My chickens are free range during the day and love nothing more than scratching through the compost pile, turning over scraps and leaves to find all sorts of goodies hidden beneath the surface. They’re on a mission—unearthing the hidden treasures that will nourish them and give us tasty eggs.
When we focus only on our Top 5 CliftonStrengths, we’re picking the easy-to-spot goodies—valuable, yes, but just the surface. Like my chickens scratching through compost, the real nourishment lies deeper.
Your Top 5 are a great starting point, but what if some of your most valuable insights are just beyond them, in themes 6-10 or even further?
More Than Just a Tasty Five-Ingredient Meal
I often reference Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredients cookbook in workshops and report debriefs. It’s great for whipping up quick, simple meals. But if you want to create a truly rich and complex dish, you need access to more than five ingredients. It’s the same with your Strengths—your dominant talents go beyond just five, and when you understand them, you can do so much more. We are complex as humans and have so much potential when we tap into more of our talents INTENTIONALLY.
The Science Behind Strengths: Why Knowing Your Full 34 Matters
Gallup’s 2018 CliftonStrengths Meta-Analysis analysed187,291 individuals across 30 organisations in 13 industries and 37 countries, making it one of the most comprehensive strengths-based workplace studies ever conducted?.
The key takeaway? Individuals and teams who received feedback on all 34 strengths saw significantly higher engagement and performance than those who only received their Top 5.
- Sales and Business Outcomes Improved
- Work units that received full 34-strengths feedback saw an average sales increase of 7.8% compared to those who only had their Top 5.
- Employees with full strengths awareness were more likely to feel confident in their work, leading to better client interactions and productivity.
- Sales teams that embraced a full strengths-based approach reported higher quota attainment and revenue per customer.
- Employee Engagement Skyrocketed
Engagement is a core driver of productivity, retention, and overall workplace happiness. The study found that individuals who explored their full strengths profile saw:
- Higher scores across nearly all Gallup Q12 engagement metrics
- An 8-percentage-point increase in overall engagement scores
- More alignment with work that matched their strengths
The biggest engagement boost came from employees feeling like they could do what they do best every day (Q03 in Gallup’s Q12 survey).
- Full Strengths Awareness Helps Manage Lesser Themes
Gallup’s research shows that while dominant strengths define who we are, our lesser strengths can influence who we are not.
- Employees with full 34-strengths awareness were better at managing areas of lesser talent.
- Instead of struggling to “fix” weaknesses, they learned to partner with others who naturally excelled in those areas.
- Managers who understood their team’s full strengths distribution built more effective partnerships, improving collaboration and reducing burnout.
Meet “I’m Not Strategic” Sarah
Sarah is a new manager who had discovered and been working with her Top 5 Strengths—Relator, Achiever, Harmony, Focus, and Individualization. She thrived in one-on-one relationships, got things done efficiently, and built strong connections.
But she had a limiting belief: “I’m not strategic.”
She avoided strategic discussions, believing she wasn’t wired for big-picture thinking. Then, she explored her full 34 report.
Themes 6-10? Futuristic, Strategic, Communication, Arranger and Developer.
Ta Dah! Suddenly, she saw herself in a new light. She was strategic—just not in the way she expected or her definition of what Strategic meant. Her strength came from seeing the future possibilities and articulating them to others. This newfound awareness transformed the way she approached her work, and she became a more confident leader.
If you only know your top 5 talent themes and want to know your 6-34 drop me a note and I will give you details of how you can easily upgrade your assessment results.
Your Strengths Pantry: Dominant, Supporting, and Lesser Themes
Understanding your strengths is like knowing your kitchen pantry:
Dominant Strengths (Sound like me every day) – The ingredients you use all the time, forming the base of your favourite go to dishes.
Supporting Strengths (Sound like me sometimes) – The ingredients you might not use daily but can pull out when needed (like cornflour for thickening sauces).
Lesser Strengths (Not me at all) – The things that drain you or don’t come naturally (like a spice you never cook with). Instead of trying to force them, you partner with others who have them in their dominant set.
Questions to Unearth Your Hidden Talents or Those in Your Team
Just like my chickens instinctively scratch to find the good stuff, we can all help uncover hidden strengths through great questions.
Here are some to get you started:
1. Questions to Ask Yourself
- What strengths beyond my Top 5 do I naturally use in my work and daily life?
- When have I surprised myself with an ability, I didn’t realise I had?
- What patterns do I see when I look at my full 34strengths—are there hidden thinking, influencing, or relationship-building talents I’ve overlooked?
- Which strengths energise me the most, from outside my Top 5?
2. As a Manager or Coach – Questions to Ask Your Team
- What do you feel you do well but haven’t been recognised for?
- When have you surprised yourself with an unexpected strength in a project?
- Looking beyond your Top 5, what other themes do you see in yourself that help you be successful that we are not tapping into?
3. As a Team Member – Questions to Ask Colleagues
- What’s something you’ve seen me do well that I might not have noticed about myself?
- When have we worked together and complemented each other’s strengths?
- If you could pick one additional strength for me to lean into more, what would it be?
- How can we support each other in using our hidden talents?
Dig Deeper, Grow Stronger
Your Top 5 Strengths are just the beginning. If you stop there, you’re missing out on the richness of your full strengths profile.
Like my chickens in the compost, the real magic happens when you dig a little deeper.
- Gallup’s research proves that knowing your full 34 boosts engagement, improves sales, and helps you manage your lesser strengths effectively.
- For individuals, it reveals hidden talents that expand how you see yourself.
- For managers, it creates stronger teams by unlocking untapped potential.
So, are you still cooking with just 5 ingredients? Or is it time to open up the pantry and see what else is in there?
