Using Your Strengths to Succeed During Uncertain Times

In times of change and uncertainty like our world is facing, you have internal resources to help you succeed—your talents and strengths. They were made for times like this!

What I love about strengths is that they’re utterly practical. Your strengths are your best means for producing the outcomes you desire, and so the idea is this—identify your intended outcomes, then select the talents to get you there, then aim those talents toward your outcomes.

You’ll be even more...

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Growth Practices for Your Enneagram Type

After being around for a long time, the Enneagram has gained a resurgence in popularity mostly due to social networks, popular books and podcasts, and word of mouth. While this is good because the ancient personality tool is getting exposure, it can also be detrimental. Lots of folks think they’ve “done the Enneagram” when they really haven’t.

For them “doing the Enneagram’ means taking a free online quiz, laughing and chatting about the results with...

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34 Strengths and Shortfalls

A goal of the strengths journey is to turn your talents into strengths. While strengths hold great power, underdeveloped or overused talents may become limitations. And so a strength ends up becoming a shortfall. Here’s what I mean.

One of my top ten talent themes is communication. I can put thoughts into words, help ideas to be understood, and consider what will be valuable to the audience. When my communication theme is working this way, it’s very helpful.

However, when the same...

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3 Ways God Used the Enneagram to Strengthen My Walk with Christ

I don’t know if you’ve heard of the Enneagram, but it’s hot in some circles. At its simplest, the Enneagram is a personality profiling tool that describes nine basic personality types. The idea is to find your type, discover how you live out your type, and then take steps to grow.

It’s actually been around for a long time but has recently gained a resurgence due to some popular books, podcasts, and social media. There’s a debate among some Christians about...

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I Love You Even If...for the Nine Enneagram Types

Here in the U.S. it’s Valentine’s Day, which means people are talking about love. This comes two days after I led a workshop for a group of leaders on the Enneagram.

It was a fun and insightful time, and it went way too fast. The goal was to help them understand themselves better and the value they bring at work.

The intersection of the workshop and Valentine’s Day got me thinking…what might each Enneagram type want to hear on Valentine’s Day?

If you’re...

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Growth Questions for the 34 Strengths

It’s a journey to grow your talents into strengths. Just because you find your talents doesn’t mean they’re that useful yet. You must develop them into strengths. This doesn’t happen automatically; it takes focus and effort.

For example, one of my talents is "being responsible"—I naturally take ownership of what has been entrusted to me, and I can be counted upon to deliver. Sounds great…but it comes with shortfalls:

  • I can be really quick to say yes
  • I can...
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6 Statistics on Why Engagement is Good for your Bottom Line

We all hear that strong employee engagement is good for your organization, but is it really? Are engagement consultants and workplace improvement organizations just trumping up the value of engagement so they can sell their services to you? Are they telling you how bad your engagement is so they can show you how good their solution is?

Maybe. But how is employee engagement good for your bottom line? Before we consider that, let’s review what employee engagement is.

There are different...

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Video Interview with CoachTalk.tv on the Enneagram

CoachTalk.tv interviewed me about using the Enneagram for coaching. I use the Enneagram as an internal coach at my company and also with external clients.

In this conversation, we cover questions like:

  • What are the nine personality types and core drives?
  • How can we achieve health for the whole person?
  • What types connect to other types?
  • What is a wing?

We also talk about two coaching clients and how the Enneagram helped to improve productivity and set personal boundaries.

Watch the interview...

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How Well Do You Know Yourself?

How well do you know yourself?

This may sound like a self-centered question, but it has implications far beyond you. Your level of self-awareness affects your relationships, your productivity, and your workplace. The problem is that most of us don’t really know ourselves.

For example, let’s look at emotional intelligence (EQ). In a study of 500,000 people, only 36 percent were able to identify what they were feeling (Travis Bradbury and Jean Graves, Emotional Intelligence, 2.0)....

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Gifts from the 34 Strengths to the World

As an identical twin, I've come to appreciate the uniqueness that we all bring. My brother and I share the same DNA, but we're very different people. In fact, we don't share any of the same top five strengths. This got me thinking about the 34 strengths.

What unique gifts does each strength bring to our world? By "34 strengths," I'm referring to the 34 CliftonStrengths® of talent. Being aware of your talents, growing them into strengths, and aiming them toward your goals is a key to...

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