are likely to burn out because
27:38
they're like, well, I can get a lot done.
27:39
Let me just take on more and more and more, right?
27:42
And So what it helps you see what's up high and say, these
27:46
are the things you're already doing, thinking and feeling.
27:48
Let's identify where you're using them today, where you're
27:52
not using them today and there's opportunities or maybe where
27:55
they're working against you and we need to figure out how to
27:58
tweak the way that you're working it, maybe use a
28:01
different strength to help balance it out better if one is
28:04
turned on way too high. And so what's really cool, like
28:08
I said, you take the assessment one time and the report is
28:13
really robust. So when you read the report, it
28:16
says if you're high achiever, for example, the way that your
28:21
strengths, because there's 34 different strengths that they,
28:24
they rank you on the way that your talents show up, your
28:29
achiever is going to look very different.
28:32
I'm high achiever too. It's going to look different
28:34
from my achiever because you have a different top ten than I
28:37
have. So your combination of themes
28:40
are different than mine and there's a one in 33 million
28:44
chance that you just have the same top five themes out of 34
28:49
in the same order as somebody else.
28:51
So the combinations of I, I know like that's, that's that's.
28:55
An insane stat? Yeah, that's an.
28:58
I'm just like taking that in. That's an insane stat.
29:00
Wow, OK. And that's what's so it's like
29:03
we're all so unique. It's like a it's it really is
29:06
like a fingerprint, right? Like we have just, we're really
29:10
unique in the way that our themes show up.
29:13
And so the report takes that into account and it's like,
29:16
here's what achiever means. I gave you the generic
29:18
definition of achiever, but the report will tell you here's how
29:21
your achiever likely shows up because you're also high
29:24
responsibility and high activator, right?
29:27
And that looks different from me because I'm not high
29:29
responsibility and high activator and so right?
29:33
And I'm using like jargon right now, but it gives us these like
29:36
single words to help us understand the essence of that
29:39
talent that we have. And what's really cool about the
29:43
report, and this is part of what I love about Clifton strengths,
29:46
is you take it one time. The report not only says this is
29:49
how it shows up for you, it also tells you what your blind spots
29:53
likely are like Achiever is prone to burning out.
29:55
So is responsibility and then it will tell you here's ways that
30:01
you can start to use it more intentionally, both for yourself
30:05
and also when working with others, right?
30:07
Like one of your highs, one of your top strengths is activator.
30:11
You're very quick to get started on things and you will be a self
30:16
starter, right? That means like I have this
30:18
idea, I'm going to start on it right now.
30:21
And, but it also means if you're on a team, you can push the team
30:25
to get started, right? And, and that's really cool.
30:29
And that's the power of strength.
30:30
It's always like how you use it with yourself and how you use it
30:33
outside of yourself. And there's, so there's so many
30:35
opportunities to say like, wow, I'm really good at getting
30:38
myself started, but I'm not using it enough with my team to
30:42
help get them started. So how do I use that strength
30:45
more? And, and so it's very robust.
30:47
It's very deep and the more you learn about it, the more that
30:52
you like dive into strengths. And like you mentioned, you were
30:56
listening to a podcast this morning, right?
30:57
Like I'm a big podcast listener too, and they have like hundreds
31:03
of podcasts that talk about strengths were like, so the well
31:06
just goes very deep. If it's like, I want to learn
31:09
about how to use activator to lead my team's better, there's a
31:13
podcast about that, right? So you just listen to 30 minutes
31:16
on one strength on this specific area.
31:19
And so that's why I love it. You take it one time, but it's
31:22
like it feels so energizing and validating the more you dig into
31:27
it and understand like, wow, this, these are my superpowers
31:30
and there's so much I'm already doing with them, but there's so
31:33
much more I can do with them too.
31:34
And, and it's exciting because then it, it feels good.
31:37
That's where it like feels energizing to say like, wow,
31:39
this is me. And I get better results and I
31:42
feel better when I do these things.
31:43
Well, and I think it also feels less overwhelming, like I feel
31:46
like being a business owner, entrepreneur, when you initially
31:50
come into it, if you're not aware of an assessment like
31:53
this, you're like, I just have to be good at everything.
31:55
I just have to be good at, right?
31:56
I just have to be a good leader, but I also have to be good at
31:58
relationships, but I also have to be the social butterfly.
32:01
But I also, I'm kind of an introvert and you have all these
32:03
awarenesses. But I think a lot of the time
32:06
when business owners go into business and, and they start as
32:08
an entrepreneur, they're like, I just have to create all the
32:10
skills because that's what's required for me to get to the
32:14
next level. But then kind of based off what
32:16
you're saying, all of us have and I love the the analogy of
32:19
the fingerprint because I had no idea it was that that micro
32:22
specific. That's incredible because I've
32:24
done disk assessments and things in the past, but they're a
32:27
little bit more generalized, I think much more than that.
32:29
And so this really is like the full fingerprint really of you
32:34
as an entrepreneur and as ACEO. But with that, I think that the
32:38
tricky part in it is like we feel like we need to do all of
32:41
the things and frankly have strength in all the areas
32:44
because like that's what's required for me to grow.
32:47
And obviously, you've worked with a lot of really successful
32:49
business owners, entrepreneurs and in corporate.
32:52
Is it required meaning like does the individual themselves really
32:56
have to have all these skills in all these areas to truly thrive
33:02
as a business? Because I know when you shared
33:04
my assessment, I remember I, I used to consider myself an
33:09
extrovert, generally speaking. Like I would say I'm pretty
33:12
social. I wouldn't say that I'm like,
33:13
you know, closed off by any means, but I definitely recharge
33:17
on my own. And so it again, thinking of
33:20
insecurity when it came through that I was OK.
33:22
Like I have social media and I have to go to networking events
33:24
and I have to go do speaking and things like that.
33:26
I need to be the social person who works the room.
33:29
But the assessment came back as like, no, like you're not
33:31
naturally wired to be that person.
33:34
So I thought, Oh my gosh, like I have to go become this person
33:37
now. And then I remember you sharing.
33:39
You're like, no, you're basically the person that once
33:41
someone starts the combo, then you take it.
33:44
But you're not the kind of person who goes and starts the
33:46
conversation. And that landed for me because I
33:49
thought of all the different situations where that had come
33:51
up. And I'm like, you know what?
33:52
She's spot on. As soon as someone enters me to
33:54
someone, I'm good to go. But I often rarely make the
33:57
first move. But then it kind of again gives
34:00
you validation to say this is OK.
34:01
Like do you think that when someone does this, your, I guess
34:06
recommendation or prescription if you will to them is like, is
34:09
this kind of almost a permission slip to not have to be good at
34:12
literally everything? Yes, yes, it's such a good
34:16
question. And and again, as you're
34:19
talking, I like can't help. I'm like peeking at your
34:21
strength. One of the things your strengths
34:24
tells me is you don't like small talk, right?
34:26
You'd like to go deeper and talk.
34:29
So yes, when somebody starts, starts a conversation with you,
34:33
you can have small talk, but you really will gravitate toward
34:36
conversations that just go deeper on topics that you care
34:39
about. And so then to go back to like
34:43
the, yeah, the permission slip side and just the concept of you
34:47
don't have to like be everything and be good at everything.
34:50
But as entrepreneurs, you have to figure out that everything
34:53
needs to get done and you have to figure out how that happens.
34:57
And so I always say there's like 3 core strategies when it comes
35:03
to strengths and getting things done.
35:05
And the first is identifying. So like I said, the things at
35:11
the top of your report, if, if you were to take it, your top
35:14
dominant strengths, the things you always do, those are always
35:19
on. Those are the tools.
35:20
I always say those are the tools in your toolbox that you use to
35:23
get all of the jobs done that you have to do.
35:25
So you have a toolbox, you got a hammer, whatever, whatever
35:28
screwdriver in your toolbox, right?
35:30
Then there's the bottom of your report.
35:32
Those are the things you don't naturally do, think or feel.
35:35
And so let's say like, right, one of your bottom strengths was
35:39
woo, which is winning others over.
35:40
That's the like, I want to like kiss the babies.
35:43
I want to make friends with everybody in the room.
35:46
They're the like, if I go to a networking event and there's 200
35:49
people there, I would love to meet all 200 people and talk to
35:52
them for 5 minutes, right? Those are people that are high
35:55
woo. They're the most natural at
35:56
networking if it's high for them.
35:58
And so as an entrepreneur and a business owner, is networking an
36:04
essential part of what you do? Yes, right.
36:06
Like it's very rare to not have to network in some capacity as
36:10
an entrepreneur, right. And so, but the first question
36:13
that I always say to ask yourself, if you have to do
36:15
something that would typically require a strength that's at the
36:19
bottom of your report, the first question to ask yourself is, is
36:22
it really something I have to do?
36:24
Right? So let's set the networking
36:25
example to the side just for now.
36:27
Sometimes we feel like we're supposed to do something because
36:31
we see it somebody else doing it that way.
36:33
Maybe we have like a mentor, right?
36:35
That's been like, this is really something you need to do to be
36:38
successful. And so sometimes it's asking
36:41
yourself, is this something I just think I need to do because
36:43
I've seen other people do it this way?
36:46
Or is it something, yes, that I truly need?
36:48
I would say that's the least common.
36:50
Usually, if it's like networking, yes, I have to do
36:53
that, right? But sometimes it really does
36:54
require you to be honest with yourself.
36:56
Is this something I actually need to do or I just think I
36:58
need to do it? So let's say you've identified
37:02
yes, it's something I need to do.
37:03
Then the second aspect to entertain is, OK, do I have to
37:07
be the one to do it? Again, setting networking to the
37:10
side, do I have a team member or somebody else in my life that I
37:16
can call on to do this thing instead because it's one of
37:19
their strengths. And so that's like the second
37:22
question to ask yourself essentially is can I outsource
37:25
this in some capacity to somebody whose strength it is?
37:28
And this is true in business, it's true in, you know, any sort
37:32
of partnership with my husband, right?
37:34
This is very true. Like there are things that are
37:36
in his top strengths that are low for me.
37:38
And I used to feel guilty about that.
37:42
And now I'm like, Oh my gosh, he likes doing these things.
37:45
It energizes him to do these things.
37:47
So and, and there's certain things that are high for me that
37:50
are low for him. And I'm like, it energizes me to
37:52
be the strategic person. He's not.
37:54
And so I take on the strategy. He takes on more of the like
37:57
consistency side of things. And so he's a creature of habit.
38:01
So I can rely on him to kind of like keep the flow of things
38:05
moving and I get to be like the dreamer and the strategy person,
38:09
right? So it's like, can I outsource it
38:11
to somebody that's going to to be energized by this thing?
38:13
And so it's going to produce better results and they're going
38:16
to feel better too, getting to do that.
38:18
Sometimes we don't have that option.
38:20
In the example of networking, yeah, as a business owner, you
38:23
have to network. Maybe you have other team
38:24
members that are networking too, but you still need to network as
38:27
a business owner. So it's something I have to do
38:31
and it has to be me. The third strategy is how do I
38:35
do it in a way that feels authentic to me?
38:38
And So what I say in the example of the toolbox is somebody that
38:41
like doesn't know much about tools.
38:43
I always use this analogy, but let's say right at the, you look
38:46
at the bottom of your report and you're like, yours is woo,
38:48
right? And that's the most natural in
38:50
networking. I say, wow, I have a job that
38:53
calls for, I have a screw that I need to get into.
38:57
You know, this piece of wood, I don't have a screwdriver.
39:00
That's the like that is the tool that this job calls for.
39:03
And I don't get, I don't have a screwdriver.
39:05
And so that's like I need to get the screw in.
39:10
I can't borrow the screwdriver for somebody else from somebody
39:13
else, right? That's the outsourcing.
39:14
So it has to be me that gets the screw in.
39:16
Let me look in my toolbox of my top strengths, my dominant
39:20
strengths and say, what tool can I use to get the screw in?
39:24
Maybe it's not the most natural tool for the job, but it still
39:26
produces the results. And so right, that's like, wow,
39:29
well, I have a hammer in my toolbox.
39:31
I can hammer the screw in. It will still get it done.
39:34
And it's going to feel like from now the lens of clips and
39:37
strings, it's produced the results, but it's going to feel
39:40
more energizing and authentic. So it's like when I need to
39:44
network, I'm not going to try to network the way that like I,
39:48
I've worked with so many people are like, I know I'm supposed to
39:50
talk to everybody, but then I just feel so drained at the end
39:53
of the networking event. I never connect back with
39:56
anybody. I never like, I'm just dead.
39:58
After that. I had this one client.
40:00
I worked with you like, yeah, I, I met with everybody.
40:03
I exchanged contact information. I never talked to anybody again.
40:06
But afterwards, I sat at the bar for a drink and I met somebody
40:09
else that was at the event. We had a great conversation and
40:12
now we have a wonderful relationship.
40:14
And I was like, you can not work that way.
40:15
Give yourself permission to go based on whatever your strengths
40:19
are. Maybe your strengths might say.
40:21
Don't try to talk to everybody in the room.
40:23
Make it a goal to introduce yourself to three to five new
40:27
people and try to have deeper conversations with them, right?
40:30
Or go there and say, I want to walk away with one or two people
40:35
that I feel like I actually want to connect with afterwards.
40:39
And so my goal is to meet enough people to have one or two
40:42
relationships that I could see going somewhere.
40:45
And so it's like there's so many things we have to do.
40:48
It's just how do I do it in a way that's going to, again, fill
40:51
my cup and not have me feel like this was miserable, but I just
40:56
had to do it right? So a sign you're working from
40:59
your strengths is that you're doing the things in a way that
41:02
feels energizing. A sign your work not working
41:05
from your strengths or like working from the bottom of your
41:08
report, your lesser things is it feels like it's draining you.
41:10
So that's like my very long winded way of explaining that
41:13
concept of like as an entrepreneur, there are certain
41:16
things that just have to be you, but you have to honor the way
41:20
that you do it, the ways like there are creative ways to do it
41:24
in a way that's like makes you feel better rather than makes
41:28
you feel like I just trudged and pushed my put my head down and
41:31
made it through it. Yeah, I think it's such a
41:33
permission slip because what I'm taking from that is that it
41:37
really protects the outcome as the number one thing that you're
41:41
trying to focus on. So like, to your point, even
41:43
with, say, networking, you know that you need to build your
41:46
network, you know, you need to build connections, But it's more
41:48
about having a creative mind and an open mind as to what that
41:52
might look like in order to be able to achieve it.
41:54
And I think that a lot of the time in business, like to your
41:56
point, we see the way that other people do it.
41:58
So like I know someone vividly who goes into a room and like
42:03
they don't say it out loud, but they don't pass a person down
42:06
the street without being like hi, hi, hi, right.
42:08
And I'm just like, I'm not wired that way.
42:11
And so for me, I always wondered like, aren't you tired?
42:13
Like that just seems exhausting for me.
42:16
But for them it like it just exactly as you said, it lights
42:19
them up in a way that I don't personally relate with at all.
42:23
But it's interesting on the flip side, when we talk strategy or
42:26
when I dive into data and things, this person's like I,
42:29
I'm I'm mentally tuned out like I just I can't get there kind of
42:32
thing. So it goes, it goes to show I
42:35
think as well that like probably and I, I'd be curious what your
42:38
thoughts are. Probably the most successful
42:40
businesses are really where the leader or the head of the
42:45
organization is the person who's the most in tune with what their
42:48
strengths are. Because I think even for me in
42:51
growing my business, there was a lot of things that I recognize,
42:54
like I'm not like a systems person, like diving into
42:57
building and, you know, creating of systems and processes was not
43:01
something that I would say like I nerd out on.
43:03
So like it was one of the first things I delegated because I
43:06
recognized that her skill set, she was like lit up by that in a
43:09
way that I wasn't. And I'm lit up by the creative
43:12
in a way that she probably isn't when it comes to marketing and
43:14
social media. So it kind of again, was like
43:16
filling each other's quote UN quote weaknesses.
43:19
But like free, you mentioned team being one of the pieces,
43:22
right? And being able to delegate it.
43:24
I guess the curiosity is when you're thinking about coaching
43:28
people, do you think about helping them to find people that
43:31
have what they don't? Should we ever hire someone
43:34
who's kind of a, a carbon copy of us?
43:37
That's the number one thing I hear is like, I just want like a
43:39
mini me on the team. And so in a way, based on what
43:42
you're saying, I guess I wonder, is it actually a downside to
43:47
hire someone who is a you like to even have that intention
43:51
within your team? Yeah.
43:54
OK. So I'll answer that.
43:55
But I also first want to touch on something else you said that
43:58
I think will flow into that, which is one of the things
44:01
people will say when they see their strengths in the contact
44:04
in the context of the report is they'll say like, you know, I
44:07
had this one Ceoi worked with and he was like, well, of course
44:10
I'm high. Competition is one of the names
44:12
of the strengths. So you can imagine what
44:14
competition means, right? They want to be the best.
44:17
And of course I'm high competition.
44:18
I'm a CEOI had to be high like I had to be high competition in
44:23
order to be ACEO. I've coached with many CEO's.
44:26
They are not all high competition, right?
44:29
So it's like there is no perfect set of strengths for any given
44:34
role I've worked with. Again, when when I was an
44:37
executive within my previous organization, I coached with
44:40
other executives I worked with. This one woman had no strategic
44:44
thinking themes in her top 10 like you and I have a lot of she
44:48
had none, but she was a strategic consultant, right?
44:52
And so I was like, she had all of these like relationship
44:55
building themes. Empathy was her #1 theme.
44:57
Most people in the business world, in the corporate world
45:00
are low empathy. And it was her number 1.
45:02
And I was like, how are you? And she was amazing at at her
45:06
strategic role. And I was like, how are you so
45:08
good at strategy? You have none of these themes
45:10
and you are like high and all of these people focus themes.
45:13
And she's like, Rosie, it's so easy.
45:15
The first thing that I go do when I'm going to build the
45:18
strategy for a client, my first thought is what would I want if
45:21
I was in their shoes? And that's how I build a
45:23
strategy. And so all of that to say is
45:26
like, there's no perfect set of themes for any job, right?
45:30
There's no, it's all about how you use them.
45:33
And so people will look at the report and say, well, of course
45:37
I am this way because of my job. And it's like, no, you use your
45:42
strengths in this way for that job.
45:44
There are other people who are successful at being ACEO that
45:49
have no competition, that are high empathy, that are low
45:53
empathy, that are high, you know, like their combinations.
45:56
I've never worked with the C-Suite that have had like a
46:00
consistent pattern of themes. It's so that goes back to your
46:03
comment of like the best leaders are the ones that, and, and
46:07
their statistics around this. But the best leaders are the
46:09
ones that know what their strengths are and know how to
46:12
use them intentionally to get what they need to get done.
46:15
And as a statistics person, like the people that work from their
46:20
strengths every day are 9% more productive and teams that work
46:25
from their strengths every day are 13% more productive, right?
46:29
Which which kind of goes back to like your question around
46:33
outsourcing, right? When you have people that and
46:36
it's not now a kind of transition to your question
46:39
having like AI get this question all the time, will like, should
46:43
I have a team that's balanced, right?
46:44
If I'm high in this, do I get and low in that?
46:47
Do I have somebody that's my opposite?
46:50
There's the all of the research and that's what I love about
46:53
Gallup is they are such a research based organization.
46:56
All of their research shows that the highest performing teams are
47:00
not the most well balanced from a Clifton strengths perspective.
47:04
They are teams that have visibility to each other's
47:07
strengths and know how to use them intentionally.
47:10
So there's no perfect combination on a team.
47:13
I always say if you have a well balanced team, that's like a the
47:17
cherry on top, like it's a nice to have.
47:19
It's not a must have to get results.
47:22
And so to your hiring question, people will I and I get this all
47:26
the time. They're like, should I have
47:28
somebody take the assessment before I hire them?
47:30
And the answer is yes and no. Think of the assessment as a
47:38
data point to inform your questions.
47:41
So let's say you need to hire an integrator, somebody in an
47:45
integration capacity for a role. You're going to look there
47:48
certain strengths that are just naturally integrating, they're
47:51
called the executing themes. So they're strengths that are
47:53
like they get it done. Somebody that's high in
47:56
executing is like my first thought is like what needs to
47:59
happen, right. And so they're the most natural
48:02
at integration. So let's say you have somebody
48:05
take the assessment, they are not high in the integrating
48:09
themes. Does that mean automatically you
48:11
don't hire them? No, what it means is you ask
48:15
that person questions about how they get things done, right?
48:19
The core, the things that are core to integration.
48:22
Going back to that one executive example, if I just looked at her
48:25
report and she had no strategic thinking teams in her top ten,
48:28
and I was hiring her for a strategic role, right?
48:31
I would be like, if I just looked at a report, right?
48:33
I'd say absolutely not. But I would be missing out
48:36
because I would be missing out on the opportunity to see what
48:40
it was like for somebody to thrive when their strengths in a
48:44
role that would tell me on paper that their strengths might not
48:47
be a fit. So it's all in how you use them.
48:50
That's a really, that's a really like vivid point for me because
48:55
to me I was looking to hire for someone else's team.
48:58
We were helping with hiring of a sales team.
49:01
And I remember we had brought an outside sales specific
49:03
consultant and they were in the conversation with us and they
49:06
said like you do the disk assessment and they if they do
49:08
not have a high this and a low this, you do not hire them.
49:13
Yeah, yeah. And so we same thing did the
49:17
hiring process, including the hiring process was the disk
49:20
assessment and that the people their results came through and
49:23
they're like, no, no, no, this is the the clear obvious person.
49:27
And I think about in that how many also ways we cope with
49:32
things and we create our own pathways to get the outcome
49:35
done. Like I'm thinking even to, it
49:37
could be for sales, could be for networking.
49:40
You may know that you don't naturally like networking, but
49:43
you, even on your own, without this awareness of the
49:45
assessment, have already created some kind of tool that allows
49:48
you to maintain the outcome. And so I, I love that you
49:51
mentioned that of like the hiring process, because I've
49:53
often wondered that, which is, we know that these assessments
49:57
are so accurate in the sense of the fact that they are a good
49:59
synopsis of who we are. But then you know, exactly to
50:04
your point of like, yes, you use it, but no, in a way it, that's
50:07
exactly how I'm feeling about it, which is this is bring it
50:10
brings up a lot of clarity of the assessment of the
50:12
individual. But then the question really
50:14
becomes, how much weight do you put in it?
50:17
And also the context of what does it mean within their role?
50:21
Or is it possible that they already have or have created new
50:24
pathways to maintain the outcome even though it's not their
50:27
natural strength? Yeah, yeah, yes.
50:30
And and yes, there's two things about what you said, because at
50:33
my previous organization before we rolled out Clifton Strengths,
50:36
we would use disk as a hiring tool as well.
50:39
And then we found out that's actually illegal.
50:41
So just just be mindful that you what's illegal is that you
50:46
cannot hire somebody. So or like you cannot pass on a
50:50
candidate or choose not to hire somebody solely based on their
50:53
assessment results now, right. Like for smaller businesses, you
50:56
know, nobody's like auditing that, but just to be mindful.
50:59
Yeah. And illegal or not and illegal,
51:02
I'm sure there's like a more accurate term for that.
51:05
But what is true is like, yes, any assessment should be a data
51:10
point. I am sure that like with with a
51:13
salesperson, high D high I that's like the most natural at
51:17
sales from a Clifton strengths perspective, the most natural at
51:21
sales are people that are high woo right love to network, but
51:24
higher and influencing themes. The things that are like they
51:28
love to put themselves out, that they love to elevate things,
51:31
ideas, people. And so those are the most if if
51:35
you were to slide somebody's strengths in front of me and say
51:40
based on strengths alone, which person should I hire to be a
51:43
salesperson? I could tell you it's if they're
51:45
high and influencing those themes will tell me that it
51:48
comes the most natural to them. Same thing with disk.
51:51
If you slid it in front of me, I would say higher, the high D
51:54
high I. But people are so much more
51:56
complicated than what's on a piece of paper.
51:58
And to like your point and what we're talked about, it's all
52:01
about how you use them. And so using strengths or
52:05
something like the disk, they should be a tool to inform the
52:09
questions that you ask. So if you're trying to hire a
52:12
salesperson and influencing is their lowest domain, you want to
52:16
understand how they network, you want to understand how they
52:18
build relationships, the influencing themes.
52:21
I say go wide with people. And that's the nature of sales
52:24
is you have to go wide with people.
52:25
Maybe they have themes that are blue, which goes with
52:28
relationship building. They like to go deep with
52:30
people. So maybe they have built a sales
52:33
process and then and networked in a way that has allowed them
52:36
to build like long standing relationships.
52:39
And that's how they network and that's how they sell.
52:41
And they've had a lot of success doing that.
52:43
So it's all like the assessment should always be a data point to
52:48
inform where to dig deeper. But yes, you should never hire
52:52
based purely on an assessment because you essentially you'll
52:55
just be passing on talent and you're also going to overvalue
53:00
the talents that align with what you think they should be, right?
53:03
Like like the assessment might tell you what comes naturally to
53:07
somebody or disk is like will tell you their communication
53:09
style. But there are high D high is
53:12
that are abrasive, right? That are like way too intense
53:15
that don't know how to match the energy.
53:18
If they're a high D high I and they're like low empathy.
53:22
They might just barge through with a with a potential client,
53:26
right, and and not be a good listener or like maybe lean into
53:29
high pressure sales that's going to damage relationships and
53:33
things like that. So it's all about like what's on
53:35
paper is never going to tell the full story, and just because
53:38
you're high and things that are natural for that role doesn't
53:41
automatically mean you'll thrive with them.
53:44
And I think that like for most people listening to that, I feel
53:47
like there's one part of that which can be can almost feel
53:51
disappointing because I think so much of marketing and on on
53:54
online social, you know, content, wherever you get it is
53:58
this belief that there's like this high performer, ambitious
54:03
individual and this is how they work.
54:05
And it's like they operate this way, they work this way, They
54:09
have this type of team. Like it almost feels like this
54:11
like pre made prescription of success.
54:15
And really what you're saying is, and obviously to your point,
54:17
you've worked with a lot of different individuals at
54:20
different levels of of their career and CEO's of businesses
54:24
who all have different assessments.
54:27
So I think that that also naturally and you saying that
54:29
breaks this, you know, belief and perspective that we've been
54:33
sold, which is like, I just have to figure out how to be X.
54:37
And even in going into today, I wondered, which I'm very glad
54:41
now that I didn't do. People have asked me, we'd had a
54:43
networking dinner recently and someone said, you know, I just
54:45
want to understand how you think, like how I think, how I
54:48
operate, how I go about things so that they could start to
54:52
embody that too. And really what you're saying is
54:55
like, regardless of what's on, you know, your assessment or my
54:58
assessment, it's kind of irrelevant because that's our
55:02
operating system. And the only route to success in
55:06
business life, whatever it may be, or as you mentioned earlier,
55:08
relationships is really only understanding your specific
55:12
assessment. Because if you try to take,
55:14
well, this is what Steve Jobs assessment was or this is what
55:18
Jeff Bezos assessment was, that's not necessarily any kind
55:23
of blueprint as to how you would be successful.
55:26
I would probably hazard to guess it would be the harder way to
55:30
become successful because you're really trying to fit what might
55:33
be your quote UN quote weakness and make that your top strength
55:37
and the way that you would build your company.
55:40
Yes, yes, yeah. What you said was beautiful and
55:44
I don't even know what I could add to it because it was
55:46
perfectly articulated. And and yes, it is like we're
55:50
all looking for an easy button. We're all looking for a
55:53
blueprint. And what I've noticed since
55:55
becoming an entrepreneur is I see like mentors out there or
56:00
coaches out there where people are like, wow, I see what
56:03
they've achieved and I want to follow their road map to get
56:06
there. And they're, they're doing
56:09
themselves a disservice by thinking that way.
56:12
And, and their mentor is also doing them a disservice if they
56:15
are saying this is the only way, right?
56:18
There are people that are like, and I've seen that I've, I've
56:20
coached with people who are like, my mentor says I need to
56:22
meet 100 people at the networking event.
56:24
Like, well, is that producing results for you?
56:26
Is that, is that working for you?
56:27
Are you enjoying that? Like there are other ways to
56:30
accomplish it? And so like, yes, the best
56:33
mentors and coaches are ones that know how to push people,
56:37
like know how to push people to find their road map and their
56:41
own answers. Everybody wants an easy button
56:44
and they think the easy button is a copy paste.
56:47
I have seen your success. I want to do it your way.
56:49
I love what you've built and created.
56:52
How do I just copy paste that? And they think that that's the
56:54
easy button, but it's but it's not right.
56:57
Like the copy paste, it really doesn't work.
56:59
It doesn't work for anybody. It's the like the you've
57:03
achieved what you've achieved by doing it your way, right?
57:06
Like doesn't mean that you've tried, you haven't tried to do
57:08
it other people's way. But essentially the people that
57:12
have made it to where they've made it are typically because
57:15
they've embraced what's natural, what they're natural, whether
57:18
they've consciously done it or not, they've done it their way.
57:22
Yeah. And so trying to copy paste
57:24
doesn't work. The true easy button, if there
57:27
was 1, is focusing on doing it your way.
57:30
I know the results that I want to create.
57:33
How do I create it in a way that's energizing to me?
57:35
And it feels authentic to me. And again, it's not just like a
57:40
like a rah rah type of like, oh, wouldn't it be so nice if we all
57:44
got to work from our strengths? Like you're more like the, the
57:47
research that Gallup has done is when you work from your
57:49
strengths, you're more productive.
57:51
You are three times more likely to report having a high quality
57:55
of life and six times more likely to be engaged in your
57:59
work. And so it's not just like you're
58:02
10%, almost 10% more productive, 3 times more likely to have a
58:05
high quality of life and six times more likely to be engaged
58:07
in your work. So like there's all of this data
58:11
that says it's not just a nice to have to work from your
58:15
strengths. It actually produces better
58:17
results both in your work and in your life as a whole.
58:20
But it's hard. Like it's that is the hard work.
58:24
The hard work is not I'm going to copy what Kate does and just
58:27
do the same thing. That's actually that's like
58:29
trying to take the easy route as to copy somebody else and to
58:32
focus on what's outside of you. The hard work is to say who am
58:36
I? What are my values?
58:38
What are my strengths? What are the things that are
58:39
important to me and how do I use those to get at the results that
58:43
I'm looking for? That's that is the hard part.
58:46
That's the hard work that's like worth doing and feels
58:49
energizing, but it really requires you to face things
58:52
inside of yourself and let go of things that maybe you thought
58:55
you should be or things that you thought you wanted that that's
58:59
hard work, but it's worth work doing.
59:01
Like it's, I don't know how to describe it.
59:02
Like we think the easy way is to copy somebody else, but really
59:08
the easy way is doing it your own way.
59:11
But it's hard and it's, it's like easy and hard.
59:13
I think it's, I think it's easy in the short term.
59:16
I think it's very hard in the long term.
59:19
Like I think in the short term we think, OK, we're going to
59:20
take this person and, and fit ourselves within that model.
59:24
But I think exactly to your point, when you think about
59:26
overall, you know, success, and it also could be overall
59:29
fulfillment. Often times we're not fulfilled
59:31
in what we're doing though, because we're finding like this
59:33
doesn't feel like it fits me, like this feels like I'm wearing
59:36
someone else's clothes. This does not necessarily feel
59:39
like it aligns with what I'm trying to do.
59:41
And I, I, I ask that question because I think so many of us
59:46
read books, listen to podcast being like, give me the path to
59:50
success, like make, give me the millionaire routine.
59:53
And I'm going to take that, embody it.
59:54
And that's what I'm going to do. And then that's going to lead me
59:57
to get the same result. And I love what you said because
1:00:00
I think you know everyone that I know as entrepreneurs, I'm sure
1:00:03
for yourself as well. Like when you start to really
1:00:05
get to know them on a deep level, you realize how truly
1:00:08
different all of us are. Like you've got the person who,
1:00:11
as I said, is like that networking butterfly who's just
1:00:13
like all over the room and they have a 7 figure business.
1:00:16
Then you go to the person next to them and exactly as you said,
1:00:19
they go with a few people but a lot deeper and they create a lot
1:00:21
more long term connections from that.
1:00:24
Less wide, more deep. And that's their approach.
1:00:26
And I think once you start to see all these different types of
1:00:29
avatars and then all recognizing that they're still very
1:00:32
successful, just all in different ways, it becomes this
1:00:35
like permission slip. And I found that the assessment
1:00:39
for me was also like the cherry on top of that.
1:00:41
I feel like I had been kind of navigating my own way, but maybe
1:00:46
didn't have clarity to put a name to it, to put a number to
1:00:52
it to to kind of explain it. We all have this, I think, like
1:00:54
intuition in a way that tells us what feels right for us or what
1:00:58
doesn't. But I think what the assessment
1:01:00
and, and your overview of it did is it really started to say,
1:01:04
Hey, like this is a visual of how you think and operate.
1:01:08
And but again, at first the the disconnect was that I thought it
1:01:12
was wrong based off what society had told me or, you know, again,
1:01:16
social media or mentors, as you said, and what I was told was
1:01:19
the way to go. But even to your earlier point,
1:01:22
when you were mentioning sales and how sales are usually high
1:01:26
woo, yet I'm low woo. And I was a high ticket phone
1:01:28
closer. So when you think about that
1:01:32
exact example for me, when you said that, I was like, Ding,
1:01:34
Ding, Ding, this is literally the exact point you're making.
1:01:37
I was still able to do really well as a sales closer, but I
1:01:41
leveraged my social work skills of interpersonal connections.
1:01:46
And as you mentioned earlier, going deep with people.
1:01:49
That's actually how I closed people.
1:01:50
I didn't use the push or you know, the Super wide networking
1:01:54
or any of that. I went super deep with people
1:01:56
and that was the thing that allowed them to close.
1:01:58
So I'm curious because you mentioned, you know, you have
1:02:03
your strengths and then you have again like your, your weaknesses
1:02:05
in the, the different levels of how much you integrate them.
1:02:09
We know that there's no common denominator necessarily that all
1:02:12
CE OS have X quality. But I'm curious if you see a
1:02:17
pattern of how they approach overcoming it, Meaning they get
1:02:22
their assessment, they take it, they have this awareness, they
1:02:24
go, OK, this is who I am. When they're in coaching with
1:02:28
you, the people that are the most successful to lean into
1:02:31
their strengths or to find new pathways to tap into still
1:02:35
getting outcomes with their weaknesses.
1:02:38
Is there a certain perspective they have?
1:02:39
Is there a certain maybe way they operate or a way that they
1:02:42
look at the coaching that you think allows them to get those
1:02:46
great outcomes? Because I think there's two
1:02:48
people. There's the person who sees that
1:02:50
I have a weakness and they think, OK, well, this is just
1:02:53
who I am, so I have to hire out the rest and I'm not going to
1:02:55
touch it. And then obviously I know a lot
1:02:57
of the work that you do is not just the assessment, but it's
1:03:00
also like, how do we make sure this doesn't feel like a scarlet
1:03:04
letter? And instead it's like, we're
1:03:05
going to actually use this to help us develop you.
1:03:09
Not to say this is where you're capped.
1:03:11
Like where is that distinction? Do you think of what someone
1:03:14
needs to keep in mind or what they might need to prepare
1:03:16
themselves for to really lean into, like better understanding
1:03:20
what their approach is and also how they can grow within that?
1:03:25
Yeah, yeah, great question. And yes, I love that you said
1:03:29
the scarlet letter thing because it's like the goal is not to put
1:03:32
you in a box, right. The goal is not to say, OK, this
1:03:36
is who you are. Like you'll never be high, woo.
1:03:39
So, you know, sorry, you're screwed when it comes to
1:03:42
networking. Now what I will say is you will
1:03:46
never be high woo. That doesn't mean like the, the
1:03:49
strengths don't change order. If you take this assessment
1:03:53
again in a couple years, your results will generally stay the
1:03:56
same. Like your top 10 to 15 might
1:03:59
move, maybe your achiever is number, I don't remember what it
1:04:01
is, but let's say it's #2 and it moves to #7 like that's not
1:04:05
statistically significant from a Clifton strengths perspective.
1:04:08
So 1st to keep in mind is, yes, if I'm working with an executive
1:04:14
there and let's say they're low woo, they're like, how do I get
1:04:18
that higher, right? So the goal is not to change the
1:04:20
order. And the first thing is just
1:04:22
embracing like this is what it is.
1:04:24
The assessment said you were answering questions and you
1:04:29
answered the most questions about what you do think and feel
1:04:32
that's high in your report and the least questions that tell me
1:04:35
you don't do think or feel these things at the bottom.
1:04:38
So the first is just like embracing, OK, I've identified
1:04:42
the things I do think and feel the most and least of then it's
1:04:46
saying what things today are getting in my way.
1:04:50
So it's almost like identifying goals and roadblocks.
1:04:55
So there's, there's an executive that I'm working with right now
1:05:00
and I mostly work with women, but it's like, but if I'm
1:05:03
working with the right man that it works well, it always has to
1:05:06
be a man that like knows how to be vulnerable, which is hard to
1:05:08
find. And so, so I'm working with this
1:05:13
executive right now. He's like an SVP.
1:05:15
So he's not ACEO, but he's at a large, you know, Fortune 500
1:05:18
company and he is struggling with like getting to sort of the
1:05:24
next level. And he's looking at some of the
1:05:29
other executives that are ahead of him around him that are
1:05:32
higher woo or higher in some of these other themes where he's
1:05:34
like, I don't know how to be like that.
1:05:37
And he's been working like he keeps pushing me to say, well, I
1:05:41
just need to find like, how do I just do what they're doing?
1:05:45
And so when I'm working with executives, whether it's ACEO or
1:05:50
an executive in a large organization like ACEO of a
1:05:53
business that they run or in a large organization, it's
1:05:56
essentially the same to say to really push them to embrace
1:06:01
what's on the report and understand if they have a goal
1:06:06
for where they want to go, understand what's getting in
1:06:09
their way. And typically what's getting in
1:06:11
their way is either some of their strengths are turned on
1:06:16
too high. They're like overusing a
1:06:18
strength. They're like living in their
1:06:20
achiever energy. And they're maybe they have some
1:06:23
other strengths in their top 10. They're just not touching at
1:06:26
all. So sometimes it's like, OK,
1:06:29
like, yes, I know you're kind of like, what is there's like what
1:06:33
the idiom of like when you're a hammer, everything looks like a
1:06:37
nail or whatever it is, right? Like sometimes I'll coach with
1:06:40
CEO. Is that like they're one,
1:06:42
they're like, let me use my achiever for everything, right?
1:06:45
And that's just like what I do. And so it's like, where is that
1:06:48
getting in your way? And how do we like create
1:06:50
balance to pull in some of your other things that are high for
1:06:54
you that are being underused right now?
1:06:56
And it will not only feel more energizing, but it will produce
1:06:58
better results because you're not just a hammer trying to
1:07:02
hammer. Use that tool for every job.
1:07:04
Sometimes this is more true in the corporate world than I see
1:07:08
in the entrepreneurial world, but sometimes I'll see that
1:07:13
leaders especially, this is especially more true of men, but
1:07:16
it happens with women as well. That might be like low empathy.
1:07:20
And so if you're somebody that's low in the Clifton Strengths
1:07:23
theme, empathy, it doesn't mean I would say it doesn't mean
1:07:26
you're a sociopath, right? It doesn't.
1:07:27
Mean you're not an empathetic. Person it just means in that
1:07:30
example that I gave of the other executive, the woman that was
1:07:33
was high empathy. It means if it's low, your first
1:07:36
thought is not what does that other person want, right?
1:07:40
That's just not what, what might that other person be feeling?
1:07:43
It doesn't mean you don't consider their feelings.
1:07:45
It means it's typically not a data point that you're using
1:07:48
when you're making decisions. And so if you're lower empathy,
1:07:52
for example, and you're an executive, which which is
1:07:55
common, then you might be missing feelings as a data point
1:08:00
to making decisions. And so a lot of times we'll also
1:08:04
look at what's low and is what's low getting in your way.
1:08:08
Just because it's at the bottom of your report, it tells me
1:08:11
that's something you don't do think and feel naturally.
1:08:14
It might be getting in your way. It might not, right?
1:08:16
What's low on your report is like, if you're low woo, but you
1:08:20
know how to network, great, it's not getting in your way.
1:08:22
You don't need to change anything if you're low empathy
1:08:26
and yeah, you're just barging through and you're not listening
1:08:29
to what people need and you're just pushing through on your
1:08:32
strategy and you've got blinders on and you don't realize that
1:08:36
people need to be a part of your process.
1:08:38
Then yeah, that's, that's now we have to figure out how do you
1:08:41
collect the data point of emotions of others in order to
1:08:45
make a more holistic decision. And so it's really like if I'm
1:08:50
working with a CEO of a business, a CEO of or an
1:08:54
executive within a corporate company, it's really helping
1:08:57
them understand what are your goals today and what are the
1:09:00
things that are getting in your way.
1:09:02
And now how do we identify what strengths and how do we look at
1:09:07
your report to identify what's up high that is currently
1:09:12
hurting you and how do we use it in a different way and what's
1:09:15
down low that's currently hurting you and use it in a
1:09:18
different way? And that's for the roadblocks.
1:09:21
And then for the goals. It's like, wow, I hear how
1:09:24
you're using these things to achieve success, but I also
1:09:28
think you're under using your like one of the one of my
1:09:32
clients, she's has the strength of like significance and she was
1:09:36
feeling like her work wasn't wasn't making as big of an
1:09:40
impact as she wanted. And that's what's really
1:09:42
important to people that are high in this theme.
1:09:44
And so it's kind of like we unlocked this, this aspect of
1:09:48
like, wow, yeah, you like you're ACEO of a business, but you
1:09:52
don't feel like you're getting enough like recognition.
1:09:56
You don't feel like you're getting the feedback in the
1:09:58
world that you exist in that what you're doing matters.
1:10:01
So how do we do more of that, right?
1:10:03
How do we? And so it's also identifying
1:10:05
what strengths are being underused that would get lit up
1:10:09
if we turned the strategy on in a different way.
1:10:11
So there, there's so many different buckets to choose
1:10:14
from, but it's essentially helping them understand how
1:10:17
what's up high is serving them and not serving them and how
1:10:20
what's down low is serving them and that's or not serving them
1:10:24
in light of their goals and their obstacles.
1:10:26
Yeah. Well, I thought even when you
1:10:28
shared that with me for the achiever bucket like and you
1:10:31
were saying, you know, yeah, you're probably have been or
1:10:34
pretty prone to burnout. And I remember being like, how
1:10:38
does she, how does she know that?
1:10:40
How does she know? Because I'm, I always was like
1:10:43
anyone who knows me, it's always like this running joke because I
1:10:45
never do anything just to do it. Like it's always this like I
1:10:50
either I'm deciding that I want to run today and then I'm
1:10:54
signing up for a 10K. And so there's never this,
1:10:56
there's never anything in between.
1:10:58
And so I've always thought, OK, well, a concern, I guess of mine
1:11:03
previously had been if I try to spell that, will I dull what
1:11:07
made me successful? Meaning like if, you know,
1:11:11
achievement is a core factor, that was the reason we've
1:11:13
generated all these outcomes. I became super nervous to tap
1:11:18
into anything else because I'm like, this is the thing that
1:11:20
made me successful. But obviously, as you said, it
1:11:23
comes with a list of all these other symptoms that come up in
1:11:26
the business or in your life because something might be on
1:11:28
OverDrive when it's not really a matter of turning it off.
1:11:31
It's just more a matter of balancing it and getting it back
1:11:34
into harmony with the others. So I love that and it resonated
1:11:36
a lot for me when you shared that for my results.
1:11:39
You mentioned you work with a lot of women.
1:11:41
And I'm curious, as I know obviously, many who listen to
1:11:44
this podcast are all women and female entrepreneurs.
1:11:48
Do you feel that, you know, men, women, is there a distinction in
1:11:53
some category within this of what you see as trends amongst
1:11:57
women that maybe are different than men?
1:11:59
Or do you feel like this might be a category where you're like,
1:12:03
there really isn't any influence on that here?
1:12:06
Yeah, I would say, and now as you say that I'm like, gosh, I
1:12:08
have to go back. I have to look at the data,
1:12:11
right? Yeah, I think they publish and I
1:12:15
will have to look because now you've piqued my curiosity.
1:12:17
I think that they've published data on gender, but now I need
1:12:21
to check. I will say that from like a
1:12:25
strengths perspective, I don't tend to notice like there might
1:12:29
be a pattern where I see in the corporate world, people tend to
1:12:34
be lower empathy versus if I'm, if I've worked with somebody in
1:12:38
social work or right, somebody maybe in healthcare, like a
1:12:42
nurse, they tend to be higher empathy, right?
1:12:46
Like. And so there are some themes
1:12:47
that I see if I work with integrators, I tend to see them
1:12:51
having a certain sets of, of like executing themes like.
1:12:54
So there are themes like that that I see around roles and I
1:12:58
don't think it's because that's like the perfect combination for
1:13:02
that role. It's just like they are able to
1:13:05
use those themes are more natural for that role.
1:13:07
So that's what they might gravitate toward.
1:13:10
But on the gender, so like I see patterns on the roll side and
1:13:15
even like in certain like business or industries, I see
1:13:19
less patterns from a strengths perspective on the gender side.
1:13:23
Where I see gender like kind of having somewhat of a distinction
1:13:28
really is in how they use them. And I thought about this when
1:13:34
you were talking about like disc for sales people, which is like
1:13:39
a high D high I, which is like typically the most like natural
1:13:44
at sales from a communication styles and right high D is like
1:13:48
dominant, right? Like they're just intense.
1:13:51
They'll typically like say the intense thing.
1:13:53
They really have intense. I always Heidi's are so easy to
1:13:56
spot. They usually have like intense
1:13:58
eye contact. Eye contact.
1:14:00
Yeah. Yes, I'm like, Oh my gosh,
1:14:03
you're piercing into my soul as a low D, right?
1:14:06
I'm always like, OK, yeah, yeah. And right and high I is like
1:14:10
very social right there. Like it stands for influencing.
1:14:13
They're very social. And so it makes sense, right,
1:14:16
that those those are like more natural at sales, but it's also
1:14:22
more of a masculine sales style. Like Heidi is more masculine
1:14:27
that like directness, like right.
1:14:29
However, we wanted to find masculine like that intensity.
1:14:33
And so like the same thing is true.
1:14:36
Like if a woman doesn't have a high D high I, she might herself
1:14:41
style might be more feminine, for example, And so she might
1:14:45
build deeper relationships. She might show up for that.
1:14:48
What if she's a high SC, right? Like she might build those
1:14:52
deeper relationships and also be somebody that's really good at
1:14:55
following through with, with their clients, right, or with
1:14:58
their, with their prospects. And so that's on the disk side,
1:15:02
but same thing on the Clifton strength side.
1:15:04
I almost feel like if a woman is in some sort of an executive
1:15:09
role, whether that's for her own business or in a corporate
1:15:12
business from a strengths perspective.
1:15:16
And I'm like processing this question as I'm answering it
1:15:19
because it's like, I feel like I, I'm like, Oh my gosh, you've
1:15:22
like unlocked this part of my brain that I need to like dig
1:15:25
into more. But I will say like from a
1:15:27
strengths perspective, it's almost like there's women that
1:15:31
are in two different buckets with strengths.
1:15:33
So I really don't notice consistent themes between men
1:15:36
and women as far as like combinations of what I see.
1:15:39
But for women, a lot of times there's like the I see them
1:15:45
thriving and using their strengths when they're embracing
1:15:49
their own unique style. I see them struggling with their
1:15:53
strengths when they feel like they have to do it from a
1:15:56
masculine perspective, right? When they do have to like, well,
1:16:00
I am going to get the most results by going toe to toe with
1:16:04
these men by showing up in the way that like if I'm in a male
1:16:09
dominated industry, which many women are, most industries are
1:16:13
male dominated, right? Like I have to show up in a
1:16:17
certain way. So my achiever might be matching
1:16:20
the way that I see other male executives showing up and using
1:16:24
their achiever versus as a woman, like for me, and, and
1:16:29
that is a lot of how my, my, I'll, I'll use myself as an
1:16:32
example. My achiever has shown up is
1:16:34
like, well, we're in a world that is like, if it's not
1:16:37
tangible and doesn't have results that you can touch, it's
1:16:40
not as valuable, right? The squishy stuff, the soft
1:16:43
skills, behavioral skills, personal development, like
1:16:46
that's a nice to have, but like the tangible things are more
1:16:50
valued. So I I will gravitate toward
1:16:54
using my achiever from a more masculine way of like, I'm
1:16:57
producing results, right? Like I'm going, I'm getting it
1:16:59
done. And it's still a part of my own
1:17:02
journey to balance sort of the more like feminine approach to
1:17:05
achiever, which is like, OK, like what does it mean to
1:17:10
achieve in the context of being a wife and a mom?
1:17:13
Or what does it mean to achieve in the context of like showing
1:17:16
up as my authentic self and doing things that energize me.
1:17:20
So like the, the more like feminine approach to strengths
1:17:23
is like, I don't have to do it the way it's been modeled for me
1:17:27
because typically it it will have been modeled for me by
1:17:29
other men. And it's like, how do I embrace
1:17:32
my strengths in a way that are unique to me?
1:17:34
And I think so that's when women thrive the most.
1:17:37
And I think that they do that in a much more like nuanced and
1:17:42
like successful, authentic way than men do because men is like,
1:17:45
yeah, I'm just going to copy and paste the way I get done.
1:17:48
Women are like, the journey is like, how do I do it in a way
1:17:51
that's like me and redefine things?
1:17:54
It's really hard to do as, you know, as it is for most women.
1:17:57
It's like we're just kind of like having to create our own
1:18:01
mold as we go. Yeah, but it's extremely
1:18:04
powerful. Yeah, it's and it's such a good
1:18:06
sentiment because I think many women and and again including
1:18:10
myself, I think that there's been these moments where, you
1:18:12
know, even as you mentioned sales like you, you think of the
1:18:15
the bro sales is how I might put it, like the bro sales approach
1:18:19
that is a little bit more aggressive and pushy and, you
1:18:23
know, a lot of eye contact and more, you know, aggressive and
1:18:26
things like that. That is something that a lot of
1:18:28
us see. And I remember even when I went
1:18:29
into sales, I thought, OK, we'll like, maybe that's just who I
1:18:33
have to be in order to be successful.
1:18:36
But then I very quickly realized that like I just was not wired
1:18:39
that way. Like I, it made me even now
1:18:41
intense eye contact depending on who the person is makes me
1:18:44
uncomfortable. So to think about, I guess
1:18:47
having to step into that exactly as you said, I even with the
1:18:51
social work piece that I mentioned earlier, that was like
1:18:53
my way of saying, OK, how do we get the outcome but change the
1:18:57
path? And that was really when it's
1:18:59
OK. Well, I know I can talk to
1:19:00
people and get them to open up, but I can't do it in that way,
1:19:03
which was like the bro way, but I can try this over here that I
1:19:06
do know. And as to your point, alignment,
1:19:09
it feels good, like I feel good about it.
1:19:12
It doesn't feel slimy or pressure.
1:19:14
And the crazy part was it got the same outcome.
1:19:17
So then it was like, OK, great, we're on to something here.
1:19:20
And I think, you know, when kind of even to what you've mentioned
1:19:24
today, the biggest thing that I take from it and I think that
1:19:28
it's something that very few people talk about.
1:19:30
But I think what you've done today is you've #1 noted the
1:19:33
fact that really all success entrepreneur, you know,
1:19:36
corporate doesn't matter is going to come from you actually
1:19:39
understanding yourself. And obviously we know there's a
1:19:41
personal development side to that.
1:19:42
There's obviously a strategy side to that understanding how
1:19:44
you how you're wired and how you you operate.
1:19:47
I think the second piece that is like once you say, OK, great,
1:19:50
like I am different and I'm not using that to be something
1:19:53
that's my disadvantage, but it's actually like where I can find
1:19:56
all my success. I think that becomes very
1:19:59
empowering. And I think the second piece is
1:20:01
then, OK, great. Well, if we have us awareness of
1:20:03
what our strengths are, what do we want to do about it?
1:20:06
And I think for the person listening and even for myself,
1:20:09
when you shared it with me, the question became, OK, well, where
1:20:12
are the areas that I've been ignoring?
1:20:14
Meaning like to your point even earlier, like I definitely, if
1:20:16
someone said, hey, Kate, we're going to a 300 person networking
1:20:19
event, I'd be like, I'm sick, I can't go.
1:20:21
You know, I would have thought it's not the first place that I
1:20:24
would be, but I think it's when you have, you know, even
1:20:29
coaching like you've provided today or like you do with
1:20:31
clients and someone dives into this work, what it's doing is
1:20:34
it's bridging the gap. It's saying you're not wired
1:20:37
this way naturally, yes, but the outcomes have to happen.
1:20:40
And so with this piece in the middle, we can bridge that gap,
1:20:43
meaning you can still be who you are and still get the outcomes
1:20:47
that you need for your life or for your business.
1:20:49
And I think which was, you know, for me and I think for the
1:20:52
person listening is, is always a great permission slip is to
1:20:54
recognize that there really isn't one way like this is.
1:20:58
I know so many people talk about that to be like, there's not one
1:21:01
way to be successful, but I think there's so much noise that
1:21:03
tells us that that's the case in every bucket, not even business.
1:21:06
It could be health, relationships, whatever it might
1:21:09
be parenting, right? Like this is the way you're
1:21:11
supposed to do it. And I think this today also gave
1:21:15
a permission slip to say that there really isn't one track to
1:21:18
success. And on one hand, that's very
1:21:21
scary because it means that, like you said earlier, you
1:21:23
really have to recognize this is a personal journey.
1:21:27
But I would actually say it's so much more empowering because it
1:21:30
means you get to do it your way and stop spending the next like
1:21:33
5 to 10 years trying to fit into the box of what someone else
1:21:36
said is the thing that's going to help you to scale.
1:21:38
So it's just, yeah, there's a lot.
1:21:40
I feel like there's so much to dive into.
1:21:41
I feel like as you said, it could be, it could be its own
1:21:44
podcast, just talking about all the different ones.
1:21:47
Yes, yes, it, that's so true. And, and truly I could talk for
1:21:51
hours and hours just on one person's strengths and still
1:21:54
have more to say. It just that's why I have
1:21:56
clients that I've worked with for years that we're still
1:21:58
uncovering, you know, nuances of, of how it shows up.
1:22:01
And, and as you were talking, I'm going to butcher this quote,
1:22:04
but it made me think of one of my favorite quotes in what what
1:22:08
you just said, which is, and I'm going to get this like 50%
1:22:12
accuracy, but it's like an Emerson quote.
1:22:14
That's like, the greatest challenge is to be yourself in a
1:22:20
world that's full, that's constantly trying to make you be
1:22:23
somebody else, right? And, and that's so true.
1:22:26
Like we are, we are born with certain identities and we're
1:22:30
told this is what this what a woman's supposed to look like
1:22:32
and be like. This is what a business owner
1:22:35
supposed to look like and be like.
1:22:36
And it truly is like one of life's greatest challenges to
1:22:40
say like, well, what do I want to look like?
1:22:43
Regardless of whatever messages I'm getting outside of myself,
1:22:46
What it is, is it that lights me up and that that is unique to
1:22:50
who I am. And that is the greatest gift
1:22:52
that I can give to the world. But it's also, it is like very
1:22:56
challenging work, but it's also so validating because when you
1:22:59
try to fit yourself into a mold or a box that doesn't fit you,
1:23:03
that's when you wake up after 5 to 10 years and you're like,
1:23:05
what am I doing, right? I feel empty.
1:23:08
I feel like I've done all of these things.
1:23:10
And for what? I don't feel any closer to
1:23:13
whatever it is that I was trying to accomplish.
1:23:15
Yeah. Yeah.
1:23:16
So much more fulfilling at the end of it and it's OK.
1:23:19
I know obviously, as you said today, it's like I feel and even
1:23:22
obviously we've had private calls together.
1:23:24
I feel like this is the scratching of the surface.
1:23:26
There's like so much number one, I just want to say for anyone
1:23:29
listening, once you see this assessment, you're going to be
1:23:32
like, oh, because it's so it's so comprehensive.
1:23:35
I would argue as as she said, you could probably spend like at
1:23:38
least a good six months on this and then start to really grasp
1:23:41
all the potential that's under in you and unleashed possible
1:23:44
within you. But if someone wants to like,
1:23:47
they're like, OK, I want to know as ACEO to grow my business, to
1:23:51
scale my business, I am like mentally invested.
1:23:53
I want to know these strengths are what does that look like?
1:23:56
Like just if you can give someone a synopsis of if they
1:23:59
want to kind of reach out and connect more, what would that
1:24:01
look like to kind of start this journey of getting that clarity
1:24:04
of themselves? Yeah, so.
1:24:07
Just really the best place to start is just by taking the
1:24:10
assessment. And so, and that's something if
1:24:14
somebody was interested, interested, it's on my website.
1:24:17
You can order it. So if you go to rosienoel.com,
1:24:20
you can order the assessment there and that's really the best
1:24:24
starting point. It can sometimes be overwhelming
1:24:26
when you take it as assessment and you read the results.
1:24:28
Yes, I personally, just as a second, I little side note, I
1:24:32
don't personally think anyone should read these results on
1:24:34
their own because I think I will just say when I got that e-mail
1:24:38
and I hadn't chatted with you yet and you're like, don't worry
1:24:40
about the assessment. I'll see you on the call.
1:24:42
I got them by myself like 11:00 at night.
1:24:44
And I was like, and I remember just, there's so much that you
1:24:47
could take from it. Then when you went through it,
1:24:51
the color that it gave to it was something that I never took on
1:24:54
my own. So my little two cents too would
1:24:56
be that if you guys are going to want it to take the assessment,
1:24:59
that is great. But I also do think getting your
1:25:01
assessment of it is crucial because it really adds, it's
1:25:04
like, look at your blood work. It's like you see that.
1:25:07
And then versus what a doctor says of what it means for you is
1:25:10
very different. Yes, absolutely it is.
1:25:14
It's like if it's something that that's interesting to you, you
1:25:17
take the assessment. And then yes, at that point also
1:25:19
on my website, you know, there's there's a contact form to reach
1:25:22
out to me about going through whether it's coaching together
1:25:26
on a single session or if it's something that people would want
1:25:29
to coach together on on a more ongoing basis.
1:25:31
But at a minimum, yes, it's like I can sit down with people just
1:25:35
for a single session and give them enough to be dangerous with
1:25:38
on the assessment to understand not only what it means, but what
1:25:42
it means for them and how they can use it intentionally.
1:25:45
And so that's usually the like, if strengths is interesting to
1:25:49
you, just to under, and I always say start with know thyself of
1:25:53
like take the assessment. I can give you then a breakdown
1:25:57
like a strengths intensive essentially for an hour to help
1:25:59
you understand it. And then right, because there
1:26:02
will be people that are like, well, I want to understand my
1:26:05
teams too, but you have to start with understanding your own
1:26:07
strengths before you can start to say, well, now I need to like
1:26:12
sometimes people want to jump to say, hey, Rosie, can you sit
1:26:15
down with my team and go through this together?
1:26:17
But if you're a business owner or ACEO, you need to understand
1:26:21
your own strengths first. And so that's the most natural
1:26:23
and best place to start. And then from there, there's,
1:26:26
you know, so much more that you can unlock, but the best
1:26:28
starting place from if strengths is interesting to you and you
1:26:32
want to understand them more, where they're getting in your
1:26:34
way, where you can use them more intentionally.
1:26:37
It's taking the assessment. And then, yes, just having A at
1:26:39
least like one session with me to go through it.
1:26:42
That gives you enough to be dangerous.
1:26:43
Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot I will say
1:26:45
that can come to clarity within like an hour.
1:26:48
So if you guys are, you know, listening today and you're like,
1:26:50
OK, like I want to know what my blueprint is again, kind of not
1:26:53
necessarily the blueprint of what was told to me to be the
1:26:55
way. I really, really recommend,
1:26:58
number one, do the assessment. You will not be sorry.
1:27:00
It's something that's going to give you more clarity than any
1:27:02
other tests you've probably done.
1:27:04
And second, I think the other pieces, as I said, like it's one
1:27:07
thing to get the testing done. Second, to have like someone
1:27:10
like Rosie who is an expert who can go through and say, here's
1:27:13
what this means for you. And you know, obviously, Rosie,
1:27:16
you work with lots of CEOs day in, day out.
1:27:18
And this is something that I feel like a lot of high level
1:27:22
position people are investing in because it's not just like I'm
1:27:26
thinking of someone who invests even for me in business
1:27:28
strategy. That's one thing.
1:27:29
But how you approach it is really this test which is like I
1:27:32
can give you the same strategy as the person next to you, but
1:27:34
how it fits for you is influential based off these
1:27:37
results. Yes, yeah.
1:27:39
It gives a very holistic approach to say yes, what is
1:27:44
your goal and how do we use your strengths as a road map to get
1:27:47
you toward that goal? Yeah.
1:27:49
Yeah, amazing. So we will CC all of that in the
1:27:52
show notes or the description below.
1:27:54
So if you guys want to go check any of that out for yourselves,
1:27:56
I'll have all the links there for you.
1:27:58
Rosie, thank you so much for coming on today.
1:28:00
This was so good. I definitely could have gone for
1:28:01
three hours. I'm like, I have so many more
1:28:03
questions so. Wow, time has flown.
1:28:07
Flown. Yeah.
1:28:08
So thank you so, so much for coming on.
1:28:10
I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you so much for
1:28:12
having me. It was great to talk with you.
1:28:14
And yes, I look forward to hopefully us even privately just
1:28:17
talking more in your strengths because even the more I learn
1:28:20
about you, I'm like, Oh my, my strength.
1:28:22
One of my strengths is to love other people's strengths.
1:28:25
And so yes, the more I talk with people, I'm like, there's so
1:28:27
much more I want to learn. About you and there's so much.
1:28:30
Thank you, this was great. Yeah, of course, of course.
1:28:33
And honestly, I will say guys, like I, as I said, I've got the
1:28:36
assessment myself and we've had conversations together and
1:28:38
there's just so much to unpack. So if you're feeling that kind
1:28:41
of spark, check out at a minimum, the actual assessment
1:28:43
itself. You will not be sorry.
1:28:45
And with that, obviously, you talk a lot more about this, even
1:28:47
on other podcasts I've seen you on and all of that.
1:28:49
So if you guys also want to binge Rosie and seeing her talk
1:28:52
about this, there's lots there for you as well.
1:28:54
But all of that being said, we'll see you on the next
1:28:57
episode. And, as always, stay ambitious.