Putting the “I” Back Into Responsibility: Harnessing the Power of This Talent

By Angela Davenport

All my life, others have trusted me to get things done. Dependable and loyal are words that others repeatedly have used to describe me. 

I enjoy being known as a person who keeps her promises, who follows through on every commitment. I do not like to disappoint others. I always give my best. I take personal ownership for everything I do, and I value the trust this creates with others.

I love my Responsibility theme, yet over the past few years, this talent has created a great deal of inner turmoil for me. 

As my career advanced and my responsibilities as a mother of three young children increased, I wanted to do it all -- excel at work, volunteer for the class party at school, contribute to the bake sale, and be a great wife and dear friend. Unfortunately, I found myself sacrificing my well-being to fulfill commitments to others. Even though I have a deep commitment to my physical well-being, I saw myself slowly losing ground on reaching my goals. It was becoming more and more difficult to “find time” for my workouts. They were inconsistent or nonexistent at times, and I started to feel out of balance.

Mastery Monday: Understanding Responsibility

By Albert L. Winseman, D.Min

Dependable. Trustworthy. Productive. Reliable. Solid. Owner. All these words can be used to describe those with Responsibility in their Top Five.  Responsibility is one of the themes most likely to show up in the Top Five of the more than 15 million individuals who have taken the Clifton Strengths assessment, which means there are a lot of people out there for whom follow-through, getting it right, and doing it on time are core values. Responsibility is a very productive theme, and it is externally motivated: “If I said I would do it, you can count on me to get it done when I said I would.  I won’t let you down.” It’s not so much the feeling of checking it off the list that motivates those with high Responsibility; rather it is the deep satisfaction that comes from having a reputation as one who keeps their commitments – 100% of the time. “You can count on me” is a phrase those with strong Responsibility talents tend to say often – and like saying it, because it is true.  Utterly dependable is the brand of Responsibility.

In this Installment of Compare and Contrast, I examine the differences and similarities between Responsibility and Maximizer, Belief, and Discipline.

Customer-Centricity through Employee Engagement - Called to Coach S5E7

On a recent Called to Coach, India edition, we spoke with Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach, Shantanu Sen Sharma.

 

Shantanu Sen Sharma has 25 years of experience working in the Information Technology field in India. Shantanu has worked for top Indian companies such as HCL and Tech Mahindra. In 2011, he started Ozone Education Consultants, a consulting business aimed at boosting employees’ abilities and skills. He mainly focuses on working with post-graduate students pursuing their masters in business -- helping them develop their strengths for better placements, and coaching leaders in higher education institutions. 

He also works with companies on customer centricity for employees who are in technical or delivery roles and may not be customer facing. This is a major challenge in service industries like Information Technology.  Shantanu's areas of expertise and passion include development of young talent, identifying and leveraging strengths, value-based selling, and creating customer centric teams. He has a large amount of experience in talent acquisition and serves on the selection panel for one of India's premier management schools

Notes from the webcast:

• Shantanu’s new consulting business started in 2011. He says the key to helping people is to to light a switch in their mind, until that happens it’s difficult to achieve results
• With students you need to understand the broader perspective; not more than 25% will be employable
• People don’t choose management as a career, but they do management as a career
• Students arrive with a low-level of self-esteem and a fuzzy idea of what they want to do with their life
• Many students come from rural areas and barely speak English, many are first people from their village to go to school
• When you ask the right question their persona can change immediately from shy to engaged
• Another example of student who was “all mind but no heart”, basement of Analytic was really coming out, needed to start using Relator more
• Help the students claim their talents; it gives them self-confidence
• The aiming part is more important that naming and claiming; need to know what is in it for them at the end of the day

How much time do you spend with each student?

• MBA is two-year program in India; usually 4 semester
• Start working with them from the start; do a discovery interview, focus is on strengths
• More interventions happen in the 2nd semester; then do more aiming in 3rd semester

1. A strengths journey should not be seen in isolation, your personality is not separate from your reality
2. Students use strengths to brand themselves
3. Be able to answer the question – Why should I hire you?

• Aim it, contextualize it, look at skills the job requires; map it to your own strengths
• Give examples of when you have exhibited the behaviors wanted

Why customer-centricity?

• As sales become more and more intense, knowledge of the business becomes more and more important
• Can articulate to the customer directly through experience
• But there could be communication issues
• Use an outside in approach
• Look at what the customer wants, then at what you have
• You must have powerful customer insight; then deliver value
• Understand how customer will benefit and be able to articulate that

New concept coming out in selling – challenger selling – challenge the customer

• Tell the customer well before the sale the what the customer is describing is not what they want
• Customers are in a “fuzzy state” and asking for someone to tell them possible challenges

1. Address both the skill and will using CliftonStrengths
2. Book – Employees First

• Customers first is too open-ended; if the employee builds up his skill, and becomes more engaged, then there is more value for the customer

1. Mapping the personality to the reality
2. Approach the bigger picture first – which is Aim it
3. It’s all about making a positive change – job change, productivity change

Don't miss out on the 2017 CliftonStrengths Summit in Omaha, Nebraska on July 17-19. Register today!

Visit Gallup Strengths Center to browse our myriad of products and learning opportunities for strengths-based development.

Continue the coaching conversation on Facebook and Twitter. It’s a great way to network with others who share a passion for strengths!

Shantanu Sen Sharma has 25 years of experience working in the Information Technology field in India. Shantanu has worked for top Indian companies such as HCL and Tech Mahindra. In 2011, he started Ozone Education Consultants, a consulting business aimed mainly at boosting employees abilities and skills. He mainly focuses on working with post-graduate students pursuing their masters in business -- helping them develop their strengths for better placements, and coaching leaders in higher education institutions. 

Shantanu’s Top 5 CliftonStrengths are: Learner | Individualization | Input | Relator | Responsibility

Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach, Cheryl S. Pace, contributed to this post.

Discipline: Leading With Purpose - Theme Thursday Season 3

On this Theme Thursday Season Three webcast, Jim Collison, Gallup's Director of Talent Sourcing, and Maika Leibbrandt, Senior Workplace Consultant, talk about Discipline with Gallup's Physical Wellbeing Lead, Ryan Wolf.

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Your world needs to be predictable. It needs to be ordered and planned. So you instinctively impose structure on your world. You set up routines. You focus on timelines and deadlines. You break long-term projects into a series of specific short-term plans, and you work through each plan diligently. You are not necessarily neat and clean, but you do need precision. Faced with the inherent messiness of life, you want to feel in control. The routines, the timelines, the structure, all of these help create this feeling of control. Lacking this theme of Discipline, others may sometimes resent your need for order, but there need not be conflict. You must understand that not everyone feels your urge for predictability; they have other ways of getting things done. Likewise, you can help them understand and even appreciate your need for structure. Your dislike of surprises, your impatience with errors, your routines and your detail orientation don’t need to be misinterpreted as controlling behaviors that box people in. Rather, these behaviors can be understood as your instinctive method for maintaining your progress and your productivity in the face of life’s many distractions.