CliftonStrengths® Domains: Do’s and Don’ts
Let’s face it: The pressure to perform is real. Month by month, quarter by quarter. Your world revolves around
results. Many of the world’s top organizations have discovered that better performance starts with embedding
CliftonStrengths into their company culture.
CliftonStrengths is a development and
engagement tool.
Key points about the science of
the assessment:
• CliftonStrengths is used for development
and provides a common language
across groups.
• The assessment measures universal
themes of talent ranked relative only to
oneself. When taking CliftonStrengths, you
are sorting to your most natural tendencies
compared to your own thoughts, feelings,
insights and experiences.
• It identifies areas of talent in which a
person has the greatest potential for
building strengths, regardless of the
environment, role or situation.
• CliftonStrengths focuses on growing
and developing current employees in
every situation through the use of these
natural talents.
Naturally, with knowing the benefits of a
strengths-based culture comes questions
of how to best incorporate strengths to gain
a competitive advantage. This tool can help
answer some of the most critical questions.
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Strengths_FAQ_doc_040620_FINAL_md
Should I use CliftonStrengths as a hiring tool?
The simple answer to this question is “no.”
CliftonStrengths is not validated for use in selection
and is not validated for a particular role. The
assessment is not legally defensible as a hiring tool
and is not intended for this use. The assessment is
for measuring talents, which may be undeveloped
and need investment to become a strength. It is not
meant to drive hiring decisions.
What about using CliftonStrengths for
assembling a leadership team or
succession planning?
Using strengths to assemble leadership teams
conflicts with the concept of investing in the talents
of your employees. Constructing leadership teams
based on an individual’s strengths or a team’s
collective strengths carries risks, such as:
• Undercutting the value-neutral use of the theme
language; leading people to view some themes as
more necessary than others to get ahead.
• Interfering with the developmental benefits by
making certain themes seem less important or
worth developing. In some cases, employees
could perceive that they have no real “strengths”
in the context of their work or potential for career
advancement within your organization.
Consider instead improving the talent level and
complementary partnerships of leadership teams
by establishing expectations for the responsibilities
of team members and a succession plan for early
identification of leaders who fit these needs. Develop
a plan to fill leadership positions internally from
succession plan candidates, with a goal of filling
most teams with internal candidates.
Is it a good idea to try to “balance” the strengths
of my team across each of the domains?
Gallup’s research does not indicate that a more
balanced team delivers better business results.
There is a broad range of types of diversity that can
benefit a team and avoid groupthink, and strengths
diversity is only one area. Gallup has not found
evidence that a strengths-balanced team delivers
better performance than teams with less balance.
Rather, higher team performance is associated
with teams that are further along in their strengths
journey. It starts with awareness: An overplayed
strength can be a weakness, as much as not having a
strength in a particular domain. Awareness + learning
to collaborate more effectively + aiming strengths =
higher performance.
So, what do high-performing teams look like?
Instead of focusing on team strengths composition,
Gallup’s analysis of what great teams have in
common reflects how they learn to apply their
strengths and work together:
• Team members understand the individual talents
of the team.
• Team members can see a clear connection
between each other’s strengths and behavior. They
can see the link between strengths and success.
• Team members use their knowledge of each
other’s strengths to plan, strategize, analyze and
direct their actions.
• Everyone on the team has partnerships that
encourage their strengths development.
Teams that know and use their
strengths perform better. Period.
Things to remember when
incorporating strengths
1 The CliftonStrengths domains reflect
tendencies of themes to align together.
2 The domain names describe what themes
in each group have in common; they are not
meant to describe a function.
3 The combination of an individual’s strengths
and their investment in how they use a
strength is key. For example, Communication
is in the Influencing domain but may also be
used in the Relationship Building domain.
Similarly, Harmony is an example of a theme
in the Relationship Building domain that may
also be used in the Influencing domain (i.e.,
labor negotiations). The strengths report is
tailored to each individual and considers their
combination of strengths.
4 Themes are not evenly distributed. For
example, Influencing themes are less
common in team frequency in nearly every
population Gallup has studied. Based on our
database of more than 22 million people who
have completed the assessment, all eight
Influencing themes are in the bottom half in
team frequency, with five in the bottom eight.

Learn more about the science of CliftonStrengths

Gallup created the science of strengths. For decades, the CliftonStrengths assessment has helped people
excel. Learn more about how the assessment and its application for strengths-based development
people to maximize their infinite potential. For more information, visit gallup.com/cliftonstrengths.

Copyright © 2000, 2020 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.

Strengths_FAQ_doc_040620_FINAL_md